The Civil War touched nearly every Missouri 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 Missouri.
Search Missouri records →Missouri in the Civil War
Missouri contributed more than 100,000 for the Union, and thousands more for the South to the Civil War. A bitterly divided border state, Missouri saw the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, the Battle of Westport, and a brutal guerrilla war of bushwhackers and Jayhawkers.
The regiments and the record
Each regiment kept muster rolls, and after the war the state published its rolls of service — for Missouri, the Missouri Adjutant General’s records and the Missouri Digital Heritage soldiers’ 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 Missouri 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 Missouri county and town, decade by decade.
- Death & cemetery records — search our Missouri database for the people in this story and the generations around them.
- The Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City 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 Missouri send to the Civil War?
Missouri contributed more than 100,000 for the Union, and thousands more for the South.
How do I find a Missouri Civil War ancestor?
Start with the Missouri Adjutant General’s records and the Missouri Digital Heritage soldiers’ database, then order the federal pension file from the National Archives and check the veteran’s grave and Grand Army of the Republic records.