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Massachusetts Military Records
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See Also Researching in Military Records and Colonial & United States Wars From Earliest to 1865
Armed conflict was as much a part of Massachusetts history as religious dissention, and the sources are just as plentiful as for church records, but in this case great quantities of them have been published.
Original extant records for the period 1643-1783 are at Massachusetts State Archives, as well as some materials related to Shays' Rebellion, the War of 1812, and the Spanish American War. Civil War records and later, including the Korean War, are at the Adjutant General's office, War Records, 100 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02202.
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1896-1908) is comprised of seventeen volumes. Twenty-thousand names found after the publication were entered on cards and are on microfilm at Massachusetts State Archives and New England Historic Genealogical Society. Each listing, in both the published list and microfilmed card file, is alphabetical by occurrence of the name in a muster roll, report, or pay file, etc., along with a town residence of the man if it was obvious in the original record. No attempt was made to determine whether more than one record for the same name, in either the volumes or on cards, is actually for the same person.
Numerous materials are available for Loyalist research in Massachusetts, including biographical studies.
In addition to the Adjutant General's Office, many towns have memorials to their residents who served in later wars. Records are generally kept at the town or city clerk's office.
The Massachusetts Military History Research Institute, 143 Speen Street, Natick, MA 01760, has an excellent collection of material from 1774 through the Vietnam War with a heavy concentration on the Civil War.
Military records in the State Archives cover conflicts dating from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries; those most useful to genealogists date from 1643 to 1865. The records can be used to identify the service of particular individuals but provide little background on the person’s family or life.
Information concerning military service in the colonial wars (circa 1643-1774) can be gleaned from legislative records and a variety of military rolls and accounts. Similar rolls from the Revolutionary period document the service of soldiers in the state militia; there are also a limited number of Continental Army rolls. Additionally the Archives holds records of state pensions, bounties, and Maine land grants for Revolutionary War veterans, or their heirs, who were not eligible to receive federal pensions. Family relationships may be included in the pension records, as heirs tried to document their status. Military records from the colonial wars and the Revolution are indexed by name and are available on microfilm at the Archives. Revolutionary service is also referenced through the seventeen-volume set, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Boston, 1896-1908).
Payrolls and other military records at the Archives may also be used to document the garrison on Castle Island in Boston Harbor. Following the Revolution, soldiers continued to be stationed at the Castle as a defense for the harbor. These soldiers guarded the state prison that existed there between 1785 and 1798.
Records from Shays’ Rebellion, a period of internal turbulence dated 1786-87, are included in the Massachusetts Archives collection (see page ), and records of the state treasurer and the commissary general. Letters, orders, warrants, petitions, special reports, military payrolls, service certificates, financial records, and oaths of allegiance provide extensive documentation of Shays’ Rebellion. Partial indices exist with names of soldiers and individuals who supplied or housed the army.
Military records relating to the War of 1812 (1812-1815) are found in the records of the Governor and Executive Council; these are concerned primarily with the formation of militia units and commissions for officers. Records of the Massachusetts Militia in the War of 1812-1814 (Boston, 1913), provides information on the militia regiments called out in 1814 in anticipation of a British attack on Massachusetts.
The most complete list of Massachusetts men who served in the Civil War is found in the multi-volume set, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Civil War (Norwood, MA, 1931-1935). Civil War records held by the Archives include a variety of muster, clothing and descriptive rolls, lists of assignments of recruits to particular town quotas, materials documenting the use of substitutes for draftees, and records of Massachusetts bounty payments to southern African-Americans who were recruited into the U.S. Army. Additional archival materials from this period include the records of the State Military Agent and the letterbooks of Governor John Andrew, an early and strong supporter of the war effort.
Records relating to the Spanish-American War (1898) include a small collection of letters and petitions for bonuses from veterans or their families to the state treasurer.
- Submit a website for Massachusetts Military Records
- Massachusetts Military Books at Amazon.com
- Research In Military Records
- Overview of Military Records - from The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy.
- Military - The men and women called to serve their country in military duty are a source of pride to their families and to their nation. Now, with databases containing more than 16 million names and thousands of government records available to search, researching your veteran ancestors has become easier than ever before.
Revolutionary War in Massachusetts
Search Revolutionary War 1775-83 Service Records
, Rejected Pensions, Loyalists Records, 1775-1783 Pay Rolls, Courts-Martial, Officers, Pension Index, 1841 Pensioner Census
Below is a list of online resources for Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War.
- Massachusetts Revolutionary War Books at Amazon.com
- Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 from the State of Massachusetts (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
- Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War
- Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files from the State of Massachusetts
- Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, 17 Vols: There are over 175,000 records in this database, which give, when available, the name and age of the individual, town of residence, the date and location of enlistment, areas and length of service, date of discharge, and description of their physical features.
- Massachusetts Military Company History, Vol. 4: The database contains many facts concerning births, marriages, occupations, etc. of the past and present members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company,
Civil War in Massachusetts
Search Civil War Soldiers, Service Records, Regiments, General Officers, Battle Summaries, Pension Index: 1861-1934, CSA Field Officers and the War of the Rebellion
Below is a list of online resources for Massachusetts in the Civil War.
- Massachusetts Civil War Books at Amazon.com
- Southern Claims - Barred and Disallowed from the State of Massachusetts (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
- Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900 from the State of Massachusetts (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Pension applications for service in the U.S. Army between 1861 and 1917, grouped according to the units in which the veterans served.
- Massachusetts Army & Navy, 1861-1865 : This database lists Massachusetts officers and soldiers who were killed in action.
- Massachusetts Spanish American War Records
List conflicts dating from earliest to 1865
See Also Researching in Military Records and Colonial & United States Wars From Earliest to 1865
Conflicts involving Massachusetts dating from earliest to 1865. Wars covered that are available are:
- Pequot War 1637-1638
- French and Iroquois Wars 1642-1698
- King Philip’s War 1675–1676
- Pueblo Rebellion 1680
- King William’s War 1689–98
- Queen Anne’s War 1702–1713
- Tuscarora War 1711-1715
- Dummer's War 1723-1726
- King George’s War 1744–48
- French and Indian War 1754–63
- Pontiac's Rebellion 1763-1766
- Lord Dunmore's War 1774
- Revolutionary war
- Tripolitan War 1801-1805
- War of 1812 1812–15
- Creek Indian War 1813-1814
- The First Seminole War 1818-1819
- Texas Revolutionary War 1835-1836
- Second Seminole War 1835-1842
- Mexican War 1846–48
- Civil War 1861–65
- Spanish-American War 1898
- World War I 1917–18
- World War II 1941–45
- Korean War 1950–53
- Vietnam War 1961–73
- War on Terrorism 2001-Present
