Analysis of the Soldiers & Sailors Database
The National Park Service maintains the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) which is a database of the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War.
In the context of a larger project, I wondered how many soldiers served from each state so I did a geographic analysis of that database.1 I share it here for the sake of researchers.
One or more Union regiments were organized in every state and territory of the country (north and south), including the Dakota Territory and Washington D.C. A Union regiment was even organized in the stridently-secessionist state of South Carolina. (The 1st South Carolina Infantry, U.S.-Colored, later became the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops). Confederate regiments were only organized in southern or border states.
It bears repeating that this analysis is of the records in the popular NPS database. The Soldiers and Sailors system does not purport to be complete nor even to reflect unique soldiers.2 Even with those stipulations, however, the table may offer some interesting insights.
For the sake of curiosity, this table is followed by a list of the most common individual regiments in the two armies.
Distribution by State/Territory
| Name | Union | Confed. | Total | Percent U/C3 | Rank U/C4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 2,842 | 197,427 | 200,269 | 1.4/98.6 | 37/3 |
| Arkansas | 12,946 | 108,020 | 120,966 | 10.7/89.3 | 31/10 |
| Arizona | 655 | 271 | 926 | 70.7/29.3 | 44/16 |
| California | 21,405 | 0 | 21,405 | 100/0 | 27/0 |
| Colorado | 8,461 | 0 | 8,461 | 100/0 | 33/0 |
| Connecticut | 65,220 | 0 | 65,220 | 100/0 | 17/0 |
| Delaware | 16,223 | 0 | 16,223 | 100/0 | 28/0 |
| Dakota Territory | 269 | 0 | 269 | 100/0 | 45/0 |
| Florida | 2,199 | 35,245 | 37,444 | 5.9/94.1 | 40/14 |
| Georgia | 195 | 244,812 | 245,007 | 0.1/99.9 | 46/2 |
| Iowa | 97,165 | 0 | 97,165 | 100/0 | 14/0 |
| Illinois | 370,624 | 0 | 370,624 | 100/0 | 4/0 |
| Indiana | 277,220 | 0 | 277,220 | 100/0 | 5/0 |
| Kansas | 40,281 | 0 | 40,281 | 100/0 | 24/0 |
| Kentucky | 108,074 | 51,605 | 159,679 | 67.7/32.3 | 12/13 |
| Louisiana | 14,686 | 128,256 | 142,942 | 10.3/89.7 | 29/9 |
| Massachusetts | 164,434 | 0 | 164,434 | 100/0 | 8/0 |
| Maryland | 53,557 | 6089 | 59,646 | 89.8/10.2 | 19/15 |
| Maine | 83,289 | 0 | 83,289 | 100/0 | 16/0 |
| Michigan | 142,969 | 0 | 142,969 | 100/0 | 9/0 |
| Minnesota | 30,972 | 0 | 30,972 | 100/0 | 25/0 |
| Missouri | 195,303 | 70,691 | 265,994 | 73.4/26.6 | 7/12 |
| Mississippi | 903 | 173,935 | 174,838 | 0.5/99.5 | 43/6 |
| North Carolina | 5,217 | 197,314 | 202,531 | 2.6/97.4 | 35/4 |
| Nebraska | 5,275 | 0 | 5,275 | 100/0 | 34/0 |
| New Hampshire | 45,616 | 0 | 45,616 | 100/0 | 22/0 |
| New Jersey | 96,901 | 0 | 96,901 | 100/0 | 15/0 |
| New Mexico | 12,970 | 0 | 12,970 | 100/0 | 30/0 |
| Nevada | 1,684 | 0 | 1,684 | 100/0 | 41/0 |
| New York | 512,150 | 0 | 512,150 | 100/0 | 1/0 |
| Ohio | 464,270 | 0 | 464,270 | 100/0 | 3/0 |
| Oregon | 2,754 | 0 | 2,754 | 100/0 | 38/0 |
| Pennsylvania | 508,215 | 0 | 508,215 | 100/0 | 2/0 |
| Rhode Island | 26,497 | 0 | 26,497 | 100/0 | 26/0 |
| South Carolina | 93 | 133,602 | 133,695 | 0.1/99.9 | 48/8 |
| Tennessee | 54,086 | 195,805 | 249,891 | 21.6/78.4 | 18/5 |
| Texas | 4,370 | 159,031 | 163,401 | 2.7/97.3 | 36/7 |
| Utah | 96 | 0 | 96 | 100/0 | 47/0 |
| Virginia | 2,598 | 281,205 | 283,803 | 0.9/99.1 | 39/1 |
| Vermont | 43,663 | 0 | 43,663 | 100/0 | 23/0 |
| Washington | 1,524 | 0 | 1,524 | 100/0 | 42/0 |
| Washington DC | 10,607 | 0 | 10,607 | 100/0 | 32/0 |
| Wisconsin | 127,558 | 0 | 127,558 | 100/0 | 11/0 |
| West Virginia | 47,334 | 0 | 47,334 | 100/0 | 21/0 |
| Total States & Territories | 3,683,370 | 1,983,308 | 5,666,678 | 65/35 | |
Other Organizations |
|||||
| Confederate Regular Troops | 0 | 80,552 | 80,552 | 0/100 | 0/11 |
| U.S. Regular Army | 139,441 | 0 | 139,441 | 100/0 | 10/0 |
| U.S. Colored Troops | 228,003 | 0 | 228,003 | 100/0 | 6/0 |
| Pioneer Brigade | 48,401 | 0 | 48,401 | 100/0 | 20/0 |
| Veteran Reserve Corps | 107,563 | 0 | 107,563 | 100/0 | 13/0 |
| Grand Total | 4,206,778 | 2,063,860 | 6,270,638 | 67.1/32.9 | |
The following table reflects the 20 most common state organizations in the Soldiers and Sailors database for the Union and Confederate armies. (Click on a link to read more about that unit.)
1. This analysis includes only the soldiers database. Despite it being called the “Soldiers and Sailors System,” the sailors part of the NPS’ database includes (at this writing) only African-American sailors, a small percentage of the Union and Confederate navies. Also, the sailors were mustered into service directly by the Union and Confederate governments, not by state, so a geographic analysis of this type is not possible. A future post may analyze the sailors in the database by the state of their birth.
2. The records of some soldiers, especially Confederate ones, are missing altogether from the Soldiers and Sailors database. Some duplication is also known to exist, especially insofar as soldiers were mustered into service with more than one regiment over the course of the war. And by definition, the Veteran Reserve Corps, was made up of men who are also represented elsewhere on the table so it is isolated from the other counts in the table.
3. The “Percent U/C” column represents the percent of the total for each state (Union/Confederate). So, for instance, 1.4% of Alabama soldiers were in a Union regiment while 98.6% of them were in a Confederate regiment (i.e., “1.4/98.6”).
4. The “Rank U/C” reflects the ranked order of each state within its respective government with 1 being the most populated. So Alabama is the state with the 37th highest number of Union soldiers and the 3rd highest number of Confederate soldiers (i.e., “37/3”).
5. Excludes “2nd Battalion, Veteran Reserve Corps” (34,574), “Unassigned Veteran Reserve Corps” (14,675), “US Army (Regular Army)” (11,539), and “14th US Infantry (Regular Army)” (6,576).
6. Excludes “General and Staff Officers, Non-Regimental Enlisted Men” (22,574).