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 678
Craighead, Robert -
Craley, Hugh
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
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NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS [letterhead]

Military Pension Legislation in the United States (New York, 1900); and Federal Military Pensions in the United States (New York, 1918); and Payson J. Treat, The National Land System, 1785-1820 (New York, 1910). Many of the laws
relating to pensions and bounty-land warrants granted for Revolutionary War
service, and regulations established by the Secretaries of War, the Treasury, and
the Interior for administering them, are compiled in Robert Mayo and Ferdinand
Moulton, Army and Navy Pension Laws, and Bounty Land Laws of the United States. . . 
From 1776 to 1852 (Washington, 1852).

These introductory remarks were written by Howard H. Wehmann.

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SELECTED RECORDS

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