With this book as a guide and with a minimum of information, anyone should be able to trace the military history of his Civil War ancestor from mustering in to mustering out. Written by an experienced historian, genealogist, and collector, the book has been especially designed for those who are descendants of Civil War veterans, but it should be of inestimable value also to historians, genealogists, collectors, antique dealers, and anyone interested in the lore of the Civil War period.
Information on literally hundreds of thousands of Civil War soldiers' lives and military experiences is available to anyone who knows how to extract it from the millions of state and federal records and the countless books wherein this information is preserved. Tracing a particular
veteran's story is not necessarily difficult, and anyone should be able to do it, with a little time and at very little expense, by following the suggestions in this book.
Descendants of Civil War veterans can use this book to help trace the military careers of their forebears, to follow their battles and camp experiences, and to study in depth the histories of their military units.
Historians and genealogists may find in it clues to resolve some of the mysteries, or fill in some of the gaps, in their research.
Collectors of Civil War relics can turn to it as a guide in tracing names inscribed on weapons and other military equipment, thus regaining for such items a lost time and place in history— and, perhaps not incidentally, a greater monetary value.
Antique dealers should welcome its aid in establishing a history for inscribed weapons, photographs, and other items and in locating the most authoritative sources for the identification of Civil War equipment.
And the interested layman may well be wary, or he will find himself stimulated to undertake a type of research he has often thought of but never quite had the knowhow to begin.
