United States, Official Army Register 1861-1865
Did your ancestor serve in the volunteer force of the United States army between 1861 and 1865? Explore the official army register by the United States Adjutant General’s Office to find out the regiment they served in.
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Did your ancestor serve in the volunteer force of the United States army between 1861 and 1865? Explore the official army register by the United States Adjutant General’s Office to find out the regiment they served in.
Learn about these records
Each record is available in a PDF format. Use the previous and next buttons at the top of the page to browse through the publication. The PDF search experience can be different from searching transcribed records. Use our search tips below to get the most out of this collection.
To the left of the PDF, you will find the Transcription Box, which includes:
- Title – the title of the publication
- Volume
- Author
- War
- Country
- Image number
- Image Count
Image number and image count – this will tell you where you are in the publication and help you to explore the publication further.
The collection of The Official Army Register of the Volunteer Force of the United States Army 1861 to 1865 includes 7 parts of the register that was published by order of the Secretary of War, in compliance with the Joint resolution of the Senate and House Representatives, approved on the 2 March 1865.
The United States Volunteers were volunteers enlisted in the United States Army who were separate from the Regular Army. These regiments were often referred to as the Volunteer Army of the United States, however, they were not officially named that until 1898.
During the nineteenth century, this was the United State Federal Government’s main means of raising large forces of citizen soldiers needed in time of war to supplement the regular army.
This collection includes the following parts of the register:
Part 1 New England States
Part 2 New York and New Jersey
Part 3 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia
Part 4 West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky
Part 5 Ohio, Michigan
Part 6 Indiana, Illinois
Part 7 Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, California, Kansas, Oregon, Nevada
Parts 1 to 6 were printed on the 31 August 1865, parts 7 and 8 were printed on the 16 July 1867.
Search tips
Searching through a PDF (Portable document format) is different from searching through fully transcribed record sets. Here are some tips to keep in mind while you search for your ancestors:
Direct Search
- The search feature uses direct search. It will search for the exact word or phrase you type in the search field. There are no name variants available through this format.
- All search results will bring you to the page on which your search word has been found and not to an individual transcript. You can then read through the page to find your result.
Name searches
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A name search will return results which have the search terms on the same page within the document. This means that searching for John Smith will return pages where the names 'John' and 'Smith' occur. For this reason your search may return the name William Smith or John Brown. By inserting quotations around the full name the search function will locate the terms together; for example, “John Smith.”
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To search for your ancestor by their name, write it as it would appear on the document. For example, if your relative was known as ‘Will’ it is likely that the name used for official records was ‘William.’
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If you are unable to find your relative on your first search you can try different name variations. A number of register books only use abbreviations for first names. For example, if your search is unsuccessful for William Smith, try W Smith or Wm Smith.
Perusing the PDF
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If you wish to read through the whole document you are searching, then order the results by page number. You can start from the beginning of the document and read through to the end using the next button above the image.
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Page numbers often correlate with the individual images of the documents rather than the page numbers used within the publication. Therefore page 1 starts with the cover page.