Project: US Civil War: War Between the States

Categories: Wars 1800-1899 | United States Projects | United States Military History | Military and War Project | United States Civil War

Welcome to the US Civil War Between the States Project!
The US Civil War: War Between the States Project is part of the Military and War Project.

Contents

Mission

While the Revolutionary War formed our nation, the Civil War tore it apart, resulting in the death of more than 620,000 Soldiers, with many more injured. The mission of the U.S. Civil War Project is to honor those who fought in that horrendous conflict. It is dedicated to those individuals who participated in this conflict in whatever capacity, whether they were soldiers, spies, medical personal or citizens who supplied either side during the conflict.

How to Join

Are you interested in the US Civil War Project?us_civil_war.gif

US Civil War Between the States Membership Requirements: (1) You've signed the Honor Code (2) Been a member of WikiTree for a month (3) and have made at least 100 contributions on WikiTree.

Badged Members may also want to:

  • Add the Member Sticker to your profile page, add sticker below the Biography heading. Copy and Paste: {{Member|US Civil War}}
  • Add your name and tell what you are working on or interested in on our US Civil War Member and Progress Page
  • Main Communication: US_Civil_War tag on G2G. If you post a question in G2G regarding the project or a profile that is or should be part of the project, add the "tag" and all members who follow that tag will be notified via WikiTree's daily feed.
  • Join our WikiTree US Civil War: War Between the States Google Group which is an open forum of various topics. Please follow the link and request membership.
  • Go to the appropriate resource page for your area of interest and if you are interested in assisting with it, let the page manager know. They can steer you in the right direction and offer assistance as well.
  • Please note that projects cannot do research for you. If you don't know where to start, please see: Help:How to Get Started with Genealogy.

Project Goals

  • Identify profiles of individuals who participated in this conflict. Working on your own ancestors is a good place to start!
  • Add the appropriate sticker to their profile along with any other sticker such as POW, KIA, etc. Remember all stickers go under == Biography == heading.
  • State Resource Pages. Compile resources for individual states and counties to assist others in researching ancestors/events in those locations. View the lists on the resource page to see individual states. Confederate and Union States and Main Resource Page.
  • Categorize profiles appropriately in regards to military unit, locations, battles, etc. Confederate Categories and Union Categories
  • Our desire is to have well sourced profiles, not just of the soldiers, but also those of their families. We have thousands of unconnected soldiers, one of our goals should be to connect every soldier. Sources Guidelines

Task List

These are tasks that volunteers can do to help us!

  • MAINTENANCE CATEGORIES: please remember to add them to any profile that are in need of them:
    • [Category: US Civil War Needs Biography] Note: Use this category if the Profile has NO biography.
    • [Category: US Civil War Needs Connection] Note: This category is for a soldier who is not connected to ANY family member.
    • [Category: US Civil War Needs Profiles Created] Note: This category is for a soldier who has SOME family connected, but not all their family members.
    • [Category: US Civil War, Unsourced Profiles]---also put: {{Unsourced|US Civil War}}
    • [Category: US Civil War Needs More Records]Note: Use this category on a profile that hasn't any additional records to prove family, or doesn't have a military record.
  • Also, remember that Stickers go below the == Biography == heading, if you are editing a profile that has the stickers above the heading, please move it/them under the heading. Thank you.
  • Add Maintenance Categories to profiles.
  • Those who enjoy working on Biographies, creating profiles, sourcing, and connecting will now have the Maintenance Categories to work from. We always need help with this: Profiles need Biographies, need connecting, need profiles created
  • Review the profiles that are in the base, upper-level categories of Union/Confederate, service branches, states, etc. and try to further identify where they should be placed, and remove/update categories and templates using current guidelines, i.e. remove duplicate category paths (state when unit known), add category to template with |unit instead of explicitly with [[Category:xxx]].
  • Make a space page with resources for a specific unit or battle.
  • You can also look over the Space pages to see where you can help, some need help creating profiles, connecting family, finding sources, listing members of a unit.
  • Help update the KIA, WIA, POW, etc. categories on Civil War profiles.
  • Members can ask to be on the "trusted list" of a state resource page, Main Resource Page and basically act as a Project Coordinator for that state. The pages are found under People or pages for Union States and Confederate States
    • Make sure the links on the state pages still work, remove/replace links
    • Link state resource pages to appropriate categories for example: using Alabama the following categories should be added.
    • Identify and add resource links for research regarding the Civil War and genealogy that is related to each county. Some states have a central location, others have individual historical societies or unit resources.

