CensusTools

I don't have any direct ancestors who fought in the Civil War, but there are several uncles and I have had great fun piecing together their stories from the available records. After reviewing my Civil War internet bookmarks, I offer the following as starting points for your own research of your Civil War ancestors.

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System

"The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database containing very basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of the CWSS is the Names Index Project, a project to enter names and other basic information from 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives. The facts about the soldiers were entered from records that are indexed to many millions of other documents about Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration."

"Other information includes: histories of regiments in both the Union and Confederate Armies, links to descriptions of 384 significant battles of the war, and other historical information."

The CWSS search interface is crude and clumsy, but the search results provide links to a brief overview of soldier's service and to a regimental history. A great feature is the ability to browse through hundreds of war battle summaries, providing interesting background information for a family history.

U.S. Army Military History Institute

The U.S. Army Military History Institute operates a website where a researcher can search a database of Civil War era photographs. From the website, they have "very large collection of Civil War photographs, depicting variously scenes of historic events of the war, camp life, group photographs, and individual portraits. The photographs include a variety of original images in various contemporaneous media as well as modern copy photographs done from original images loaned to USAMHI for copying. A large proportion of the original photographs came to the Institute through various Commanderies [chapters] of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), the Union Officers' veterans association.

You won't be able to view the photos online, but if you find a photo of interest in a search, you can order a copy. They will send up to two photos free of charge for review. Additional photos can be ordered for nominal fees.

U.S. Civil War Center

The U.S. Civil War Center provides a brief but informative overview on Civil War research, with links to state and national resources.

American Civil War Homepage

Brew a barrel of coffee and clear your schedule for a few days as you explore this exhaustive site dedicated to Civil War research and education. There are hundreds if not thousands of links, roughly organized into about 15 broad areas such as background information, battles and campaigns, photos and biographical data. If you can't find it here it may not be on the web.

American Civil War at eHistory.com

Another website with a variety of resources such as online photo database, regimental histories, and biographies. The best feature is an easy to use search engine for the 128 volume Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.

1. Introducing the CensusTools Family Group Report!
2. Preview of Coming Attractions
3. GenSmarts - A Detailed Review of the Automated Research Assistant
4. Favorite Civil War Research Sites
5. A Request for Your Support