Compiled Revolutionary War Service Records

Fires at the War Department in 1800 and 1814 destroyed many of the federal Revolutionary War records. During the early 1900's the War Department attempted to locate extraneous material that would collaborate a soldier's service record who had applied for pensions or other claims. The resulting group of material is the National Archives collection: War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records.

FootNote has provided scanned images of the documents online as one of their first datasets for genealogists. The documents that were scanned were "abstract cards," 9x4 inch cards. These cards were created by extracting any information about a soldier and documenting that information, one item per card. Also scanned were the transcriptions of documents pertaining only to one soldier, that were done in lieu of a card for that item.

The soldiers came from the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Continental Troops.

The documents that were initially extracted and transcribed, and became a part of this collection are:

  1. Reports of the Continental and Confederate Congresses and the Constitutional Convention.
  2. List of persons found on pension rolls.
  3. Papers shared by other government agencies with the War Department.
  4. Private paper of Timothy Pickering.
  5. Records loaned by various states, including Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Virginia.
  6. Copies of accounts, commissions, correspondence, enlistment papers, orders and resignations.
  7. Receipt book of John Pierce and Joseph Howell, paymasters for the Army.

Temporarily unavailable. Should be back by May 1, 2010.