Researching Your Revolutionary
War Ancestor
Craig Roberts Scott
229 Danagher Ct.
Holly Springs, NC 27540
Email: crscott@HeritageBooks.com
Wars by their nature create paper; an enormous volume of paper. The American Revolution was no exception. Fortunately, many of the records from this time period still exist and the National Archives of the United States help to document American history from that time. These records include enlistment papers, muster rolls, pay rolls, rosters, descriptive lists, account books, oaths of allegiance, and discharge papers. These records may provide names, ranks, dates, organizations, locations, and remarks concerning hospitalizations, promotions, wounds, dates of death and physical descriptions.
In addition, there are the usual communications that occur between units and their commanders, between commander and their troops and between commanders and their paymasters. There are regimental orders, campaign plans, battle reports, lists of casualties, lists of deserters, and list of prisoners. In the case of this war the records of the Continental Congress provide a rich source of information on the events and the persons involved. Many a soldier wrote letters home that have survived. Some kept diaries or journals that still survive.
Most of these records may be found in the National Archives, in the manuscript collection of the Library of Congress, in the State Archives of the original thirteen colonies, in private collections, city and county archives, and archives overseas.
General References:
-- . 1976. Index of Revolutionary War Pension Applications in the National Archives (Arlington, Va.: National Genealogical Society Special Publication No. 40)
-- . 1990. DAR Patriot Index, Centennial Edition, Volumes I, II, lll. (Washington: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Centennial Administration)
Boatner, Mark Mayo. 1966. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. (New York: David McKay Company)
Heitman, F. S. 1914. Historical Register of the Officers of the Continental Army (Baltimore: Clearfield Co.) reprinted 1997.
Peckham, Howard H. 1974. The Toll of Independence, Engagements & Battle Casualties of the American Revolution. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press).
Peterson, Clarence Stewart. Known Military Dead During the American Revolutionary War, J 775 - 1783. (Baltimore: Clearfield Co.) reprint.
Scott, Craig Roberts. 1996. The 'Lost' Pensions: Settled Accounts of the Act of 6 April 1838. (Lovettsville, Va.: Willow Bend Books).
Finding Aides:
| PI 144 |
War Department Collections of Revolutionary War Records, 1949 |
| SL 36 | List of Black Servicemen Compiled from the War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records |
Microfilm publications:
Indexes to Compiled Military Services Records
| M 860 | General Index to Compiled Military Service Records of Revolutionary War Soldiers. No date. 58 rolls. DP |
| This is the most comprehensive list of revolutionary war soldiers. But it is not a complete list, it may not include state troops, local militia and other non-federal units. Each card gives the name and unit of a soldier (and civilians) and sometimes a rank, profession, or office. Look for service in more than one unit. This index refers to the records contained in M88l. |
Three states have separate indexes, but they are included in M 860.
| M 920 | Index to Compiled Service Records of Revolutionary War Soldiers Who Served with the American Army in Connecticut Military Organizations. No date. 25 rolls DP |
| M 1051 | Index to Compiled Service Records of Revolutionary War Soldiers Who Served with the American Army in Georgia Military Organizations. No date. 2 rolls DP |
| M 257 | Index to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers who Served During the Revolutionary War in Organizations From the State ofNorth Carolina. 2 rolls DP |
| M 879 | Index to Compiled Service Records of American Naval Personnel who Served During the Revolutionary War. No date. 1 roll DP. (This is the Navy subset of the M 860 publication.) |
Service Records, Muster Rolls, Pay Rolls, and others
| M 881 | Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War. No date. 1096 rolls DP |
| These are the compiled service records. They are sorted by Continental or state, and then by regiment or unit, and finally alphabetically by name of soldier. Complied service records whose names are incomplete are arranged at the end of the service records for the units. Records for soldiers and employees listed by first name only are filed under that name. |
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| M 880 | Compiled Service Records of American Naval Personnel and Members of the Departments of the Quartermaster General and the Commissary General of Military Stores Who Served During the Revolutionary War. 4 rolls DP |
| These are the records of American naval personnel and members of the Departments of the Quartermaster General and the Commissary General of Military Stores. |
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| M 246 | Revolutionary War Rolls. 1775-17831. 38 rolls DP |
| This publication reproduces muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83. A manuscript register of the series is filmed on roll I. |
Other Indexes
| M 847 | Special Index to Numbered Records in the War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records. 1775-1783. 39 rolls DP |
| This is an alphabetically arranged card index to names of persons that appear in three series of numbered record books and numbered unbound documents relating to this period. One of these series, the "Manuscript File" is described below. Another is the 199 numbered record books contained in M853. The third series is a series of photographic copies of state records from Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Virginia. |
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| M 859 | Miscellaneous Numbered Records (The Manuscript File) in the War Department
Collection of Revolutionary War Records, 1775-1790's. 1775-1790. 125 rolls DP |
| When the Record and Pension Office created the compiled military service records for individual Revolutionary War servicemen by abstracting information from such records as muster rolls, payrolls, personnel returns, guard reports, and other lists of personnel of particular organizations, it put the rolls in M 246. |
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| M 853 | Numbered Record Books Concerning Military Operations and Service, Pay and Settlement of Accounts, and Supplies in the War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records. 41 rolls DP |
| This publication reproduces 199 numbered record books, with related separate indexes and one unnumbered record book, concerning Revolutionary War military operations and service, pay and settlement of accounts and supplies. |
Other microfilm publications
| M 913 | Personnel Returns of the 6th Massachusetts Battalion, 1779-1780, and Returns and Accounts of Military Stores for the 8th and 9th Massachusetts Regimen. l roll DP |
| M 927 | Letters, Orders for Pay, Accounts, Receipts, and Other Supply Records Concerning Weapons and Military Stores. 1776-1801. 1 roll DP |
| Reproduces a volume the contains orders for pay of the Commissary General of Military Stores Department and other unbound record items that relate to procurement, production, issuing and control of arms, munitions, and related military stores. |
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| M 926 | Letters, Returns, Accounts, and Estimates of the Quartermaster General's Department, 1776-1783, in the War Department Collection of Revolutionary War.1 roll DP |
A new source for much of this microfilmed material is www.Footnote.com.