Civil War Soldiers System
FD78@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
Mon, 20 Dec 1993 12:42:04 ECT
Most members of H-CivWar probably already know something about
the Civil War Soldiers System being created by the National Park
Service. A recent flyer from the NPS, however, provides perhaps more
detailed information than we might have seen earlier. I have taken
the liberty of quoting some key passages from the flyer in order to
give H-CivWar members the latest and best information on the
project.
"The National Park Service, in cooperation with other interested
organizations, is developing a Civil War Soldiers System, which will
be available to visitors at most of the Park Service's Civil War
sites by 1995-96.
"The system will include a computerized database containing very
basic facts about soldiers who served on both sides during the Civil
War; a list of regiments in both the Union and Confederate Armies;
identifications and descriptions of some of the major battles of the
war; references that identify the sources of the information in the
database; and suggestions for where to find additional information.
"Initially, the Civil War Soldiers System will contain 5.5
million names of soldiers who fought in the Civil War, along with
such information as whether the soldier was Confederate or Union
and the soldier's regiment and rank." "The system will also
identify the 7,000 regiments and units formed during the war ...
and provide the location of some of the soldiers buried in Civil
War cemeteries managed by the Park Service.
"Over time, the system will be expanded to provide additional
information about individual soldiers; regimental histories;
descriptions of more battles and skirmishes; more burial locations;
and prisoner-of-war records. The system will identify the sources
"Members of the public may volunteer to participate in this
project by entering the basic data from copies of the National
Archives documents. Initially, the data entry work will be
accomplished at specific locations around the country, such as
the National Archives Regional Branches; in the future, data
may also be entered on IBM-compatible home computers. If you
would like information on how you can volunteer to perform
data entry for the National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers
System, please write Civil War Soldiers System
P.O. Box 3385
Salt Lake City, UT 84110-3385"
Richard Lowe
U. of North Texas
fd78@vaxb.acs.unt.edu