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 28

Alexander, Abraham
Alexander, James

Seal of the National Archives of the United States
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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 soldier 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 specific 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 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 sere 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 the 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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which the majority of such pensions were authorized, encompassed large classes of vetrans or 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 28, 1789 (1 Stat. 95), the First Congres 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 (1 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 act were to continue for life.

   The service-pension act of 1818 resulted in a great number of applications, many of which were approved.  Congress had to appropriate greater sums than ever before for Revolutionary War pension payments.  Financial difficulties and charges that applicants were feigning poverty to obtain benefits under the terms of the act caused Congress to enact remedial legislation on May 1, 1820 (3 Stat. 569).  The new law required every pensioner receiving payments under the 1818 act, and every would-be pensioner, to submit a certified schedule of his estate and income to the Secretary of War.  The Secretary was authorized to remove from the pension list the names of those persons who, in his opinion, were not in need of assistance.  Within a few years, the total of Revolutionary War service pensioners was reduced by several thousand.  An act of Congress approved March 1, 1823 (3 Stat. 782), resulted in the restoration of pensions to many whose names had been removed under the terms of the 1820 legislation, but who subsequently proved their need for aid.

  Congress passed another service-pension act on May 15, 1828 (4 Stat. 269), which granted full pay for life to surviving officers and enlisted men of the Revolutionary War who were eligible for benefits under the terms of the Continental Congress resolution of May 15, 1778, as amended.

   The last and most liberal of the service-pension acts benefiting Revolutionary War veterans was passed on June 7, 1832 (4 Stat. 529), and extended to more persons the provisions of the law of May 15, 1828.  The act provided that