2nd Alabama Cavalry
Sergeant
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2019
I am always in search of more information regarding my ancestors service during the American Civil War. One of the ways that I found to get a plethora of very detailed information on a collective level was from pension application records, for those who made applications, not only the individual pension applications but records for the other men of the same company and regiment also. By doing this I have found that collectively I can see better the moves made during the war, as well as specific campaigns, battles, skirmishes, fights and actions in which my ancestor, or at least his company and regiment, was involved in.
In quite a few of the pension applications the veteran is asked in which campaigns and battles that he took part in, as well as if they were ever wounded or taken prisoner, and if so they are asked specific information about the event and often times go into great detail regarding their response. I find this information invaluable as with it on a collective basis I can verify other records which I have that the company and regiment was at a specific place on a specific date which completes the picture, or at least gives a different vantage point. The research is much more tedious and labor intensive as you are possibly researching one hundred men of the company other than your ancestor, or more than a thousand or so regarding his regiment, but by doing so you get a lot more detailed information about what you ancestor most likely was involved with during the war. In my research the closer that I can get to my actual ancestor the more complete my information will be, but in the absence of that individual information collective information of the company and then regiment is a great source.
Over the past two decades, I have found great information in daily journals, letters home, information recorded in individual, company and regiment service records in the "OR", daily activity reports and campaign summaries by the field commanders, the pension application records just added or verified the information that I was able to glean from those sources. I am just curious if many of you do the same thing?
In quite a few of the pension applications the veteran is asked in which campaigns and battles that he took part in, as well as if they were ever wounded or taken prisoner, and if so they are asked specific information about the event and often times go into great detail regarding their response. I find this information invaluable as with it on a collective basis I can verify other records which I have that the company and regiment was at a specific place on a specific date which completes the picture, or at least gives a different vantage point. The research is much more tedious and labor intensive as you are possibly researching one hundred men of the company other than your ancestor, or more than a thousand or so regarding his regiment, but by doing so you get a lot more detailed information about what you ancestor most likely was involved with during the war. In my research the closer that I can get to my actual ancestor the more complete my information will be, but in the absence of that individual information collective information of the company and then regiment is a great source.
Over the past two decades, I have found great information in daily journals, letters home, information recorded in individual, company and regiment service records in the "OR", daily activity reports and campaign summaries by the field commanders, the pension application records just added or verified the information that I was able to glean from those sources. I am just curious if many of you do the same thing?
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