Tracing a Civil War Ancestor from Tennessee

To find an ancestor who fought in the Civil War who was from Tennessee (Confederate or Union), you may find the following information useful. Start with the Groene book, then move on to looking for the Tennessee sources. Check Tennesseans in the Civil War for the rosters, then contact the State Library and Archives for copies of any records. They have a copy of the Roster there and microfilm copies of the Civil War military records of people from Tennessee that are also at the National Archives.

For overviews of Tennessee history during the Civil War period, be sure to look in the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture sponsored by the Tennessee Historical Society and the University of Tennessee Press.

Best of luck with your search!

• Bertram Hawthorne Groene. Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. ISBN #0-345-36192-X.
• Civil War Centennial Commission. Tennesseans in the Civil War: A Military History of the Confederate and Union Units with Available Rosters of Personnel. Nashville, 1964.
• Richard A. Sauers. How to Do Civil War Research. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. 160 pp. ISBN # 1-58097-041-9 $10.95 paper.
  
• Tennesseans in the Civil War: Part I: Military History, Part II: Rosters (1964, 1965)
• Tennesseans in the Civil War: A Military History of Confederate and Union Units with Available Rosters of Personnel. Part I, Military History [regiments, battalions, companies] and Part II: Rosters. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988. 482 pp. #0-87402-017-4 $27.60 and 612 pp. 0-87402-018-2 $35.60.
• Stephen V. Ash. Middle Tennessee Society Transformed, 1860-1870: War and Peace in the Upper South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.
• Fred Arthur Bailey. Class and Tennessee's Confederate Generation. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
• Fred Arthur Bailey. "Class Contrasts in Old South Tennessee: An Analysis of the NonCombatant Responses to the Civil War Veterans Questionnaires." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 45 (Winter 1986): 279-281.
• The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, eds. Colleen Morse Elliott and Louise Armstrong Moxley. Compiled by Gustavus W. Dyer and John Trotwood Moore. (Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1985), 5 vols. Out of ca. 5000 sent out, 1,642 total (1,521 CSA and 121 Union) responses to questionnaire sent to veterans in 1914-1915 by Gus Dyer, Tennessee state archivist and Vanderbilt professor, whose work was taken up by state librarian and archivist John Trotwood Moore (also chair of Tennessee State Historical Commission) in 1921-1922.
• Civil War Unit Histories: Regimental Histories and Personal Narratives, Part 1: The Confederate States of America and Border States. Bethesda, Md: University Publications of America, 1990. 108 fiche deal with Tennessee units.

Tennessee State Library and Archives

Tennessee State Library and Archives, Guide to Resources and Services (Nashville: TSLA, Department of State, 1989) pamphlet describing the services of the Tennessee State Library and Archives along with directory including telephone numbers.

Tennessee State Library and Archives located on 7th Avenue across the street from the State Capitol with extensive card catalog in Central Reading Room classified according to Tennessee state subject headings. The Archives in the North Reading Room use Library of Congress subject headings that are somewhat different from Tennessee state subject headings.

403 Seventh Avenue, North
Nashville, Tennessee 37219
(615) 741-2764 for Public Services
Hours: 8-6 Monday-Friday, 10-6 Saturday, 1-6 Sunday

Dan Pomeroy, Director of Collections, Tennessee State Museum

James Lloyd, Special Collections Librarian, Hoskins Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee

The Office of Vital Records of the Tennessee Department of Health can assist researchers in locating and obtaining copies of birth, wedding, and death certificates for Tennessee people.