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Civil War Soldiers and Citizens: Tracking Your Ancestors @ TSLA

Public Services Resource Guide #03

  The American Civil War that shattered families and tore the nation asunder has continued to capture the imagination of generations and to fascinate researchers. Tracing Civil War ancestors has been of particular interest to Tennesseans; therefore, it is hard to envision a time when this type of research wasn’t possible. However, when John Trotwood Moore took the helm of the Tennessee State Library in 1919, Lindsley’s Military Annals of Tennessee was the only available resource to verify service. Moore and those who followed him set about preparing and gathering materials to change this state of affairs. The following list of book, microfilm, and manuscript resources represents some of the vast collection of materials that TSLA has amassed which makes tracking Civil War soldiers and citizens possible. (Remember to check our website under “Military Records” for indexes to some of the collections listed below and for access to Civil War databases.)

 

Rosters & Service/Muster Records

  • Tennesseans in the Civil War (Volume 2) by Civil War Centennial Commission, E579.4 .A53
  • The Roster of Confederate Soldiers 1861-1865 by Janet B. Hewett, E548 .H4
  • The Roster of Union Soldiers 1861-1865 by Janet B. Hewett, E494 .H4
  • Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Tennessee 1861-1866, E531.2 .T29
  • Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from Tennessee, Microfilm
  • Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations Raised Directly by the Confederate Government and of Confederate General & Staff Officers and
    Nonregimental Enlisted Men
    , Mf. #1554
  • Index to Compiled Service Records of Union Soldiers from Tennessee, Microfilm
  • Index to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with U.S. Colored Troops, Mf. #1454
  • Consolidated Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Microfilm
  • Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Tennessee, Microfilm
  • Compiled Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations Raised Directly by Confederate Government (partial), Mf. #1925
  • Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers of Tennessee, Microfilm
  • Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with U.S. Colored Troops: Artillery Organizations (partial), Mf. #1659
  • Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with U.S. Colored Troops: Infantry Organizations (partial), Mf. #1742, Mf. #1946
  • Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers from Kentucky, Mf. #925
  • Tennessee Confederate Muster Rolls, Mf. #872
  • Confederate Muster Rolls, Record Group 160
  • Federal Muster Rolls, Record Group 161

 

Pension and Soldiers Home Records

  • Index to Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications by Samuel Sistler, E548 .S57
  • Supplement to the Index to Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications: Containing Indexes to Pension Applications by County of Residence and By Military Unit by Samuel Sistler, E548 .S57
  • Tennessee’s Confederate Widows and Their Families by Edna Wiefering, F435 .W53
  • Tennessee Colored Confederate Veteran Pension Applications by Pat Spurlock Elder, E548 .E43
  • The Tennessee Confederate Soldiers Home: Marching Out of the Mist Into the Light by Judith A. Strange, E548 .S77
  • Tennessee Confederate Soldiers and Widows Pension Applications, Microfilm [TSLA index to TN Confederate Pension Applications]
  • Tennessee Colored Confederate Veteran Pension Applications, Microfilm [TSLA index to TN Colored Confederate Pension Applications]
  • Tennessee Board of Pension Examiners Records (Administrative), Record Group 3 [watch video on TN Board of Pension Examiners Records]
  • Organization Index to Pension Files of Union Veterans Who Served Between 1861-1900 (Tennessee Units Only), Mf. #1536
  • Index to Pension Application Files of Remarried Widows Based On Service in the Civil War and Later Wars and in the Regular Army after the Civil War, Mf. #1862
  • Confederate Soldiers Home Applications, Microfilm
  • Confederate Soldiers Home Records (Administrative), Record Group 2
  • Historical Register of National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1903-1932, Mountain Branch, Johnson City, Mf. #1941

 

