Record guide

Revolutionary War service, pension, and bounty land records

Revolutionary War records include service cards, federal pension files, and bounty land warrants; the pension files, often filed decades later, can name wives, children, and birthplaces.

Records of a Revolutionary War soldier come in three main kinds. Service records show that a man was on a unit's rolls. Pension files hold the applications he, his widow, or his children made years later. Bounty land records show land granted as a reward for service. The richest by far, for family history, are the pension files.

This guide covers what is special about the Revolution: which records survive, which levels of government made them, and how pensions and bounty land changed between 1776 and 1855. For pension files of later wars and general advice on reading them, see our guide to military pension files.

Continental, state, or militia service

Where a man served decides where his records are. The National Archives holds records of the Continental Army and of state troops serving as Continental troops. It does not hold records of service in state militias, which are with the archives of the state where the soldier served.

Virginia shows how many layers there could be. The Library of Virginia describes the Virginia Continental Line, raised under Continental authority; the Virginia State Line and a State Navy, raised under state authority; and the county militia, in which most Virginians served. Few militia records survive. Militia officers' appointments may appear in county court order books, and many federal pensions granted after 1832 describe militia service, which makes the pension file the best surviving record for many militiamen.

Compiled service records

In the 1890s the War Department abstracted surviving muster rolls, pay rolls, and other papers onto cards, one set per soldier, to replace records lost in War Department fires in 1800 and 1814. These compiled military service records usually show when a man joined a unit and whether he was present when it was mustered. They seldom give family information.

Because the War Department could not rebuild everything, a man may have fought in a Continental unit and still have no compiled record. Names were spelled many ways, and men with the same name are easy to confuse, so match the unit, dates, and place against other evidence before adopting a record.

How Revolutionary War pensions changed

The first pension act, in 1776, covered men disabled in service. In 1778 Congress promised half pay to officers and a gratuity of $80 to enlisted men who served to the end of the war, and in 1780 it passed the first act for widows and orphans. These early files are mostly gone: a War Department fire on November 8, 1800, apparently destroyed the applications filed before that date.

The surviving files come mostly from later laws. In 1818 Congress granted lifetime pensions to veterans in financial need, not only the disabled, and amended the rules in 1820 and 1822. The act of 1832 was the most generous, giving full pay for life to men who served two years or more and partial pay for six months to two years. From 1836, widows of these veterans could also apply. By then most applicants were elderly and describing events fifty years past, which is why so many files are long sworn narratives of service.

The federal files contain only federal pensions. States also paid Revolutionary War pensions, and Virginia half pay files are a separate federal series. The National Archives counts about eighty thousand federal pension files, and notes that they hold mostly records of enlisted men, not officers.

Inside a pension file

Each file is in an envelope, or, if the papers no longer exist, summarized on a card. A typical file has about 30 pages, though some have one and others more than 200. The envelope gives the state or organization the veteran served in, his name, and a letter and number: S for a survivor, meaning the veteran himself, and W for a widow. If the widow remarried, her new surname appears with the words Former Widow.

A veteran's declaration usually gives his age or birth date, his residence, and sometimes his birthplace, with his service in his own words. Property schedules often name and give the ages of his wife and children. A widow's application may give her maiden name, the date and place of the marriage, and the date and place of her husband's death. To prove an old marriage, widows sent copies of town or church records and sometimes family record pages from Bibles.

Read the affidavits from other people closely. In one file described by the National Archives, a son's affidavit in his father's pension papers gave his own age and his parents' names, connecting him to a family where a published genealogy had missed him.

Bounty land warrants

Congress authorized federal bounty land warrants for Revolutionary War service under acts of 1788, 1803, and 1806, and surviving veterans also qualified under the act of 1855. Many bounty land application files have been combined with the pension files, so one envelope may hold both. Disapproved bounty land applications based on Revolutionary War service are in a separate, unindexed series arranged by the veteran's name.

Early federal warrants could generally be used only in military districts, mostly in present-day Ohio, and most Revolutionary War warrants were sold or assigned to other people. A warrant in a soldier's name does not mean he ever lived on the land. Several states also granted their own bounty land. Virginia gave land to men who served at least three years, or to their heirs, and located it in present-day Kentucky and Ohio.

On the page, look for

Decide whether the man served in a Continental unit, a state unit, or the militia, and from which state.
Search the pension index under every spelling of the surname, then read the whole file, not just the summary pages.
Note the file letter and number, and whether there is a widow's or former widow's application.
Copy the declaration's ages, residences, and birthplace, and any property schedule naming the wife and children.
List every person who gave an affidavit and how they knew the veteran.
Look for marriage proof, Bible pages, and dates of death.
Check for bounty land papers in the same file and in the disapproved series, and note whether the warrant was assigned to someone else.
Compare the compiled service record and state records with what the pension file says.

Where to see them for free

The National Archives, which holds the compiled service records (M881, indexed in M860), the pension and bounty land application files (M804), the Ohio military district warrants (M829), and the Virginia half pay files (M910). The pension files are arranged alphabetically by the veteran's surname.
Fold3 and Ancestry as places where these microfilms have been digitized; Ancestry can be used free at National Archives research rooms.
State archives for militia records, state pensions, and state bounty land, such as the Library of Virginia's bounty land application files and certificates.
County court order books for militia officer appointments and other local service.

Sources

How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "Revolutionary War service, pension, and bounty land records." Record guides. https://dailyancestor.com/records/revolutionary-war. Last checked 2026-10-10.