Join the SCV! - Membership and Transfer Forms

If you are descended from a Confederate veteran and wish to do your part to honor their sacrifices, and protect their monuments and symbols, please contact the national headquarters of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. You can also contact the camp in your area directly.

Membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is open to all male descendants of any veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces. Full, credentialed membership can be obtained through either lineal (direct, e.g., father, grandfather, etc.) or collateral (e.g., uncle, cousin, etc.) family lines. Your kinship to a Confederate veteran must be documented genealogically. The minimum age for membership is 12.

Associate membership is available to anyone who is unable to document a Confederate ancestor, but who still wants to participate in the SCV's programs and activities. Associate members have full privilege within their home camp, but are unable to serve as voting delegates to Division or National conventions.

The first step in applying for membership is to locate one of your ancestors who served in the Confederate armed forces. This probably isn't as hard as it looks... If you have a male ancestor who lived in the Confederate states (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, and VA) and was between the age of 17 and 45 between 1860 and 1865, the chances are pretty good that he saw service of some sort in the Confederate forces. The SCV has a network of genealogists to assist you in tracing your ancestor's Confederate service.

Race or ethnicity isn't a problem or a barrier... large numbers of blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and many others served in the Confederate forces as well. It's worth checking out. Next, you need a copy of the membership application. The membership application for the Sons of Confederate Veterans is found in the SCV's pamphlet, Heritage of Honor. Contact your local camp's recruiting contact for a copy, or you may now download a copy here in Adobe Corporation's Portable Document Format, or PDF". You will need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader to open and print the application form (available free by clicking the yellow button below and following the instructions). Print out the application form, fill it in, and send it to your local camp's recruiting contact.

Note: If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader yet, you can download this file by clicking on the "Get Acrobat Reader" link.

In addition to your personal information, the SCV membership questionnaire asks for your Confederate ancestor's name, the unit he served in, his relationship to you (e.g., "great-great grandfather"; "1st cousin 4 times removed", or "great-great uncle") and, if known, the place where he is buried. (This last question is part of an ongoing effort to document the final resting places of Confederate veterans.)

You'll also need to document your ancestor's Confederate service. This can be in any of several methods; the most common is to include a copy of your ancestor's compiled Confederate service record (normally available from your state archives or from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) If your ancestor happens to be one of the many who don't have a compiled service record, proof of service can be documented in other ways, such as:

1. A copy of a Confederate pension record or application for a Confederate pension.
2. A copy of a muster roll containing your ancestor's name.
3. A copy of a publication (book, newspaper article, unit history, article from the Confederate Veteran magazine, etc.) showing your ancestor's service, etc.

Next, you'll need to prove your relationship to the Confederate veteran by means of a family tree or genealogical report documenting the generations and relationships between you and the veteran. Once this is done, submit your application to the SCV Camp that you wish to join along with payment of dues for the current year (Current combined camp, division, and national dues for the Dillard-Judd Camp is $40.00 per year). Camp officers will check and co-sign the application, and forward it to the SCV International Headquarters in Columbia, TN for verification and the generation of your membership certificate. It generally takes about 3 to 4 months for your certificate arrives from Headquarters.

If you find that you didn't have a Confederate ancestor (or that your ancestors were Yankees), you aren't shut out. You can still apply for associate membership in the SCV, where you can participate in the Camp's activities and events, receive the newsletters and Confederate Veteran, and enjoy all other benefits of membership except for that certificate to hang on your wall. There is rejoicing in the Confederation when each poor, lost Yankee sees the light and joins the True Faith! :-)