Genealogical Research and Military Records

Calculate the estimated age of your ancestor during the Revolutionary War. Don't consider 16 and 17 too young, especially when they misrepresented their age. Promises by the government to give land (in addition to pay) induced even older men to try to enlist.

The Compiled Military Service Record

Fires destroyed most of the records of the American Army and Navy in the custody of the War Department in 1800 and 1814. In a project begun in 1894, abstracts were made from documents purchased by the War Department from a variety of sources. Individual packets were created for each soldier, and the abstracted records inserted. Muster rolls, pay rolls, rank rolls, returns, hospital records, prison records, and others were examined. Information was extracted to bring together all the records relating to an individual soldier.

A typical Compiled Military Service Record, as it is known, gives the rank, military unit, date of entry into service, and whether discharged or separated by desertion, death, or other reasons. It may show age, place of birth, and residence at the time of enlistment. There is no guarantee that all of this information will be in an individual's packet, but normally they contain at least some of these bits. These compiled records are arranged by the war or the period of service, and thereunder by state (or some other designation), then by military unit, and last, alphabetically by the name of the soldier. Those for the Revolutionary War not only have a microfilmed index, but the complete original files also have been microfilmed. Using them requires only that you find a repository with both sets of microfilm or borrow the films.

Let's Try It Hands-On

Go to a National Archives branch or to a library that has the National Archives microfilm. Look in the Catalog previously mentioned for the listings of the “Compiled Military Service Records of the Revolutionary War.” The Catalog lists micropublication M860 with 58 rolls by number, and indicates the range of surnames on each roll.

Example of roll listings on
micropublication M860 by surname.

As shown in the following figure, it is easy to ascertain which roll has the index for the surname you seek. Upon accessing the correct roll, find the soldier's name, and copy all the information shown for him. With that you will be able to find his file. Return again to the Catalog; it will point you to a second micropublication, M881, the Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War. Your file is on one of the latter 1,096 rolls.

Roll listings of micropublication M881,
which contains the actual files.

Let's practice. Searching for John Carter, go to Roll 9 of M860, as seen in the above figure. Find his name in the index on that roll. Copy all the information: regiment, company, everything. Now return to the same microfilm Catalog; note that these records are available on M881, which contain the files. As seen in the following figure, the rolls in M881 are arranged by state, thereunder by regiment, and so on, and last by surname. Find the listed roll that matches the data shown by the index for the soldier. If John Carter served in Delaware in the 2nd Regiment of New Castle County, Militia (determined from the index), his record would be on Roll 380 of M881. Now you can find the Compiled Military Service Record file. It may consist of only one card or a number of cards.

A few of the rolls in micropublication M881 for the state of Delaware are shown here to illustrate how the rolls are listed. Match the information you found on your ancestor's indexed entry to determine the roll you need.

Now His Pension File

Don't be too disappointed if the Compiled Military Service Record is brief. At least you can now document that your ancestor did serve. There are a multitude of additional records. One of the richest for genealogical information and interest are the soldiers' pension files containing facts we value—birth date and birthplace, marriages, and other similarly helpful details. After you discover that your ancestor served in the Revolution, the pension file indexes will reveal whether he or his heirs ever applied for a pension.

The Act of 1818, based on financial need, is the first major pension act for which the application papers are preserved. It was quickly followed by an act in 1820 tightening the requirements. As the government became more lenient, restrictions were lessened. In 1832, a general act awarded pensions based solely on six months or more of service. In 1836, widows received benefits. (Up to that time, generally only the widows of officers were eligible.) For more on the various pension acts passed by our government, see Christine Rose's Military Pension Acts 1776-1858.

The complete pension file for each soldier has been filmed. Micropublication M804 of the National Archives consists of 2,670 rolls of alphabetically arranged records titled Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1906. (The dates shown are correct; applications were made by heirs as late as 1906.)

Micropublication M804 reproduces every paper available in each pension file. Each soldier's file contains two groups: the “selected papers” (those papers that the National Archives considered the most important and which they used to use to fill mail orders), and the remainder of the file, marked as “nonselected.” Examine every paper in your ancestor's file. The nonselected papers often include additional affidavits and forms; they might also include letters from descendants around the 1920s and 1930s, when many (wishing to apply to lineage societies) sought information on their ancestors. These letters can lead to descendants. Though the Archives used to provide only the “selected” papers for their minimum file, now they offer the complete file for a flat fee. Go to www.archives.gov for current pricing. If you have access to the microfilm, you can copy the papers yourself and read them at your leisure.

In another micropublication, M805, the Archives again reproduced the Revolutionary pension files, but in this one only the “selected” portion of the files were filmed. This shorter series was purchased by many libraries that could not afford the more extensive M804 series or didn't have space to store those voluminous rolls. If you find your ancestor on M805, make it a point to reexamine the file in its entirety when you can access M804.

Besides the availability on microfilm, the contents of the selected papers on M805 is also available on a CD-ROM “Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Index,” available from Heritage Quest. If you locate the name of your soldier on this index, a CD-ROM corresponding to the roll number is available though this company. A listing of all the rolls of M805 are at www2.heritagequest.com/qsearch/sr.asp?s=M805.

Now in Print

Another resource for your search of the Revolutionary War pension files is Virgil D. White's Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pension Files. The abstracts are in three volumes, with an every-name index in a fourth volume. These abstracts do not include every paper in the files and are not a substitute for examining the complete file. Nonetheless, they are invaluable in helping to determine if your ancestor did indeed serve.

Why Check Further?

Why bother to proceed to the pension file, if you already know from the Compiled Military Service File that your ancestor served? In short, because you will learn a lot more from the pension file. You will experience a connection to your ancestors as you read the words they spoke in detailing the battles in which they were engaged and the resultant disabilities and hardships.

You will read about some sad situations, such as that of the widow Rebecca Rose, who at the age of 91 was found in the poorhouse, blind, “nearly naked, entirely helpless,” defrauded by two unscrupulous men who filed her pension for her and gave her little of the funds. A man of conscience in the county came to her aid, demanding federal government assistance for this aged widow.

James Rose, the husband of Rebecca, a Virginian, had his share of difficulties, too. He tells that he was at Mill Creek when “the picket guard came in great haste, scared nearly to death,” bringing a report that thousands of British were coming, just on the other side of Mill Creek Island. “Col. Mazzard having no horses at that time to manage the cannon, commanded the army to hasten to Mill Creek, and draw with them three of the cannons. This soldier [Rose] was one of the number that managed the cannon in the stead of horses, and produced a rupture in his body of which he never has and never will recover by his great exertions in drawing ….” Later, he was discharged, and returned to King George County. He left his discharge at the home of a friend and, on a borrowed horse, went to see his relatives in King William County. On the way he was taken up as a deserter “by a company of drunkards” and retained in custody three days before he could get his discharge, “which he procured by giving a man a regimental coat to take the horse back and bring the discharge.”

James' troubles weren't over; all are recited in the voluminous file. Fortunately for the unlucky James, his service was substantiated, and later a special Act was passed by Congress on his behalf. Similar stories abound. The files are fascinating and give you a rare opportunity to know your ancestors.

Here is a bonus: your ancestor may be one of those soldiers who either tore out the pages from the family Bible and offered them in support of the statements, or had the Bible entries extracted and notarized. Those papers may be your only proof of dates and relationships in the family.

The compiled military service record file and the pension file you find are not the only records available for Revolutionary War service. There are many others, but these will get you started.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy © 2005 by Christine Rose and Kay Germain Ingalls. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

To order this book visit the Idiot's Guide web site or call 1-800-253-6476.