Updated 17 November 2019

This page provides links to informative articles about researching Union personnel and property of the American Civil War.

Compiled Military Service Records

• “Thank You, General Fred C. Ainsworth!” NGS Magazine, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 2011): 54-57.
• “Compiled Military Service Records, Part I: The Records Inside the CMSR Jacket.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Jan.–Mar. 2012): 32-36.
• “Compiled Military Service Records, Part II: The Records Outside the CMSR Jacket.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Apr.–June 2012): 32-38.
• “Compiled Military Service Records, Part III: The Record of Events.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 3 (July –Sept. 2012), pp. 32–35.
• “Compiled Military Service Records, Part IV: Carded Medical Records.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 2014): 37-40.
• “Compiled Military Service Records, Part V: The Book Mark.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 2015): 41-44.

Military Pension Records

• “Did Your Union Army Civil War Ancestor Apply for a Pension?” NGS Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 3 (July-Sept. 2014): 39-43. Co-author with Marie Varrelman Melchiori.
• “Anatomy of a Union Civil War Pension File.” NGS NewsMagazine, Vol. 34, No. 3 (July-Sept. 2008): 42-47.
• “Family Data Circulars of 1898 and 1915.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Oct.–Dec. 2012): 28–31.
• “Did Your Civil War Ancestor Respond to Call Number 13?” NGS Magazine, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr.-May 2016): 35-39.
• “A Reasonable Degree of Promptitude: Civil War Pension Application Processing, 1861-1885.” Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Spring 2010): 26-35.
• “For Love and Money: Pension Laws Affecting Widows of Military Veterans.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 2016): 35-39.
• “Pension Office Correspondence with Special Examiners, 1887-1931.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 39, No. 4, (Oct.-Dec. 2013): 43–47.
• “Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 3 (July-Sept. 2015): 42-45.

Specialized Records

• “Did Your Union Civil War Ancestor Have an Artificial Limb?” NGS Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan.–Mar. 2014): 41–45.
• “The Rebs Took My Money!” NGS Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr.-June 2015): 42-45. Check the list of claimants here: Claims Made for Money Taken from Federal Prisoners of War Confined in Confederate Prisons
• “Marylanders in the Bureau of Pensions Law Division Case Files, A-Bon.” Maryland Genealogical Society Journal, Vol. 56, No. 2 (2015): 269-282.
• “Special Examiners: Records of the Bureau of Pensions’ Efforts to Combat Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, 1862–1933.” Federal History, Vol. 8, pp. 109-120.
• “Thieves, Scoundrels, Impostors, and More.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 3 (July-Sept. 2018): 43-47.
• “Accounting for Each Penny: Revelations from Civil War Accounting Records of a Maine Provost Marshal.” Vol. 45, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 2019): 59-61

Death and Burial Records

• “Headstone Records for U.S. Military Veterans, Part I: Headstone Design.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan.–Mar. 2013): 28–31.
• “Headstone Records for U.S. Military Veterans, Part II: 1879–1925.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr.–June 2013): 30–33.
• “Headstone Records for U.S. Military Veterans, Part III: 1925–1985.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 39, No. 3, (July–Sept. 2013): 32–36.
• “Research Guide for Headstone Records for U.S. Military Veterans Buried in Nonfederal Cemeteries, 1879–1985.”
• “Records of Burial Flags for Veterans.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 2016): 39-42.

Case Studies

• “The Lightning Brothers: A Brief Case Study in Union Civil War Research.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 37, No. 3 (July-Sept. 2011): 52–57.
• “What Battles Did My Civil War Ancestor Fight In?” The Record [NARA], Vol. 2, No. 2 (Nov. 1995): 20, 25, and Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jan. 1996): 20, 28. Online adaptation.
• “Seth N. Combs: A Twice-Divorced Civil War Deserter.” The Report [Ohio Genealogical Society], Vol. 35, No. 3 (Fall 1995): 124-128. Also published with minor revision in Ancestry Trails [Trumbull Co. Chapter OGS], Vol. 21, No. 4 (Apr. 1996): 24-29.
• “Joanna Hendershot and Her Two Civil War Soldier Husbands: Sidney Z. Westurn, 188th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company E, and John J. Rounds, 177th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company B.” Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal, Vol. V, No. 4 (2001): 185-187. [Source citation footnotes submitted but not published.]
• “Freeman Warren Westurn, Soldier of Company E, 103rd [Ohio] Volunteer Infantry.” Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal, Vol. VII, No. 1 (2003): 21-25.

Civilians

• “Wagonmasters Serving the Union during the Civil War.” NGS Quarterly, Vol. 85, No. 4 (Dec. 1997): 295-311. Online Version.
• “Sutlers of the Civil War.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Apr.-June 2014): 39-43. Images of sutler tokens courtesy of Rick Irons Numismatics.
• “Union Army Laundresses.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 42, No. 3 (July-Sept. 2016): 33-37. Check the list of laundress claimants here: List of Files in “Records of Disallowed Claims of Laundresses, ca. 1853-1920” (most of these relate to the post-Civil War era).

Animals and Property

• “No Horsing Around! Unusual Records in the National Archives.” NGS Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 2018): 59-60.