Week 21: “Military” #52Ancestors
Appropriately, this week’s prompt is “military.” I am fortunate to have had many military veterans in my background, including my dad, father-in-law, two grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and so on. Even my dear aunt served as a member of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. In addition to bravely serving their country, the military records they left behind are genealogical gold-mines.
Both my dad and father-in-law were in the Navy, so I was able to get a copy of their entire service files. Sadly, a disastrous fire in 1973 destroyed 80% of Army personnel records for those discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960.[1] There were no duplicates and no microfilm so this was a huge loss. Those with Civil War veterans in their family tree, can get copies of their military service and pension records through the National Archives. For one of my husband’s ancestors, I was able to get his entire 122-page pension file. Another pension file for a Civil War ancestor even helped identify what happened to the first husband of the veteran’s second wife! Talk about a gold-mine.
One super genealogical resource for military records is Fold3.com. This site, owned by Ancestry.com, has records from every military conflict that involved American soldiers, as well as records from many other conflicts including the Napoleonic Wars, Crimean War, Boxer Rebellion and on and on. As of today, they boast almost 550 million records. While this is a pay site, they do offer free access to some records and free access to the site on special holidays, for example this Memorial Day weekend.
I don’t want this post to become an ad for Fold3 (Ancestry does just fine without my help). Rather, I want to share what great stuff I found for my husband’s 4th great-grandfather, Samuel Pickerill.
Samuel was an honest-to-goodness drummer “boy” in the Revolutionary War. He enlisted in the fall of 1776 in Virginia for three years and served most of the time with the 1st Virginia State Regiment under Captain Thomas W. Ewell.[2] According to his pension application, Samuel was at Valley Forge and the battles of Monmouth Court House and Stoney Point.[3]
The cool thing about Fold3 is that I have access to some of the actual muster rolls and pay records for Samuel and his unit. The Company Pay Roll cards are especially informative as they show his monthly pay (7 1/3 dollars) and sometimes where he was when he was paid. I found it interesting that drummers and fifers were paid 1/2 dollar more than privates. I’ve learned that more than just keeping time or playing a tune as they marched, drummer and fife signals also told the soldiers in camp when to wake up, do certain chores, and when to show up for church.[4] During battle, a drummer could even call for medical assistance for a wounded soldier.[5]
When he enlisted, Samuel was about 19-years old. While there is some romance around being a drummer “boy,” that is apparently a bit of a myth. It appears most drummers were adult men and were recruited like all other soldiers.[6]
After the end of the war, Samuel received 100-acres of land from the State of Virginia in consideration for his service in the Revolution.[7] In 1783, Samuel settled in Fayette County, Virginia which, in 1792, became part of the state of Kentucky. Many years later, when he was 75, Samuel also applied for and received a military pension consisting of $88 a year.[8]
Samuel and his wife, Mary Lowe, had at least 12 children, all born in Virginia/Kentucky. The family ultimately settled in Brown County, Ohio, where Samuel and Mary lived out their days. Because of their large family, many descendants of Samuel and Mary are members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) or the Sons of the Revolution (SAR). This past year, I was able to get my husband into the SAR, thanks mostly to the work done by his cousins who took the laboring oar in gathering the appropriate documentation for this branch of the Pickerill tree.
And, no, I do not expect him to wear a tricorne this coming 4th of July.[9]
[1]“The 1973 Fire, National Personnel Records Center,” National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/fire-1973 : accessed 27 May 2019.
[2]Eckenrode, H.J., Archivist, List of the Revolutionary Soldiers of Virginia (Supplement), Special Report of the Department of Archives and History for 1912 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1912), p. 420; digital image, Archive.org (https://archive.org/details/listofrevolution00virg/page/n3 : accessed 27 May 2019).
[3]Affidavit of Samuel Pickerill, 25 July 1832, “U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900,” Ancestry (http://ancestry.com : accessed 27 May 2019); citing “Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files,” NARA microfilm publication M804, roll not noted.
[4]“Music in the Revolution,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon (http://www.mountvernon.org : accessed 27 May 2019).
[5]Ibid.
[6]Wikipedia, “Drummer (military),” rev. 11:40, 23 May 2019.
[7]Land-Office Military Warrant, No. 1369, 12 July 1783, Samuel Pickrel (sic); Kentucky Secretary of State, Revolutionary War Warrants (http://landofficeimages.sos.ky.gov : accessed 4 Feb 2017).
[8]Samuel Pickerill pension folder, no. S.3703, “U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900,” Ancestry (http://ancestry.com : accessed 27 May 2019); citing “Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files,” NARA microfilm publication M804, roll not noted.
[9]As you might have figured out, a “tricorne” is a three-cornered hat. They were popular during the 18th century, but not so much after 1800. They were not referred to as a tricornes in the 1700’s but were called “cocked hats.” Wikipedia, Tricorne, 22:22, 17 May 2019.
Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 27 May 2019), memorial 6155675, Samuel Pickerill (1757-1850), Liberty Chapel Cemetery, Decatur, Brown County, Ohio; gravestone photographed by Theodoremaxx.
8th line - “Samuel Pichrall, Drum.” Pay Roll dated June 1778; “Muster Rolls and Pay Rolls of Capt. Thomas W. Ewell’s Co., October 1777 - November 1779,” p. 106, folder 21, Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com : accessed 27 May 2019); “Revolutionary War Rolls, compiled 1894-1913, documenting the period 1775-1783,” Publication no. M246, NARA Catalog Id 602384, record group 93, National Archives, Washington, D.C.