Atten-Hut!

Author: Mark W. Swarthout
Published on: February 9, 2001

Commands echo across the field, mixed with the clash and clink as vast numbers of troops moving in unison to comply. Gleaming brass and shiny boots marching in lock step across the field or down the street. We have always been fascinated by the image of the military. And nothing makes my eyes tear up like the Stars and Stripes passing by escorted by a military honor guard.

The military has historically been known for its red tape, second only to the government as a whole. But, as we shall see, this red tape is actually a good thing, at least for genealogists and historians. The military is normally held in high regard, though the decisions that affect them are not always as popular.

(left - John W. Swarthout, ROTC Cadet, drilling at Cornell University, 1917-8)

This series of articles is going to discuss resources for finding military related records and information that can make those ancestral shadows take on real form. My personal experience with a couple dozen records obtained from the government is that they seldom contain much in the way of genealogical information. Most of the information involves the individual in question, the unit he served with and the campaigns he participated in. It may even explain that limp that your second cousin remembered on Great Grandpa!

But occasionally you will hit a piece information of use to your family tree. Next of kin may be listed in the records. In one instance, included in the pension application of a Revolutionary soldier, was a letter typed in the 1930's in reply to a request from a distant cousin that listed all of the children of the serviceman.

So, did your ancestors fight in a war? The first thing you need to determine is which war they may have participated in. Basic history test, how many wars can you name? Most people can throw out the obvious ones, the Revolution, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. With a bit of thought they will add the War of 1812 and the Spanish-American War, and maybe even the French and Indian War. Really digging through the memory banks may recall the the Mexican War, the Whiskey Rebellion, the Florida Wars or even the Blackhawk War. (Sure, you remember! The one where Abraham Lincoln got his military experience!)

To start with, you need to determine what persons in your tree might have been in the military. There wasn't a standing army in America until after the Revolution, but there were numerous battles and actions against the Indians, the Spanish and even the French. Early records have been indexed by various conflicts and are all centered around the actual wars. Organizations that commemorate the brave men who fought in them have collected vast quantities of documentation.

The first thing to do is have a feel for the military timeline of the specific area you are interested in. Some conflicts were wide spread, covering continents, others were more or less local disturbances.

The History Channel web site contains a timeline by decade and year that can be helpful. Familiarizing yourself with the major events can help place yourself in the right mind set, even if you are unsuccessful in finding military information.

How old was your ancestor at the time? For the most part soldiers were sixteen or older, but seldom over about forty-five. During earlier wars, younger boys were brought into the ranks as drummers, cabin boys, muleskinners and messengers. But you should also be aware that military records are not always a good indication of age, particularly before the World Wars. An able bodied man could pretty much say what ever age he wanted to when signing up, as long as it seemed reasonable. We've all heard about boys getting into the service by lying about their age. And it worked the other way, too! Men who were above the age of enlistment would put down a younger age so they could participate.

By knowing the general age and the time frame of the wars, you can quickly determine whether a specific individual could have participated in the war or eliminate them from possibility. One of my family legends said that a specific individual had fought in the Revolutionary War. Since he was born in 1780, that was pretty doubtful!

What was the profession of your ancestor? Special skills were often in high demand and more likely to be drafted. Blacksmiths, carpenters, doctors and clergy had special status when in the military. At the same time, some skills were considered too important to place them in the ranks. In World War I, farmers were not drafted, food supplies being too critical to the war effort.

Whether you agree with it or not, anything before 1900 is going to be male oriented, but there were widows who applied for pensions. The participation of females is a pretty recent development, starting in World War I and growing increasingly to the present day.

In the series articles that follow this one, I have hit upon some of the major conflicts involving North Americans and some of the many sources that are available for use online. For conflicts I don't specifically address, use your search engines and go looking! Many of the links to federal and state sites go to a specific page (say their War of 1812 page), but by going to their home page you can get links into other wars or conflicts they have online.

The author Texas A&M Corps of Cadets 1980

Note: As a veteran myself, I find this area particularly interesting to me. I spent six years on active duty as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, four assigned to a couple of ships and two attached to the Marine Corps. I also spent four years in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, hence my email address of Aggie80. And while none of my ancestors fought in World War II, my family tree boasts of veterans of World War I, the Civil War, the War of 1812 and even both sides of the American Revolution!