Family Tutor: Military Records, Compiled Service Record

1.	The company, regiment, and state for which the record was made
2.	Name of the officer or soldier
3.	Rank, company, and regiment of the soldier
4.	Type of record
5.	Description of the soldier
6.	Birthplace and occupation
7.	Enlistment information
8.	Compiler

Compiled Service Record
for the Civil War

Section Details

Description of the soldier includes age and height at enlistment, complexion, eye color, and hair color.

Birthplace and occupation includes birthplace of the soldier and the occupation at the time of enlistment.

Enlistment information includes the date the solder began the current enlistment, where the soldier enlisted, what officer enlisted the soldier, the enlistment term, and remarks concerning the soldier found in the record.

Compiled Service Record

Compiled service records are abstracts made by archivists and other specialists at the National Archives from original military records of all types which are sometimes unavailable to genealogists.

In this example, George E. Hopkins of Company B, appears in the Descriptive Book of Company H, Sixty-second Regiment of New York Infantry. When he enlisted on December 31, 1863, he was twenty-nine years old, stood five feet eight inches tall, and had a dark complexion, black eyes, and black hair. The record also reports that he was promoted to Corporal the day after he enlisted.

Compiled service records include a card for every person named in every military record, including but not limited to pay rolls, muster rolls, size or description rolls or books, equipment rolls, and casualty lists. All cards known to belong to the same person are in an envelope that gives the person's name, original rank, and final rank.

Genealogists use compiled service records to learn details about an ancestor, including his wartime service, what he looked like, where he lived, and what he did for a living.

Compiled service records are available on microfilm at the National Archives, the LDS Family History Library, and its Family History Centers. Individual microfilm rolls are available through interlibrary loan. See the Reference Librarian at a local library for ordering instructions.