Project Box or Sticker?

  • Only add the project box if the profile is managed by the US Civil War project profile account. Otherwise add the sticker.
  • The Project Box goes above the == Biography == heading, ALL OTHER STICKERS GO UNDER == Biography == HEADING!

Hints for Stickers and Categories

Category Picking tool
  1. 80 - 90% of the National Park Service Database's Civil War units have categories already created, so chances are that using the category picking tool will provide users with the correct category. Just type in the box the regiment number and state to get the best results. (Example, type in 18th ohio and see three results to choose from. Click on the correct one and the category will be added to the profile.) [The Category Picking Tool is found under the Edit Text and above the Biography heading. It is the button left of the C and looks a little like steps.]
  2. In the case of the Civil War Sticker template, the biggest mistake and confusion is caused having both a "regiment name" and "unit" parameter. In "regiment name" you can use free text. If the man served in three units during the course of the war, you can write them in and call them volunteer infantry or whatever. But in unit= it must match the category name EXACTLY because it will create a category. If there are questions on how to use it, just use only the regiment name= parameter and add the category via the category picking tool. (See hint #1)
  3. At the very minimum, if you do not know the exact unit the man served in, just use {{US Civil War|side=}} Side= is either USA or CSA. If you leave out the side, a database suggestion will be generated and a data doctor will eventually visit the profile to fix it. [Note: Only use USA or CSA on the sticker, do not spell out Union or Confederate, that will cause an error.]
  4. Use only ONE Civil War Sticker per profile. If they served multiple times, explain that in the biography and add the other categories as in hint #1.

Project Box: Only for Profiles the US Civil War Project Manages

  • Project Account Profile: Wikitree ID: WikiTree-39 US Civil War Project Profile is the nonperson project profile that can serve as project manager for profiles under the US Civil War Project. Add this as PM for your profile by adding the email and clicking add as manager: Email: wikitreeuscivilwar@googlegroups.com
  • Please do not add the project as manager unless it is needed. (Project protection should be used only when profiles need protection — because they are commonly-shared, frequently-duplicated, subject to confusion, etc.)
  • Adding this Project Box based template to a profile identifies it as someone who played a key role in the war and displays links to both the project page showing more information/resources and to G2G filtering on subjects with the US Civil War tag.
  • It is NOT required when just adding categories for status (KIA, WIA, etc.) or the unit(s) assigned to, or, using the {{US Civil War}} sticker to highlight unit/service dates, which should also be documented elsewhere in the biography.
  • Copy and paste the following onto the profile for the individual who participated in the United States Civil War whose account needs project management:
    • {{US Civil War Project| side = USA}} for Federal and State forces fighting for the Union
    • {{US Civil War Project| side = CSA}} for Federal and State forces fighting for the Confederacy

The project box will look like this:

Union and Confederate Service Badges
... ... ... participated on the side of
the CSA during the US Civil War.
Join: US Civil War Project
Discuss: us_civil_war
  • This will appear above the biography. You cannot alter this to include unit information. You can add the sticker below the biography as well, which will allow you to enter dates, rank and unit.

Sticker that can be used in Biography of Soldier

  • This is a display sticker and is used on the profile of a person who was in the war, PLACED BELOW the ==Biography== line, it is not a project box.
  • Fill in the blanks with information unique to that person. If you don't have all of the information just leave the original generic info.

