Hello, my name is John Deeben.
I’m a genealogy specialist at the National Archives and Records Administration, and in
this lecture we’re going to be talking about how to research military service in the regular
Army and Navy of the United States.
Of course, the service in the regular military this included the professional soldiers.
These were the men who served during both times of war and during peace time.
The units that they served in were established regiments.
They had their own history.
They existed before the soldiers enlisted into service, and they continued on after
the soldiers were discharged unlike volunteer regiments who were created and discharged
during specific periods of time.
So to document the service in the regular Army, the War Department did keep a specific
set of records called the Registers of Enlistments.
What we have are available to document the service in the regular Army from 1798 to 1914
just prior to the beginning of World War I.
The Registers of Enlistment are available in textual form.
Some of them are also on microfilm in microfilm publication M233.
They’re arranged by time period and then by the first initial of the individual’s
surname and then by date of enlistment.
So to use them effectively, you do need to have at least a general timeframe of when
the soldier enlisted to find him in the records.
The basic information that an entry in the Register of Enlistments will give you includes
the name of the soldier, his rank, a physical description including height, eye color, hair
color, complexion, his civilian occupation, his date and place of birth, his enlistment
information when he was enlisted and discharged, and it usually gives the place of discharge
as well, and at the end it will give a brief summary of his character at the time he was
discharged.
So it gives you pretty good, basic information about the beginning of a soldier’s service
and the ending of his service.
As an example we’ll look at the register of enlistment for an Alfred Pride who enlisted
in 1878.
Now, the register’s entry in register covers two pages.
So, if we look through the whole entry, this is information that we glean about Alfred
Pride’s service.
It shows that he enlisted July 11, 1878.
He was originally born in Richmond, Virginia.
He was 32 at the time that he enlisted.
He identified his occupation as a Union soldier.
So, that’s an indication that he was a career soldier.
He might have enlisted prior to this time.
His physical description included he had black hair and he was five foot eight inches, which
is pretty tall.
He was assigned to his Company F of the 24th U.S. Infantry.
And this was actually his third enlistment, so the fact that he identified himself as
a soldier reflects that.
He was discharged from service on February 10, 1883.
His expiration of service took place in Fort Elliot, Texas.
He was a private at the end of his service, and his character as a soldier at the end
of his service, the time of his discharge was good, though he’d probably had a fairly
typical service as a soldier during his time in the Army.
Now, the Navy equivalent of the Register of Enlistments were the Rendezvous Reports.
These were the weekly reports that were compiled by recruiting officers in the Navy.
The records that we have available begin with the Mexican War and go to the early 1890s.
There are two separate indexes that are available for the rendezvous reports.
They’re both on microfilm.
The one publication is T1089 or T1098 which includes rendezvous reports for before and
directly after the Civil War 1846-61 and 1865-1884.
The other index specifically covers Civil War service, and its microfilm publication
T1099 covering the years 1861-1865.
And the actual reports themselves are weekly rendezvous reports are available on microfilm
as well in publication M1953: Weekly Reports of Enlistments and Naval Rendezvous from January
6, 1855 to August 8, 1891.
Basic information that you can find on the rendezvous report for typical sailor include
his name, again his date and term of enlistment, his rating which was the Naval equivalent
of his rank, his previous Naval service if any, his usual place of residence which means
where he usually resided when he was on land not at sea, his place of birth, again his
civilian occupation, personal description.
And it will also include information about distinguishing marks and scars that he may
have had on his person to help again further identify who he was.
A typical example we’ll take a look at the rendezvous report for James G. Mason.
If we read his entry in the rendezvous reports, we’d learn that he enlisted on June 25,
1884 at Mare Island, California.
He enlisted for one cruise on Monongahela.
He was 22 years of at the time of his enlistment.
His occupation was a cook.
His physical description showed that he was a Negro, five foot one and a half inches tall,
born in East Oakland, California.
He had a scar on his left leg and a tattoo of a shield cross and flag on his left forearm.
And his rating at that time was a landsman which means that he had no prior service at
sea at the time that he enlisted in the Navy.
Again, the availability of the records in addition to the original records, what’s
available on microfilm especially for the register of enlistments are available on Ancestry.com.
You can also find some information on Footnote and Heritage Quest, or you can request service
information from the regular Army or Navy through a mail-in service.
Mail-in forms are available on the National Archives website at www.archives.gov .