The Civil War touched nearly every Indiana family, and it left behind some of the most detailed records a genealogist can find. If a soldier stands in your tree, the war years may be where the paper trail suddenly opens up.
The people in this story fill our public-record database. Search a surname and filter to Indiana.
Search Indiana records →Indiana in the Civil War
Indiana contributed about 200,000 men under war governor Oliver P. Morton to the Civil War. In 1863 Morgan’s Raid crossed into southern Indiana, one of the few times the war touched northern soil.
The regiments and the record
Each regiment kept muster rolls, and after the war the state published its rolls of service — for Indiana, the Indiana Adjutant General’s reports and the state’s Civil War soldier database. These are among the richest genealogical records of the nineteenth century, naming a soldier’s age, town, unit, and fate.
Pensions and the aftermath
Union veterans and their widows could apply for federal pensions, generating detailed files now at the National Archives, and many joined the Grand Army of the Republic. A veteran’s grave, pension file, and roster entry together can reconstruct his entire war.
Finding your Indiana ancestors
- State service rosters and federal pension files name a Civil War soldier’s age, town, unit, and fate — often cracking a line wide open.
- Census records (free through 1950) list occupation and residence — placing your family in a specific Indiana county and town, decade by decade.
- Death & cemetery records — search our Indiana database for the people in this story and the generations around them.
- The Indiana State Archives & Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis holds the deeper collections — company, church, military, and county records.
- Newspapers on the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America carried the obituaries, accidents, and milestones of these communities.
We work back from you to the ancestor who lived this history — census, vital, church, and cemetery records, written into a book and an interactive family site. Flat rate, no DNA test.
See how it works →Frequently asked questions
How many soldiers did Indiana send to the Civil War?
Indiana contributed about 200,000 men under war governor Oliver P. Morton.
How do I find a Indiana Civil War ancestor?
Start with the Indiana Adjutant General’s reports and the state’s Civil War soldier database, then order the federal pension file from the National Archives and check the veteran’s grave and Grand Army of the Republic records.