Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File
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NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS
Microcopy No. 804

REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION
AND BOUNTY-LAND WARRANT
APPLICATION FILES

Roll 228

Berry, Samuel -
Berry, Zebulun

(Seal:  The National Archives of the United States 1934)

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON:  1969
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NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS

INTRODUCTION

On the rolls of this microfilm publication are reproduced 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.

Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Legislation
and Administration Relating to
Participation in the Revolutionary War

Pension Legislation

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 U.S. Government for servicemen and their dependents.
"Disability" or "invalid pensions" were awarded to servicemen for physical
disabilities incurred in the line of duty, "service pensions," to veterans who served
for specified periods of time, and "widows' pensions," to women whose husbands
had been killed in the war or were veterans who had served for specified periods
of time.

On August 26, 1776, the first pension legislation for the American colonies
as a group was enacted.  A resolution of the Continental Congress provided half
pay for officers and enlisted men, including those on warships and armed vessels,
who were disabled in the service of the United States and who were incapable of
earning a living.  The half pay was to continue for the duration of the disability.

On May 15, 1778, another resolution provided half pay for 7 years after
the conclusion of the war to all military officers who remained in the Continental
service to the end of the war.  Enlisted men who continued to serve for the
duration of the conflict were each to receive a gratuity of $80 after the war under
the terms of the same enactment.  The first national pension legislation for
widows was a Continental Congress resolution of August 24, 1780, which offered
the prospect of half pay for 7 years to widows and orphans of officers who met
the requirements included in the terms of the resolution of May 15, 1778.  On
October 21, 1780, the Continental Congress resolution of May 15, 1778, was
amended to provide half pay for life to officers after the war; but on March 22,
1783, the half-pay-for-life provision was changed to 5 years' full pay.

Pension legislation during the Revolutionary War was designed to
encourage enlistment and acceptance of commissions and to prevent desertion
and resignation.  After the war, pensions became a form of reward for services
rendered.  Both during and after the Revolution, the States as well as the U.S.
Government awarded pensions based on participation in the conflict.  The records
reproduced in this microfilm publication pertain only to pensions granted or paid
pursuant to public and private acts of the U.S. Government. Public acts under

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NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS

which the majority of such pensions were authorized, encompassed large classes
of veterans of their dependents who met common eligibility requirements.  Private
acts concerned specific individuals whose special services or circumstances
merited consideration, but who could not be awarded pensions under existing
public acts.

On September 29, 1789 (I Stat. 95), the First Congress of the United
States passed an act which provided that invalid pensions previously paid by the
States, pursuant to resolutions of the Continental Congress, should be continued
and paid for 1 year by the newly established Federal Government.  Subsequent
legislation often extended the time limit.  An act of Congress approved March 23,
1792 (I Stat. 243), permitted veterans not already receiving invalid pensions
under resolutions of the Continental Congress to apply for them directly to the
Federal Government.  On April 10, 1806 (2 Stat. 376), the scope of earlier
invalid-pension laws pertaining to Revolutionary War servicemen was extended to 
make veterans of State troops and militia service eligible for Federal pensions.  
The act superseded all previous Revolutionary War invalid-pension legislation.

Before 1818 national pension laws concerning veterans of the Revolution
(with the exception of the Continental Congress resolution of May 15, 1778
granting half pay to officers for service alone) specified disability or death of a
serviceman as the basis for a pension award.  Not until March 18, 1818 (3 Stat. 410),
did the U.S. Congress grant pensions to Revolutionary War veterans for
service from which no disabilities resulted.  Officers and enlisted men in need of
assistance were eligible under the terms of the 1818 act if they had served in a
Continental military organization or in the U.S. naval service (including the
Marines) for 9 months or until the end of the war.  Pensions granted under this
ace were to continue for life.