Saturday, October 07, 2006

Military Service in the US Civil War

I visited the National Archives in Washington D.C. and conducted original research on Benjamin's Civil War service. Every record about his service and pension that was available at the National Archives was searched. Several records were restricted from being photocopied due to record deterioration. When photocopies were not permitted, every detail was hand-copied. Two different places of birth were recorded on two different documents among his files. No document in either the military service file or the military pension file recorded the names of his parents or siblings.