Here is the how the records for the 45th Virginia are described. It is typical of most all Confederate records.

George Martin

Introduction to the Roster

This roster contains the names of 1,947 men who are known to have served with the 45th Virginia Regiment. The primary source used to compile a roster for any Virginia unit is "The Compiled Military Service Records." This is part of Record Group 109 in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. The task of compiling the Confederate service records began in 1903 and took 26 years to complete. Grouped under each man's name are cards containing information taken from muster rolls, pay records, hospital rolls, and prison and parole records, together with other information such as letters and requests for supplies and clothing.

The month-to-month status of an individual soldier is best obtained from the muster rolls. These rolls were taken every two months and stated whether or not the soldier was present or absent. Unfortunately the records that survived the war for the 45th Virginia are very poor. Muster rolls are available for the first year of the war without gaps. In 1862 the only record that exists is a field return dated July 1862. There are no rolls available for 1863 and the final roll that exists for the 45th Virginia was taken in April 1864. The absence of these rolls causes the record of the individual soldiers to be very incomplete. Since the heaviest fighting of the war for the regiment took place in the summer of 1864, many of those who were killed or wounded during that period have no record of the event.

The lack of muster rolls also makes it difficult to determine if a soldier deserted the regiment or was simply late in returning to camp on one of the few rolls that exist. It is possible that a soldier's available record could end in July 1862 as AWOL when he in fact he later returned to the unit and fought through the remainder of the war.

Due to the poor quality of the compiled service records much information had to be taken from postwar records. When such is the case the entry for that soldier identifies the source. Postwar records include county histories, pension applications, cemetery readings, postwar rosters, and information supplied by descendants of the veterans.