Description:
You can view the actual files and not just the indexes.This collection is taken from NARA microfilm publication M804, which includes an estimated 80,000 pension and bounty-land warrant application files based on the participation of American military, naval, and marine officers and enlisted men in the Revolutionary War. Most of the records in the files are dated between 1800 and 1900. The files are part of Record Group 15, Records of the Veterans Administration.
The records in this collection include entire pension files for soldiers and sailors who served in the Revolutionary War. Unlike selected service records, which were typically chosen subjectively for genealogical content, these records reveal more details about each veteran's history and service, as well as more information about his family, state of health, and life after the war.
If you know the state for which a man served, you can locate him through the alphabetical hierarchy in the browse menu. Select the state, the first letter of his last name, then locate his surname, followed by his given name in the next section of browse titles.
Types of Pensions:
For more than a century before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, British colonies in North America provided pensions for disabled soldiers and sailors. During and after the Revolutionary War, three principal types of pensions were provided by the US Government for servicemen and their dependents.
- Disability or Invalid Pensions - awarded to servicemen for physical disabilities incurred in the line of duty.
- Service Pensions - awarded to veterans who served for specified periods of time.
- Widows' Pensions – awarded to women whose husbands had been killed in the war or were veterans who had served for specified periods of time. The letter "W" is included with the file number for widow pension applications.
The letter "S" before a file number stands for "survivor" and usually indicates the file contains one or more post-1800 approved applications of a veteran for an invalid or service pension.
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