re: #184 HappyWarrior

The Germans I have read were one group that was pretty anti slavery. Makes me wonder if that was part of my second great grandfather’s motivations for enlisting. I have no idea. He died when my Dad’s grandmother was a girl. We used to have his discharge papers I believe but I think one of my aunts or uncles got them when my Dad’s mom passed away.I’d love to have those but I do have a photo of him and his blacksmith shop on my wall.

If you have not yet done so, go down to the National Archives. They have copies of all of the files associated with veterans. I went down there in the 1970’s and pulled up the documents associated with relatives that served during the Civil War. I seem to remember that they also have national pension records there.

Please note that a lot of WW2 records were lost in a huge fire at a St Louis archive back in the ?1970s?.

Also, I believe that records are released only after a delay of ?50? years.

The pension application records can be quite interesting. I have a book about a Revolutionary War Battle based upon the not only on the contemporaneous records and reports, but also the pension applications