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Index to service records of volunteer Union soldiers in Virginia and West Virginia, compiled from Record Group 94 in the U.S. Adjutant General's Office.

Civil War diaries authored by First Lieutenant (later Major) Fabricius A. Cather from Flemington, Taylor County, West Virginia, records his experiences in the military and political conflicts of the Civil War. The six diaries, and a transcribed copy of the original 1864 and 1865 diaries, contain entries for the years 1860 to 1865 regarding western Virginia's grassroots efforts to secede from the Confederacy and establish a new state, and of the first battles and skirmishes such as Rich Mountain and Corricks Ford. He describes campaigns involving his regiment, the First West Virginia Cavalry, including the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign under Sigel, Hunter, Sheridan, and Custer against Breckenridge, Early, and Mosby's Rangers; the last battles of Petersburg as Grant broke the Rebel lines; and the continuous fighting during Lee's retreat. Although most diary entries are one or two sentences in length, some entries in 1864 and 1865 are longer, perhaps due to his full involvement in combat. The collection also contains 18 items stored in pockets inside the covers of the diaries, including headquarters passes, business cards, and a complimentary pass for Lt. Cather to attend the June, 1861 "NorthWestern Virginia Convention" in Wheeling. An Addendum includes two scans of photos of Cather, two scans of Civil War military service papers, photocopies of an 1873 Kansas Land Grant, and genealogy material documenting the Cather family.

Diary of Uz Barns of Ritchie County, a volunteer in the Union Army who served as a private in the 10th West Virginia Infantry. The diary covers the years 1862 through 1865 and contains daily entries, mainly regarding weather conditions. Barns also wrote about marches and distances marched per day; encampments at various places in eastern West Virginia and in Winchester, Virginia; and engagements with Confederate forces at Beverly, (West) Virginia, Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, and Deep Bottom, Henrico County, Virginia. He also records number of prisoners taken. Barns was in Richmond at the time of Lee's surrender and mentions the number of cannon and the supply of shells and powder left there by the Confederates.