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Military Records
By Jean Nudd
The National Archives and Records Administration - Northeast
Region (Pittsfield) holds records of service in the armed forces of the United
States including volunteer service and regular Army, from 1775-1914. The
Pittsfield office in the Northeast Region has microfilmed copies of some of
these files from the Revolutionary War through the Philippine Insurrection. We
hold records for volunteer service and, beginning in 1789, regular Army. After
the Revolutionary War, however, the files on microfilm in Pittsfield are indexes
only. There are basically two types of military records of interest for
volunteer service: compiled service and pension files.
Compiled Service
Records
A compiled service record
consists of a card or cards on which is recorded information about a soldier
that was collected from muster rolls, returns, hospital registers, prison
records, and other records. Cards for each war are arranged by State, then
military unit, and finally alphabetically by surname. The War Department program
for preparation of compiled service records began some years after the Civil War
to permit more rapid and efficient checking of military and medical information
in connection with claims for pensions and other veterans’ benefits. Therefore
to access the compiled service files, a researcher needs to know the state from
which and the regiment (or military unit) in which the soldier served. They are
accessed the same way for each war.
Compiled service records for the Revolutionary War period are
fragmentary because many of the original records were lost in a fire that
occurred November 8, 1800, in offices the Secretary of War occupied. Other
records were lost or destroyed in 1814 when Government buildings in Washington
were ransacked and burned by the British Army.
Pension Files
The First Congress under the Constitution
approved an act making the United States responsible for payment of disability
pensions that had been granted by States for service in the Revolutionary War.
Acts passed during the next three decades limited benefits to those disabled in
service and to dependents of those killed in service or who died as a result of
service. In 1818, however, Congress provided that every person who’d served in
the Revolutionary War for 9 months or until the end of the war and who was “in
need of assistance from his country for support” should be pensioned. Later
legislation removed the requirement of need.
Following the precedent set for Revolutionary War veterans,
Congress has authorized pensions for those who served in succeeding wars,
including the Indian Wars, and in peacetime. Pensions for peacetime service were
limited to veterans who suffered service-connected disabilities or to dependents
of men who died as a result of service. Records of pensions granted or applied
for under many of these laws are available through the National Archives. These
pension files relate to claims based on service in the Army, Navy, or Marine
Corps between 1775 and 1916.
Applications that the Secretary of War received through
November 8, 1800, together with supporting papers, apparently were destroyed in
the War Department fire of that date and in the fire of 1814. A few records
relating to early claims still exist, however, and information from them has
been summarized on cards that are filed with Revolutionary War pension and
bounty land warrant application files. Another source for these early records is
M1062, Correspondence of the War Department Relating to Indian Affairs, Military
Pensions and Fortifications, 1791-1797.
A typical pension file contains the application of the
claimant, documents submitted as evidence of identity and service, and records
of actions taken on the claim. The claimant may have been a veteran or his
widow, minor children, or other dependent. Since the claimant could have applied
for a pension under several different acts, a pension file may contain more than
one application. It many also contain applications from several claimants
because applications for pensions based on the service of one serviceman for a
certain period were usually filed together. Documents submitted in support of
some pension claims include affidavits attesting to service, pages from family
bibles, and copies of records of birth, marriage, and death. For service in the
Civil War and later, a pension file may also include Bureau of Pensions
questionnaires sent out in 1898 and 1915 which contain genealogical information.
Revolutionary War pensions on microfilm are held in the
Pittsfield office. There is no index because these pension files are in full
alphabetical order, first by surname and then by state of service. Pensions for
wars from the War of 1812 through the Philippine Insurrection are in index form
only in Pittsfield; these are alphabetical and the cards give pension
application number along with regiment names so that the forms for copies of
records can be completed and sent to Washington (NATF form 80).
Bounty Land
Warrants
In 1776 and later, the Continental Congress
provided for granting public land to those who remained in the armed forces
until the end of the war or until discharged by the Congress, and to dependents
of those killed. Laws passed between 1796 and 1855 also authorized granting
warrants for land to those who served in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812,
Indian wars, and the War with Mexico. Bounty land warrant application files
relate to claims based on wartime service between 1775 and March 3, 1855.
The documents in a bounty land warrant application file are
similar to those in a pension file. They include the application of the
claimant, who may have been a veteran or a veteran’s widow or heirs, affidavits
attesting to service, and the jacket on which action taken on the claim is
noted. Since Congress enacted many laws relating to bounty land, more than one
application may be found in a file. Many of the application files relating to
Revolutionary War and War of 1812 service have been combined with pension files.
Both pension and bounty land warrant application files
usually show name, rank, and military unit of the veteran and the period of his
service. If a veteran applied, the file usually shows his age or date of birth
and place of residence at the time he applied, and sometimes his date of death.
If his widow applied, the file shows her age and place of residence, her maiden
name, the date and place of their marriage, and the date and place of his birth.
When application was made on behalf of minor children or by heirs of the
veteran, their names and sometimes their ages or dates of birth are shown.
Unfortunately, just as many Revolutionary War service and
pension files were lost in the War Department fire of 1800, so were many bounty
land warrants. Most of the ones which remain are only shown on cards within the
Revolutionary War pension files. Some Ohio territory bounty land files remain on
T1008, Register of Army Land Warrants issued under the Act of 1788, for Service
in the Revolutionary War, Military District of Ohio. On this single roll of
microfilm is a register, arranged chronologically, which shows the name of the
person who presented the warrant and therefore received a patent for the land,
the name of the person who originally received the warrant for military service,
his rank, and a legal description of the land in terms of lot, quarter section,
township and range. Most of the warrants were surrendered in groups of 4,000
acres by individuals who bought warrants from veterans or their heirs.
Regular Army
The Pittsfield office has M233, Register of
Enlistments, U.S. Army, 1789-1814. These are arranged chronologically and then
by the alphabetically by the first letter of the surname. They include name,
rank, regiment, company, company commander, regimental commander, description
(height, eyes, hair, complexion, age, occupation), where born (town or county,
state), enlistment (when, where, by whom, period), and remarks (can include
service information, sickness, discharge information). Researchers need to know
about when their ancestor enlisted in order to use the registers since they are
chronological.
Pittsfield holds other military records such as M1749,
Historical Registers of National Homes for Disabled Soldiers, Bath, NY and Togus,
ME, 1866-ca. 1934; M2014, Burial Registers for Military Posts, Camps and
Stations, 1768-1921; M1747, Index to War of 1812 Prisoners of War; and many
others.
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