Civil War records

[Battis]

I've been looking at an 1858 Remington .44 that someone, at some point, tried to convert to cartridge. It's basically a parts gun. I looked at it again today and on the side of the barrel is an engraved name: Clifford G. West. It wasn't scratched in but done well, a long time ago.
Is there a way to search Civil War veterans without joining Ancestry. com or one of those sites?
I'm not even sure he was a veteran.

[Winger Ed.]

That's a hard one.
If you're quick, you can often find what you want with their short free trial period.

If the owner was a Civil War vet, on either side, he was probably an Officer.
Troopers & NCOs were issued their weapons, and were all govt. property, plus they didn't have much extra money anyway.
If an Officer had a personal sword, or firearm; then as now, they had to buy it their self.

For example:
That SSA Colt Gen. Patton was often photographed with-
The serial number tracks from Colt to a hardware store in El Paso where he bought it while stationed at Ft. Bliss.

[Thumbcocker]

I can't speak for other states but the records and muster rolls of Illinois units are online. Thats how I found out I had kin in the 48th Illinois volunteer infantry.

I have heard that Confederate records are more spotty.

In the Union army the commanders had a lot of say about who could carry pistols. From my limited knowledge it seems that units from the east frowned on or outright prohibited soldiers carrying pistols.

In the "west" the commanders were much more accepting of grunts carrying pistols. One memiour I read from an Illinois soldier mentioned that most of the boys showed up at Cairo with pistols and passed downtime "shooting at the mark" with their pistols.

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[Battis]

I keep going back to this gun. They removed the grips for me- there's no mainspring (also needs a hammer, cylinder, cylinder arbor, and probably some internals). The serial number is three numbers, which means it's an early gun. Did I write the serial number down? Course not.

[JoeJames]

The US Park Service has a website https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm that does a pretty good job covering soldiers from both sides. I have looked up a couple of mine who were in the Confederate Army.

Also, if he was in the cavalry on either side he'd have been carrying at least one revolver and probably two.

[Battis]

I've tried that site several times with last name - first name, then first name - last name, but it lists those with that last name, and those with the first name as a last name...
I'll try it again.

[JoeJames]

I think the bast way is Last Name, then First name. I have noticed they will get things bassakards at times but in my browsing on it that seems to work best. Normally it will be a very long list, or at least in my case I was plugging in fairly common names.

[Czech_too]

Some libraries have a subscription to Ancestry and you can access it through them.

[Pressman]

I've tried that site several times with last name - first name, then first name - last name, but it lists those with that last name, and those with the first name as a last name...
I'll try it again.

The search feature allows you to select how you want the search to function. I searched by last name and found my great grandfather on the 1st attempt. He was in the Illinois 76th Regiment.