Arkansas, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865

What is in This Collection?

This collection includes card abstracts of service records from 1861 to 1865. The collection consists of Confederate service records of soldiers who served in organizations from Arkansas. The records include abstracts of entries relating to the soldier as found in the following original records:

For each military unit the service records are arranged alphabetically by the soldier's surname. The Military Unit field may also display the surname range (A-G) as found on the microfilm. This collection is a part of RG 109, War Department Collection of Confederate Records and is National Archive Microfilm Publication M317. Index courtesy of www.fold3.com (Previously known as Footnote.com).

Service records were kept for each Confederate soldier. Those records, or their abstracts, were compiled into individual files. Each envelope/jacket contains information and cross references to original records relating to the soldier.

The following NARA microfilm publication will identify the original records available to the War Department which were abstracted to create compiled military service records for individual soldiers. The list is arranged by military unit. The collection takes its name from General Fred Crayton Ainsworth, who was appointed head of the Record and Pension Division (R&P) of the Surgeon General's office in 1886. Ainsworth had clerks copy the name, rank, military organization, and medical history of each soldier from the nineteen thousand Civil War hospital registers onto paper cards. After completing that task information from additional records were added. Additional records may also be found at a state archive or historical that were not available for carding.

This index was published as NARA Microcopy T-817, Lists of the Adjutant General's Office for Carded Records of Military Organizations: Revolutionary War Through Philippine Insurrection, "The Ainsworth List. See FamilySearch Catalog record List of the Adjutant General's Office for carded records of military organizations: Revolutionary War through Philippine Insurrection : the Ainsworth list. For Arkansas see rolls 90-91. See also, Claire Prechtel-Kluskens, "Thank you, General Fred C. Ainsworth!", NGS Magazine, Vol. 37, #4, (October-December 2011), pages 54-57. FS Library 973 D25ngs.

The information in this index is quite reliable. However, keep in mind that even though this index is very accurate it still may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings or misinterpretations.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The index to these records contains the following:

The papers are in separated into individual files which usually include the following:

• A jacket-envelope for each soldier, labeled with his name, his rank, and the unit in which he served
• A card (or cards) with abstracts of entries from original muster rolls, returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital registers, Union prison registers and rolls, parole rolls, and inspection reports
• The originals of any papers relating only to the particular soldier