Hi Sandra,

Glad it's helpful.

By the way, this list is members of the Grand Army of the Republic, which was a military fraternity sort of like the Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion. The members of a GAR post were in a lot of different Regiments, but when they were discharged and moved home, they joind the GAR as a support group.

The nice thing about GAR lists is they were extremely picky about who could join. You had to prove to them that you were a Civil War Veteran and had been honorably discharged to join. So if you find a relative in the GAR you can be assured they really fought in the Civil War. Once the Civil War Veterans started passing away, the GAR started Sons of Union Soldiers (and a Daughters too). If your relative was a member of the Sons or Daughters then the parent probably fought in the Civil War.

The Ladies Auxilary was not as selective and non veterans and their families could join so Auxilary membership does not always mean you have a Civil War veteran in the family. The other thing the GAR kept is lists of the people they rejected and why! Very thorough.

I just learned this from the NGS Genealogy Conference that was in Pittsburgh last month. There was a researcher from The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in Oakland who gave a great presentation on the GAR. One of the interesting things she said was that some GAR posts were integrated and some where not, so be sure to look at all posts in your ancestor's geographic region.

http://www.soldiersandsailorshall.org/

Soldiers and Sailors has the records that this list was based on and it's AMAZING! A lot of GAR members did something called Personal Reminices where they wrote down their war experiences in a fancy album and gave it to ther GAR Post. Soldiers and Sailors has these for USCT soldiers and they have researchers who will help you go through them and all the other USCT info they have.

The other helpful book is: History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates. Publication date: 1869-71. The USCT from Pennsylvania are in volume V. This book is online at the Making of America website. Here is the table of contents for the USCT:

THIRD UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMIENT, - 925
SIXTH UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT,. - - - 943
EIGHTH UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT, - - - 965
TWENTY-SECOND UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT, - - - 991
TWENTY-FOURTH UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT, - - 1011
TWENTY-FIFTH UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT, - - - 1026
THIRTY-SECOND UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT - - - - 1047
FORTY-FIRST UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMIENT, - - - 1066
FORTY-THIRD UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT, - 1081
FORTY-FIFTH UNITED STATES COLORED REGIMENT, - - 1106
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVENTI-I UNITED STATES COLORED REG'T, 1125

When you go to the site, you can click on the page for the Regiment that you want and there is the Regimental History and a complete muster in and out list and comments (injury, death, etc.) for all the USCT from Pennsylvania. I found my 2nd great grandfather and a 3rd great uncle here, it is a much more compelete list than the one for the Park Service.

Whew. Lots of typing.

Best Wishes,

Lee