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"I didn't come out here to fight this way; I wish the earth would crack open and let me drop in."

That's how Berrien Zettler, a 19-year-old soldier from Georgia, described his thoughts amid the chaos and stark reality of the horrendous First Battle of Bull Run on a hot summer day in 1861.

That first major battle of the Civil War, also known as the Battle of Manassas, proved to thousands of eager Confederate soldiers that the reality of war was much grimmer than the idea of war. At the end of the day, casualties on both sides numbered nearly 5,000.

Young Southern men had volunteered by the thousands to fight against the menacing Union army. They marched off of their farms to battle with high hopes for a short war and a resounding victory for the South.

In fact, many of the rugged, farm-tough Southerners believed it would only take one battle to defeat the city-soft Northerners. They could then return home and go about the business of putting their newly established nation in order.

Even though that First Battle of Bull Run fell into the win column for the Confederacy, the war was far from over.

During the next four years, nearly 1 million men, or about 90 percent of all able-bodied white men in the South, served for the Confederate cause. In other words, if your family lived in the South during the Civil War, you probably have Confederate ancestors.

At the close of the war, captured and surrendered Confederate records eventually ended up in Washington D.C., first at the War Department then at the National Archives.

Start hunting for your Confederate kin at Civil War Soldiers and Sailors sponsored by the National Park Service.

The more than 6 million names of Confederate and Union servicemen indexed on this site come from the General Index Cards in the Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR).

When searching the soldiers and sailors site, there may be more than one entry per soldier. If he served in more than one unit during the war, he would have a separate CMSR for each unit.

His name might have been spelled different ways in different records resulting in multiple CMSRs.

Not every soldier who served managed to get his name on surviving records. Some are missing from the soldiers and sailors site.

If you find ancestors in the soldiers and sailors index, then you can request a CMSR from the National Archives.

Data for CMSRs were gathered from various sources such as muster rolls, hospital records, and prisoner records. The CMSR may list the soldier's age and residence at enlistment.

You will also find dates of service and notable events during service, such as illnesses or injuries or if the soldier went AWOL. Go to the National Archives Web site (nara.gov) for information on ordering a CMSR.

Next week we'll review more Confederate records.