Description:

This series of images consists of more than complied military service records of soldiers who served in the American Revolutionary War. They include service records for the Continental Army, State Troops, and some state and local militias. They include the service records of infantry, artillery, cavalry, and other units. Also included are records that relate to the unit, rather than to the individual soldier.

A typical infantry regiment in the Continental Army, generally referred to in this series as a regiment or battalion without the designation "infantry," might contain field officers, such as a colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major; a regimental staff, including an adjutant, quartermaster, surgeon, surgeon's mate, paymaster, and chaplain; and eight to ten companies. Cavalry companies were frequently called troops. Artillery companies included specialized soldiers, such as bombardiers, gunners, and matrosses. Artificers were civilian or military mechanics and artisans employed by the Army to provide necessary services. Artificer companies included carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, harness makers, coopers, nailers, and farriers.

The service records were created, beginning in 1894, under the direction of Colonel Fred C Ainsworth, Chief, Record and Pension Office of the War Department. They were established under several Congressional Acts, including 27 Stat. 275 and 28 Stat. 403, which directed the other executive departments of the Federal government to transfer military records of the Revolutionary War in their possession to the War Department.

Abstracts were made from original records and verified by a separate operation of comparison. Great care was taken to ensure that the abstracts were accurate.

Using the collection
Locate the compiled military service record for an individual through the state hierarchy in the browse menu. Select the regiment, battalion or company, then the word "Individual." Then choose the first letter of his surname and locate his name in the next section of browse titles.

To locate the unit cards follow the same procedure except select "Regiment" instead of "Individual." At the end of a few state Regiment menus, under "Blank," and then "Individual" within the Record Type menu are men who belong to the state but are not identified with a specific unit.

Many soldiers have the same name. It is sometimes difficult to be sure that the soldier in the record is the soldier you are interested in. Sometimes the many soldiers are all the same man. It may be a better research strategy to begin with Footnote's collection of Revolutionary War Pensions to determine the service of the individual, and then locate the appropriate Compiled Military Service Record within the collection described here.

Within the records for the Continental Troops is a series labeled "Miscellaneous," consisting of compiled records of soldiers' names that cannot be identified with a particular military unit.