Biographical Sources

  • Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires collected by Dyer & Moore, E494 .T46 [TSLA index to TN Civil War Veterans Questionnaires]
  • Confederate Veteran Magazine edited by S. A. Cunningham, E482 .C73
  • 1860 Census – Tennessee (Index) by Byron & Barbara Sistler, F435 .S59
  • Confederate Patriot Index by Tenn. Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy, E483.5 .T42
  • Tennessee 1860 Slave Schedule (Index) by Ronald Vern Jackson, F435 .J272
  • 1890 Union Veterans Census – Tennessee (Index) by Byron & Barbara Sistler, E494 .S5
  • Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, Mf. #484
  • 1860 Census, Microfilm
  • 1860 Slave Schedules, Microfilm
  • Non-Population Census Schedules (Agriculture & Manufacturing), 1850-1880, Mf. #1537
  • Schedules Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1890, Microfilm
  • United Confederate Veterans Tennessee Bivouac Records, Mf. #1548
  • United Daughters of the Confederacy Applications, Mf. #959 + additions
  • Civil War Direct Tax Assessment Records, Mf. #82
  • U.S. Direct Tax Commission Records (Refunds in 1890s), Record Group 41
  • Confederate Historical and Relief Association of Memphis Records, Mf. #1276, Reel 5

 

Unit Histories

  • Tennesseans in the Civil War (Volume 1) by Civil War Centennial Commission, ES79.4 .A53
  • Military Annals of Tennessee – Confederate by John B. Lindsley, E579.4 .L54
  • The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Washington: Government Printing Office, E464 .U6
  • Military Bibliography of the Civil War by C.E. Dornbusch, Z1242 .D6
  • A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Union regiments) by Frederick H. Dyer, E464 .D93
  • Compiled Records Showing Service of Military Units in C.S.A. Organizations (Caption Cards), Mf. #1435
  • U. S. Colored Troops from Tennessee—Regimental Histories (Caption Cards), Mf. #873

 

Prison & Provost

  • Variety of books pertaining to Confederate and Union prisons in our catalog that may contain rosters of prisoners (Check Verso)
  • Tennessee Convicts: Early Records of the State Penitentiary, (Volume 2), 1850-1870, by Charles A. Sherrill, F435 .S33 1997
  • Selected Records of the War Department Relating to Confederate Prisoners of War, Mf. #1044
  • Prison Records, Record Group 25
  • Register of Confederate Soldiers, Sailors, and Citizens Who Died in Federal Prisons & Military Hospitals in the North, 1861-1865, Mf. #1852
  • Union Provost Marshals’ File of Papers Relating to Individual Citizens, Mf. #1047
  • Union Provost Marshals’ File of Papers Relating to Two or More Civilians, Mf. #1607

 

Major Manuscript Collections & State Record Groups

  • Civil War Collection, Mf. #824
  • Tennessee Historical Society Civil War Collection, Mf. #1091
  • Confederate Records, Mf. #872
  • Index and Register of Appointments of Officers, Confederate, Mf. #1478
  • Case Files of Applications from Former Confederates for Presidential Pardons ("Amnesty Papers"), 1865-1867, Mf. #1521
  • TSLA Map Collection (Check Manuscripts Department)
  • Army of Tennessee Records, (Confederate), Record Group 4
  • Adjutant General Records (Federal), Record Group 21
  • Military Elections, Record Group 131; Commissions, Record Group 195
  • Petitions Submitted to the U. S. Senate Requesting the Removal of Political Disabilities of Former Confederate Office Holders, 1869-1871, Mf. #1940
  • Southern Claims Commission (Microfiche) [TSLA index to Southern Claims Commission]
  • General Claims Commission, Record Group 247
  • Employment Rolls and Nonpayment Rolls of Negroes Employed in the Defenses of Nashville, Tennessee, Mf. #1797 [TSLA index to Employment Rolls & Nonpayment Rolls]
  • Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1862-1869; Civil War Military Labor in Nashville and Memphis (TN), Mf. #1910
  • Burial Records, National Cemetery, Nashville, TN, Mf. #1953
  • Burial Records of Federal Soldiers by W. R. Cornelius, Mf. #1510

 

~ OUR MISSION ~
The Tennessee State Library and Archives, by authority of the Tennessee Code Annotated (Title 10, Chapter 1-8), collects and preserves books and records of historical, documentary and reference value, and encourages and promotes library development throughout the state.

 

 

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Compiled by Marylin Bell Hughes, Darla Brock, Anita Coursey
January 2008

Updated August 1, 2014

 

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