The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System

FGS recruited and trained thousands of volunteers to work on the creation of an every-name index to the participants in the Civil War. In 1999, FGS and GSU, with support from the National Park Service, the National Archives, and the Civil War Trust, completed the data entry of more than five million names and began a post-audit review of all batches.

The following article is from FORUM magazine, Volume 16:4 (Winter 2004), pp 31-32.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System:
Completed and Reborn

by Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA

No other war in the history of the United States had the impact the War Between the States had on this country. The total number of soldiers engaged in this epic event was truly staggering, and the number of casualties from virtually every state and territory touched upon the realm of the unbelievable. Dealing with the uncertainty and ravages of war are challenging enough for even the strongest of families. In this War Between the States, the anxiety level for many families was even higher as brother fought against brother and neighbor raised arms against neighbor in many areas of the country.

So significant was the War Between the States that if one has an ancestor in the country between 1870 and 1860, the chances of that person and his family being at least indirectly affected by the war are rather great. It makes the event something every genealogist must be aware of when researching that period of the 19th century. Fortunately, there are some very good tools for researching—chief among those tools being the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a cooperative project of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the Genealogical Society of Utah/Family History Department, the National Park Service, and the National Archives. In the early 1990s, these organizations met to discuss possible ways of making basic information about the participants in the War Between the States available in national parks and to other interested researchers via the Internet. [Several articles about how this database system started can be found in earlier issues of FORUM magazine.]

From those initial sparks of interest the CWSS was born, and quickly the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Sons of Union Veterans, the American Battlefield Protection Program, and thousands of data-entry volunteers from across the country on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line were added to this initial partnership. Nearly a decade’s work culminated in a Ford’s Theatre celebration the final Monday of September 2004. On that day it was announced that the last two states worth of general service record index data were loaded into the online system and linked to the tremendous amounts of extant information already indexed and available on the site. At the same time, a new Web address for the site was announced: www.civilwar.nps.gov/cwss.

So what’s the big deal about another War Between the States Internet site? First, it was an extraordinary example of volunteerism and the power of private-public partnerships. And the Federation of Genealogical Societies demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt the powerful utility of marshaling the resources of the genealogical community. Second, the idea of building a modest but consistent and substantive core of data around which future data could be layered was proven to be a worthwhile approach to database construction. And finally, the CWSS site makes available tremendous quantities of information and opens significant research avenues to genealogists and military historians. Let’s take a look.

Of the numerous search options available to visitors of the CWSS site, the one likely to be explored most often is the "Soldiers" link. Clicking on this link will open a search template in which one can key any combination of the following data: first and last name of the soldier, side in the war, state of origin, unit, and function (e.g. infantry, cavalry, engineers, etc.). The only required field is the surname field. The results are displayed so that the veteran’s name and regiment are hypertext links. And this is where the magnificence of this online file begins to shine through.

Clicking on the veteran’s name will reveal the specific data entered from the general service record index card. Explanatory browser windows are linked to four of the result fields so that the researcher, for example, knows what “alternative name” means in the context of this database. The National Archives microfilm and roll number are included so one can verify the keyed data.

Clicking on the link to the veteran’s regiment in the results list will provide one with a history of the regiment including muster in and muster out dates, the various other units to which the particular regiment was attached during the war, a detailed account of the regiments service history including the major battles in which it was engaged, and a listing of how many individuals from the unit were lost during the war including a breakdown of the number of officers and enlisted men, and the number who died from disease.

Embedded in the regimental histories are hypertext links to detailed descriptions of the major battles in which each unit participated. Complementing the narrative history, one also learns if the battle was known by any other name (many did have multiple names), the dates of engagement, the location and campaign, the principal commanders, the forces engaged, and the casualties on both sides. Reading these battle histories can provide a researcher with a rather vivid picture of what life was like for an ancestor involved in those harrowing events as well as what strategies were being employed by those leading the campaigns. Each history concludes with whether the engagement was a Confederate or Union victory and a source citation for the information provided.

For many, the most significant link found on a regimental history page is the link to pull together a list of all the soldiers associated with the specific unit. When researching a military ancestor, knowing all the others who served in the unit or regiment creates the research opportunity to explore for letters and diaries that may have mentioned, described, or detailed life relating an ancestor who may not have kept a diary or written letters, or whose writings are no longer extant. Those willing to take the time to explore for the writings of others in an ancestor’s unit are frequently rewarded.

On the regimental history page, there is also a link to search for a specific soldier within a particular unit as well as a link to an online exhibit, “Symbols of Battle: Civil War Flags in the NPS Collections.” Note that even the smallest unit that served for the shortest amount of time has a regimental history page. Certainly this part of the CWSS is worthy of thorough exploration.

To complement the link to “Soldiers” on the main CWSS page, there are seven other major links and a number of lesser or minor links to useful information. The “Sailors” link provides one with access to data on approximately eighteen thousand African Americans who served with the Union navy. The records for these individuals are much more robust than the data gleaned from the general index cards. Typically the records for these African American sailors contain the sailor’s name, birthplace, age, height, complexion, occupation, and naval service. The detailed muster records for many provide a useful insight into the locations and terms of service.

There is a significant amount of additional information and research helps associated with the "Sailors" portion of the CWSS. There is a hypertext map one can use to discern the birthplaces of Union sailors of African American descent. It is an interesting way to search for and group African Americans who served in the navy during the war. Other links include related websites and a description of the records consulted for the data file.

The "Regiments" and "Battles" links on the main CWSS page provide the researcher with an opportunity to both search for specific regiments and battles as well as obtain more information about both. The "Prisons" link provides a database of names and research information for Fort McHenry (a confederate prison) and Andersonville (a Union prison). Unit designation and prison dates are part of the data associated with each prisoner. Poplar Grove National Cemetery is the only cemetery currently listed under the "Cemeteries" link though the National Park Service intends to eventually have data from all fourteen of the national cemeteries it manages. The significant amount of detail available for each burial includes a picture of each veteran’s grave marker. The “Medals of Honor” is the last of the researchable data files available on the CWSS site and provided brief information about those who received this honor for service in the war.

Besides the numerous data files which contain the names of 6.3 million War Between the States participants, the CWSS site also contains links to learn more about the participation of African Americans in the war, a "Researchers Toolbox" to provide information on obtaining records, "Stories of the Civil War," and materials for teachers to use in the classroom. The “Educate” link contains lesson plans, "curriculum connections," as well as CWSS and other related activities to teach young people about this important time in our country’s history. The collection of related information is truly remarkable.

The September celebration marking the completion of the soldiers data file of the CWSS also served to announce a new CWSS partner for the National Park Service—the National Geographic Society. National Geographic will be working with the National Park Service to enhance regimental histories and battle descriptions with digital mapping systems. These systems will put the researcher right at the battlefield, trace the movements of regiments engaged in a particular area, and put one right along side one’s War Between the States ancestor. This exciting partnership will exploit the extraordinary power of technology as applied to historical research.

Though one unified system, the CWSS is a number of inter-related and inter-linked data files that provide tremendous amounts of contexted data and detailed information for both the casual and the expert searcher. With continuing initiatives to add related databases to the CWSS and the tremendous partnership with the National Geographic Society, this website will continue to be a must-use resource for genealogists and students of military history.

Curt Witcher is the Historical Genealogy Manager of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a former president of both the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society.