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CIVIL WAR
QUESTIONNAIRES

(Form Number 2)

TENNESSEE HISTORICAL COMMISSION
DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES, AND HISTORY
JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE, DIRECTOR

 

NOTE. - Should this Questionnaire fall into the hands of one who is not a Veteran of the Civil War or who did not live during those days, you will confer a favor on this Department by giving it to some soldier who has not received a copy or return it to us.

The chief purpose of the following questions is to bring out facts that will be of service in writing a true history of the Old South. Such a history has not yet been written. By answering these questions you will make a valuable contribution to the history of your State.

In case the space following any question is not sufficient for your answer, you may write your answer on a separate piece of paper. But when this is done, be sure to put the number of the question on the paper on which the answer is written, and number the paper on which you write your answer.

Read all the questions before you answer any of them. After answering the questions given, if you desire to make additional statements, I would be glad for you to add just as much as you desire.

1.  State your full name and present post office address. ________________________

2.  State your age now. ________________________

3.  In what State and county were you born? ________________________

4.  Were you a Confederate or Federal soldier? ________________________

5.  Name of your Company? ________________________ (B) Number of Regiment ________________________

6.  What was the occupation of your father? ________________________

7.  Give the full name of your father ______________  Born at ___________________________ in the County of  ___________ State of  _____________. He lived at _______________.

Give also any particulars concerning him, as official position, war services, etc.; books written by, etc.

8. Maiden name in full of your mother  _____________ She was the daughter of __________________ and his wife ___________________ Who lived at ________________.

9. Remarks on ancestry. Give here any and all facts possible in reference to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., no included in the foregoing, as where they lived, office held, Revolutionary or other war services; what country the family came from to America; where first settled, county and state; always giving full names (if possible) and never referring to an ancestor simply as such without giving the name. It is desirable to include every fact possible and to that end the full and exact record from old Bibles should be appended on separate sheets of this size, thus preserving the facts from loss. ________________________

10.  If you owned land or other property at the opening of the war, state what kind of property you owned, and state the value of your property as near as you can. ________________________

11.  Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many? ________________________

12.  If your parents owned land, state about how many acres. ________________________

13. State as near as you can the value of all the property owned by your parents, including land, when the war opened. ________________________

14. What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log house or frame house or built of other materials, and state the number of rooms it had. ________________________

15. As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe, and did other kinds of similar work. (Certain historians claim that white men would not do work of this sort before the war.) ________________________

16. State clearly what kind of work you father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember -- that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc. ________________________

17. Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many? ________________________

18. How was honest toil -- as plowing, hauling and other sorts of honest work of this class -- regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable? ________________________

19. Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work? ________________________

20. To what extent were there white man in your community leading lives of idleness and having other do their work for them? ________________________

21. Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did not own slaves? ________________________

22. At the churches, at the schools, at public gatherings in general, did slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality? ________________________

23. Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in your community, or were they antagonistic to each other? ________________________

24. In a political contest in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help  him in winning the contest? ________________________

25. Were the opportunities good in your community for a poor young man -- honest and industrious -- to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in business for himself? ________________________

26. Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders? ________________________

27. What kind of school or schools did you attend? ________________________

28. About how long did you go to school altogether? ________________________

29. How far was it to the nearest school? ________________________

30. What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood? ________________________

31. Was the school in you community private or public? ________________________

32. About how many months in the year did it run? ________________________

33. Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly? ________________________

34. Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or a woman? ________________________

35. In what year and month and at what place did you enlist the Confederate or of the Federal Government? ________________________

36.  After enlistment, where was your Company sent first? ________________________

37. How long after your enlistment before your Company engaged in battle? ________________________

38. What was the first battle you engaged in? ________________________

39. State in you own way your experience in the War from this time on until the close. State where you went after the first battle -- what you did, what other battles you engaged in, how long they lasted, what the results were; state how you lived in camp, how you were clothed, how you slept, what you had to eat, how you exposed to cold, hunger and disease. If you were in the hospital or in prison, state you experience here. ________________________

40. When and where were you discharged? ________________________

41. Tell something of your trip home. ________________________

42. What kind of work did you take up when you came back home?

43. Give a sketch of your life since the close of the Civil War, stating what kind of business you have engaged in, where you have lived, your church relations, etc. If you have held an office or offices state what it was. You may state here any other facts connected with your life and experience which has not been brought out the the questions.

44. On a separate sheet, five the names of some of the great men you have known or met in your time, and tell some of the circumstances of the meeting or incidents in their lives. Also add any further personal reminiscences. (Use all the space you want).

45. Give the name of all the members of your Company you can remember: (If you know where the Roster is to be had, please make special note of this.)

46. Give here the NAME and POST OFFICE ADDRESS of living Veterans of the Civil War, whether members of your Company or not; whether Tennesseans or from other States.

 

 

Name Post Office State

 

 

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Tennessee and the Civil War Veteran's Questionnaire Project

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