Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861

One hundred fifty years ago today, the battle at Fort Sumter  in South Carolina started the War Between the States.

Ancestry.com is commemmorating this event with Free Access Week.  You can search Civil War era records free through April 14.  (You will need to register an email account with them, but there is no charge for this.)

The New Databases are as follows:

New Union Records

U.S. Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865

U.S. Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865
U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1861-1865 - UPDATED
New York, Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900
New York, Town Clerks' Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War, ca 1861-1865
Kansas, Civil War Enlistment Papers, 1862, 1863, 1868

New Confederate Records

Alabama, Confederate Pension and Service Records, 1862-1947
Arkansas, Confederate Pension Records, 1891-1935
U.S. Confederate Pensions, 1884-1958 (Virginia and Texas)
Alabama, Census of Confederate Soldiers, 1907, 1921