Military Sources
Types of Military Records
There are three primary records available through the National Archives. These include pension records, bounty-land warrant applications, and military service records. Usually, pension records include the most valuable genealogical information. However, the other military records should not be avoided.
The website of the National Archives includes a lot of good information regarding military records. The website is http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/military/. In addition, the NARA website includes additional information on many of the wars and conflicts involving the United States.
Pension files “often contain supporting documents such as: narratives of events during service, marriage certificates, birth records, death certificates, pages from family Bibles, family letters, depositions of witnesses, affidavits, discharge papers and other supporting papers.”
Bounty-land warrant applications often contain similar documentation as the pension files. These are common for those individuals who served in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, early Indian Wars, and the Mexican War.
Compiled military service records “will provide you with your ancestor's rank, unit, date mustered in and mustered out, basic biographical information, medical information, and military information.”
For local information, refer to the Wayne County (OH) page military.
18th and 19th Century U. S. Military Records
Pre-World War military records can be found at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. These may be ordered online, or you may order through submitting “Form NATF 86” should be used. This form is downloadable from the National Archives website. Records for the Colonial Wars 1607-1774 have little genealogical information. They usually include such information as the name of the soldier and the colonial unit which he served. Most of the surviving records are rosters and rolls and most have been published in books form. Many of the records from the Revolutionary War and Frontier Conflicts were destroyed by fire. Most of what survives includes rosters and rolls of soldiers serving in the Continental Army, state lines, and militia units. Correspondences and reports of officers survive. Service records include name, rank, and military organization of the soldier. In some records, a physical description, date and place of birth, residence at the time of enlistment, and other personal details are included. These records are indexed. Post-Revolutionary War (1812-1848) records and records from the Spanish American War are indexed. Similar records exist for these wars as the Revolutionary and Colonial Wars. Post-Revolutionary wars include the War of 1812, the Indian Wars, and the Mexican War. During the Mexican War, units from the Mormon Battalion and the Santa Fe Battalion of the Missouri Mounted Volunteers compiled their own records.
Here is a list of the military service records available in Washington, D.C. It is available through the website: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/pre-ww-1-records.html.
| Branch of Service | Dates |
|---|---|
| Volunteers | Military service performed by persons serving during an emergency and whose service was considered to be in the Federal interest, 1775 - 1902 |
| Regular Army | Enlisted personnel, 1789 - October 31, 1912 Officers, 1789 - June 30, 1917 |
| Navy | Enlisted personnel, 1798 - 1885 Officers, 1798 - 1902 |
| Marine Corps | Enlisted personnel, 1798 - 1904 Some officers, 1798 - 1895 |
| Coast Guard | Persons who served in predecessor agencies to the U.S. Coast Guard: the Revenue Cutter Service (Revenue Marine), the Life-Saving Service, and the Lighthouse Service, 1791 - 1919 |
| Confederate States | Persons who rendered military service for the Confederate States government in its armed forces, 1861 - 1865 |
| Veterans Records | Claims files for pensions based on Federal military service, 1775 - 1916 and
Bounty land warrant application files relating to claims based on wartime service, 1775 - 1855 |
Union Records
Union Army records include enlistment papers, muster rolls, prisoner-of-war papers, death reports, and much more. However, the state of enlistment needs to be known since the records are indexed by state and within each state, by military unit. There is a separate index for the United States Colored Troops (USCT). This includes all colored from all the states. In March 1863, the U.S. government enacted a draft. They were interested in those males between 20 and 45, including those aliens who declared their intention to naturalize. Confederate Records
During the Civil War, Ohio was considered a Union state. Consequently, we do not receive many requests about the Confederacy. Since the request comes in occasionally, we will briefly discuss the availability of such records.
Keep in mind that many battles during the Civil War were fought on Confederate soil. Unfortunately, this means that many of the records were destroyed through the fires and fighting. Despite the destruction, some records do exist. At the close of the war in April 1865, the centralized military personnel records of the Confederate Army were removed from Richmond, Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina and finally made their way to Washington, D. C. These records, among many other records collected and consolidated make up more than 5,000 reels of microfilm held at the National Archives. Indexes to these many reels of microfilm are available, also on microfilm and held at the National Archives. Information on the microfilm may include muster rolls, returns, descriptive rolls, and Union prison and parole records. In regards to genealogical value, some information includes age, place of enlistment, places served, place of discharge or death, and often some physical description of the soldier.
In 1912, a listing of those Confederate soldiers and sailors buried in federal cemeteries was compiled. These are for those soldiers and sailors who died while in Union prison camps. More than 28,000 Confederate veterans and citizens died in the camps. The listing includes the name of the deceased and generally the rank, company, regiment, date of death, and number and location of grave. It may be arranged alphabetically by the prison camp, the place of death, or by cemetery name.
