Abstract
Like so many other Civil War researchers, I have come to trust and even anticipate digging through a variety of sources to uncover the experiences of individual soldiers. And I've learned that for real hard-core facts and maybe even some deep, dark secrets, the service and pension records at the National Archives are an invaluable, and fun, trove of information. Service records give basic facts—muster in and out dates, whether or not a soldier was there for the monthly roll call. They sometimes note whether a soldier was killed or wounded at a particular battle. Pension records include even more details. When a veteran applied for a pension, he had to submit an affidavit, get a physical, and provide much other information.
An interesting example of the value of these records is the case of Mayer (or Meyer or Myer, depending upon the source) Frankel. Frankel's descendants had much information on him, most gleaned from his 1907 obituary and from a 1977 taped interview with his daughter.