Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File
Page 1

NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS

Microcopy No. 804

REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION
AND BOUNTY-LAND- WARRANT 
APPLICATION FILES

Roll 205

Belknap, Abel -
Bell, Henry

                                    THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES 
 NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE
               GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON: 1969
Page 2

INTRODUCTION

On the rolls of the 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 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 principle type 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 specific periods of time: and “widows’ “ pension to women whose husbands have been killed in the war or were veterans who had served for specific 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 warship and armed vessels, who were disabled in the service of the United States and who are incapable of earning a living. The half pay was to continue for the duration of the disability.