Some State Confederate Records do exist. These are for those individuals who may have served in state militias but never was mustered into the service of the Confederate government. The Family History Library has the majority of these records. Two other possible resources for Confederate records include military academy records and Reconstruction court records.
20th Century U. S. Military Records
Military information on the 20th century military wars and conflicts may be obtained by contacting the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. Pre-20th century military records may be obtained by contacting the National Archives in Washington, D. C.
On 12 July 1973, a fire destroyed many records stored in the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO. It has been reported that nearly 80 percent of the army records for 1912 to 1959 were destroyed. From 1947 to 1963, 60 percent of the air force records were destroyed. Less than one percent of the army records for personnel discharged since 1 January 1973 were destroyed. Some efforts were made to reconstruct the destroyed records of those military personnel who were living and needed to apply for pensions and other benefits.
Discharge records from the Spanish-American War to present day were required to be maintained on the county level. Many of these records include such information as the individual’s name, race, rank, serial number, reason for discharge, birthplace, age at time of enlistment, occupation, and a personal description. Sometimes the length of service, prior service, marital status, arms and horsemanship qualifications, advancement, battles, decorations, honors, leaves of absence, physical condition, and character evaluation may be included in the discharge records.
More recent military records (World War II to the present) are protected by a 75 year privacy law. However, some information may be obtained by service personnel, the next of kin if the veteran is deceased, or requesters with release authorization from the veteran or next of kin of the deceased veteran.
An increasing amount of information from World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War is becoming available through Ancestry Library Edition and various websites posted by individuals and organizations. Ancestry Library Edition has the draft registration cards for World War I and limited draft registration cards for World War II available for subscribers. Oral histories from World War II, Korean, and Vietnam Wars are available through the National Archives Oral History project. Many Vietnam units have regular reunions and information on some of these units may be found through the Internet.
Military Microform in Collection
- U.S. Revolutionary War Bounty Land Warrants Used in the U.S. Military District of Ohio and Related Papers…Issued Under the Acts of 1788, 1803, and 1806 (16 reels)
- Register of Revolutionary War land Warrants (2 reels)
- Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, Pennsylvania (5 reels)
- Selected Records of the War Department Relating to Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1865: Camp Chase, Ohio (vol. 53-57) ( 3 reels)
- Selected Records of the War Department Relating to Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1865: Department of Ohio, vol. 348: Register of Prisoners in the Custody of Provost marshals, 1864-1865 (1 reel)
- Index to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served from the State of Ohio: A-Alk (1 reel)
- Union Civil War Soldiers Who Died Between 1861-1903 (22 reels)
- Index to the Ohio Civil War Roster 1861-1866 (5 reels)
- Spanish American War/Civil War Discharge Records: Books 1, 2, 4 (1 reel)
- World War I Draft Registration Cards for the following counties in Ohio:
- Akron City (12 reels)
- Summit County (3 reels)
- Stark County (4 reels)
- Canton City (6 reels)
- Ashland County (2 reels)
- Holmes County (2 reels)
- Medina County (2 reels)
- Wayne County (2 reels)
Ohio Military Books in Collection
- Roster of Ohio Soldiers for the following wars:
- Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia pages 475-512
- Includes biographical sketches of Civil War soldiers
- Not indexed
- Publications on various Civil War units
Military Records on the Internet
There are many military records available on the computer. Some are free of charge while others are part of subscription databases such as Heritage Quest Online and Ancestry Library Edition.
Through Cyndi’s List, there are three separate categories for military records: (1) Military Resources Worldwide with 194 links, (2) Military – World War I: the Great War with 340 links, and (3) Military – World War II with 211 links. This represents just a fraction of what may be available online. Doing a Google search on particular units or general information may present many more links.
Some websites provide abstracts of military records. Other websites, such as the Library of Congress, include oral history projects. Some websites include the actual image of military documents.
Heritage Quest Online includes digitized images of pension records from the Revolutionary War. However, only a sample of images in each pension file was digitized. For the complete record, contact the National Archives.
Ancestry Library Edition has a growing number of military databases. Currently, there are 190 military databases with millions of names. These are not only limited to information pertaining to the wars fought in the United States. The British Army WWI pension and service records are available, covering from 1914-1920. Wars cover as early as the French-American War and as recent as the Vietnam War. To see a list of the military databases available through Ancestry, browse through the Ancestry Database Card Catalog. This can be accessed by selecting view all databases and further limiting the viewing to military databases.
External Links
General
American Revolution
War of 1812
Civil War
- Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War
- Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War
- 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry