Success with Civil War Ancestors

I am like so many others who have ancestors who fought in the Civil War on both sides. I have heard family stories and seen records of many of them. When looking for your Civil War ancestors make sure you try as many of the resources as possible.
I start with 1.family stories, then go to 2.county records, then 3.state archives, then websites like 4.ancestry.com and the National Parks Service Soldiers and Sailor database which gives you what unit your ancestor was in and then can give you info on the units as well as some info on some of the battles the units fought in, the website address for this is www.civilwar.nps.gov/cwss/and then I go to the 5.National Archives website and order the ancestors military and pension records, web address is archives.gov. All of these are very important places to look for the info on your ancestors civil war experience.

First talk to those in the family who might know or who have heard stories about your ancestors who fought in the civil war. My Grandma Snodgrass use to tell me that her Grandpa Vincent fought for the Union side because the Confederates had killed his brother. He hid out in the woods and then went and signed up with the union army. Now her Grandpa Thomas E Vincent did serve on the Union side and he did have a younger brother that died but it was of disease according to court records. He did serve from Monroe County Mo. that was mostly Confederate at that time but I found no proof that he had to hide in the woods from them. The story he told her and she passed down to me did give me a place to start looking though. Another family story was that one of my ancestors was fighting for the Confederate side from Monroe County MO. and was killed at the battle of Corinth in 1864. This gave me a place to start looking because of the story.
Next make sure you check county records to see what they might have on CW ancestors. I found in the Court records where the brother of Thomas E Vincent had died and his siblings were claiming his pension. It listed all of his living siblings and told how he died of disease.
The third place to look is the State Archives of the state your ancestors served from. They should be able to give you some insight on when and what unit they served in.
The fourth place to look is at ancestry.com because they have some records on pensions and if they served or not. I found just recently the ancestor that was killed at Corinth and it gave when and what unit he served in when he was killed. I then went to the National Parks site and looked him up and got more info on when he was killed and what units he was in and what battles they fought in. I then looked up info on the unit. This is a valuable site that many overlook.
Last I go to the National Archives site with the info I have found and send for the pension and military records of my ancestors. I always ask for all records even though this costs more because I want to see everything they have and not just what they think is important. It is well worth the money to get these records.