Here is a step by step instruction provided by Natalie Trott

{{US Civil War
|side = CSA or USA
|enlisted = mmm dd, yyyy
|mustered = mmm dd, yyyy
|regiment flag = file name from Civil War Flags
|regiment name = regiment1; regiment2
|rank=rank (If this is not entered, the prefix from the profile will be used)
|unit= name of unit category to add profile to (", United States Civil War" will be added to the unit by the sticker)
}}

I'm going to go through these parameters one by one, so stand by:

  • side= choose one, was the unit part of Union, then it's USA. If it was a confederate, use CSA. Do not leave them both there.
  • enlisted=date they signed on. If you don't know, just backspace through it. It will show "unknown" though, so be aware. The date of 1862 could be used, if you cannot find sufficient data.
  • mustered=date they mustered out. Don't know? Backspace through. Again, it will show as unknown. If they were KIA, you can put the date of death. The date of 1865 could be used, if you cannot find sufficient data.
  • regiment flag=there are not a lot of them floating about WikiTree,so you can look through the space page Space:Civil_War_Flags if you want to use a different one than the default. You can also just remove this parameter and a default will display.
  • regiment name= here you can use free text and include company "A" or other company names. If they served in several units, you can add them all, but separate them by a comma or semicolon. Have at it here.
  • rank= here you want to use the abbreviation for the rank, if you know it. (Usually, private is Pvt, private first class is PFC, Sergeant is Sgt; Corporal is Cpl., lieutenant is Lt., major is Maj., colonel is Col. )
  • unit= this is the one that creates a new category if the category does not already exist, so search the categories for the correct unit. You can also use the category picker tool to find the correct name. Almost all of the US Civil War units were pre-added. Once you find the unit's category, backspace through the text and add it. (It should be something akin to "127th Regiment, Indiana Infantry". You do not add "United States Civil War, because the template will add that part) If you have no idea, please backspace and remove the text "name of unit category to add profile to (", United States Civil War" will be added to the unit by the sticker)" because that will be added as your category if you do not. NOTE: If the person served in more than one unit, the additional units must be added as separate categories. Search within the state served or use the category picker tool to find the category for the appropriate unit.
  • Here is a good example of a use: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Markel-146
    • If you open that to edit mode, you can see what the user did. Then close the edit mode without saving, since you do not want inadvertently edit the profile.
  • The result is something like this:
... ... ... ... served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: Jan 1863
Mustered out: Apr 1865
Side: CSA
Regiment(s): 13th South Carolina Infantry
  • Important note: For this sticker, the |unit= element lists the 1st/2nd part of the name, United States Civil War is automatically added by the code, so if you put in the United States Civil War in the Sticker with the unit (the full category name), the Sticker tries to add to a category with that in the name twice, which will show up on the profile in red.

Template Sticker for Roll of Honor

  • Link for Template: Roll of Honor, this sticker is used for Killed in Action, Wounded in Action, Missing in Action, Prisoner of War, Died of Wounds, Died of Disease, Died in Military Service, Died While Prisoner of War: (Note: you can leave the rank off of the template if you don't know it.) [Roll of Honor Sticker Template]

Example

{{Roll of Honor |category=Died of Disease, Confederate States of America, United States Civil War |image = Roll_of_Honor_Template-15.jpg |rank = Corporal |description =Died of Disease |war = The United States Civil War }}
Roll of Honor
Corporal ... ... ... Died of Disease during The United States Civil War.



Stickers for Personal Profile of Member:

Place the sticker below the Biography Heading. See Flags images to customize Descendant stickers.

  • {{Descendant
  • |image=Civil_War_Flags-28.png
  • |imagetext=1st National Flag of the Confederate States of America
  • |id=[[WikiTree-ID|Name]], Confederate Soldier}}
  • {{Descendant
  • |image=Union_and_Confederate_service_badges-3.gif
  • |Imagetext=Union and Confederate Service badge
  • |id=[[WikiTree-ID|Name]], Union Soldier}}
  • Project Member Sticker, copy and paste: {{Member|US Civil War}} EXAMPLE:
    ... ... ... is a member of the US Civil War: War Between the States Project.

Resources

Project Resource Pages

Image Resource Pages

Space Pages

Related Projects

The following projects and groups are likely to have some overlap with this one, so members of this project may be interested in them as well:

Related Category Free-Space Pages

NOTE: Please glance through WikiTree Category Search to minimize duplication.



This page was last modified 19:00, 30 April 2024. This page has been accessed 48,851 times.