Carded medical record

In the 1890s the Record and Pension Office copied army hospital registers onto cards to help verify pension claims. Each card gives the soldier's name, rank and unit, his complaint, the hospital and date admitted, and whether he returned to duty, deserted, was discharged, furloughed or died.

Cards cover Regular Army soldiers from 1821 to 1912 and Volunteers from the Mexican War on. Civil War Union Volunteers have a separate series filed by state and regiment; for Confederates and later wars, the cards sit inside the compiled service record.