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-LANT-WARRANT
APPLICATION FILES

Roll 1366

Humphrees, Samuel-
Humphrey, William
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NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS

INTRODUCTION

On the rolls of this microfilm publication are produced an estimated
80,000 pension and bounty-land warrant application files based on the 
participation of America military, naval and marine officers and enlisted men in the 
Revolutionary War. Most of the record 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 pension for disabled soldiers and
sailers. During and after the Revolutionary war there principal types of pensions
were provided by the US Government  for service men and their dependents. 
"Disability" or "invalid pensions" were awarded to service men for physical 
disabilities incurred in the line of duty, "service pensions" to veteran who served
for a specified periods of time and "widows pension" to women whose husbands 
had been killed 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 this 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 received 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 42, 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 the public and private acts of the U.S. Government. Public acts, under

NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS
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documents were filmed first, preceded by a target headed "SELECTED RECORDS."  The documents may include pension applications, jackets showing the act under which pension payments were made, bounty-land-warrant applications, jackets showing the warrant numbers of warrants granted, property schedules, family-record pages from Bibles or other books, copies of marriage records, and final payment vouchers.  All remaining documents in that file were filmed after a target headed "NONSELECTED RECORDS.:  No distinction was made between selected and nonselected records in filming the envelope files that contained 10 or fewer pages of records, these files can be recognized by a star next to the veteran's surname in the heading.

The "SELECTED RECORDS" in files containing more that 10 pages of records, except those portions of them having no apparent genealogical value (such as attestation or endorsements) have also been reproduced in another microfilm publication, Selected Records From Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application files (Microcopy 805).  Records in files containing 10 or fewer pages of records were reproduced in Microcopy 805 in their entirety, as were all files that consist of a single 10" x 14" summary or cross-reference card.  Upon request and for a few, the National Archives can provide reproductions of the genealogical records filmed in whole or in part in Microcopy 805 relating to a specific veteran or other claimant.

Related Records and Sources of Information

Also in Record Group 15 are letterbooks, registers, and other administrative records of the Pension Office and its successors relating to Revolutionary War pension and bounty-land-warrant applications.  Bounty-land warrants are in Record Group 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management.  Pension payment books and final payment vouchers are in Record Group 217, Records of the United States General Accounting Office.  Correspondence of the Secretary of War and of the Secretary of the Interior concerning their supervision of pension and bounty-land-warrant matters is in Record Group 107, Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, and in Record Group 48, Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior.

Military service records for Revolutionary War soldiers are in Record Group 93, War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records.  Naval and marine personnel records are in Record Group 45, Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, and Record Group 127, Records of the United States Marine Corps.  For additional records of Revolutionary War service and for records of applications made to individual States for pensions or bounty land, researchers should communicate with State archival agencies.

The names of most of the servicemen for whom there are pension or bounty-
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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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Nonselected Records
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Selected Records
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Nonselected records