Genealogy

North Carolina Civil War
Genealogical Resources

The North Carolina Museum of History provides the following resource list to assist you in researching your Civil War ancestors from North Carolina.

Archives

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408
Phone: (202) 501-5400
http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/civilwar.html

NARA houses many types of Civil War records, including pension records, military service records, photographs, records of events (compilations of the activities of each company), maps, and headstone records. NARA provides copies of some records by mail; others must be viewed at NARA. See http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/civilwar.html for details.

North Carolina State Archives
109 East Jones Street, Raleigh
Mailing address: Mail Service Center 4614, Raleigh, NC 27699-4614
Phone: (919) 733-3952
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/archives/default.htm

The archives holds indexed military pension applications, an indexed military collection, and a private manuscript collection containing Civil War letters, journals, and other documents.

Other repositories

County and city historical societies and archives, as well as university libraries, often house private manuscript collections, which may include letters, journals, and other documents from the Civil War.

Books

Clark, Walter, ed. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861–’65. 5 vols. Raleigh: E. M. Uzzell; Goldsboro: Nash Brothers, 1901. Reprint, Wendell, N.C.: Broadfoot’s Bookmark, 1982.

Histories and photographs of North Carolina’s regiment.

Groene, Bertram Hawthorne. Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989.

A historian’s tips on finding and interpreting military information about your Civil War ancestors.

Manarin, Louis H., and Weymouth T. Jordan Jr., eds. North Carolina Troops, 1861–1865; A Roster. 12 vols. Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 1966–1998.

The North Carolina State Archives is producing this comprehensive seventeen-volume series containing regimental histories, maps, photographs, and brief biographies of soldiers.

U.S. War Department. War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1900. Reprint, Gettysburg, Pa.: National Historical Society, 1971–1972.

Battle reports and correspondence of Union and Confederate regiments. Available on-line at http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/waro.html.

U.S. Naval War Records Office. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. 30 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1874–1922. Reprint, Gettysburg, Pa.: National Historical Society, 1971.

Battle reports and correspondence of Union and Confederate navies. Available on-line at http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/ofre.html.

Web Sites

American Civil War Research Database
http://www.civilwardata.com/
This subscriber Web site contains soldiers’ records, photographs, regimental rosters and histories, and battle synopses.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
National Park Service database containing facts about Union and Confederate servicemen in the Civil War.

Civil War Soldiers of North Carolina
http://www.imagin.net/~tracers/north_carolina_civil_war_soldiers.htm
Census Online & Other Diggins provides this database comprising hundreds of listings, each containing personal data as well as company and regiment information.

Confederate Regimental History Links: North Carolina
http://www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/CSmo-sc.html#NC-Cav
This list provides links to information—histories, muster rolls, photographs, and more—about many North Carolina regiments.

National Archives and Records Administration Civil War Records
http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/civilwar.html
NARA’s Civil War records Web page includes an introduction to basic research sources and tips on how to find and use them.

North Carolina Confederate Burial Locator Project
http://www.26nc.org/Burial/main.htm
This nonprofit organization offers a database of more than 20,000 Confederate interment locations in the state.

Which Henry Cook? A Methodology for Searching Confederate Ancestors
http://www.nara.gov/publications/prologue/allen.html
The National Archives and Records Administration provides this introduction to researching your Civil War ancestors.