Search For Sailors

An important part of the Civil War took place on the high seas or the rivers which flowed through the South. Civil War sailors' lives could be spent in the tedium of blockade duty off the Gulf or Atlantic Coasts, in the din of battle inside an ironclad, or even in the Pacific raiding Yankee whalers. The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System currently contains the records of approximately 18,000 African American sailors, though additional records will be added in the future. Information on the sources of these records may be found here.