United States. Record and Pension Office

By War Department Orders of July 8 and 16, 1889, in order to consolidate in one office all records relating to United States Volunteers, the Record and Pension Division of the Surgeon General's Office and 13 divisions of The Adjutant General's Office having charge of the muster rolls and other military records of Volunteers were consoliodated and designated the Record and Pension Division of the War Department. Fred C. Ainsworth, Captain and Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army, had been in charge of the Record and Pension Division in the Office of the Surgeon General. He became the chief of the new division, which was charged with the custody of the military and hospital records of U.S. Volunteers and with the transaction of the business of the War Department connected with them. In addition to the War Department records, certain other records from the Departments of the Interior, State, and Treasury were brought in to the Record and Pension Division, most of which pertain to the Revolution and are now a part of Record Group 93, War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records.

In order to facilitate the furnishing of statements of military service, chiefly to the Commissioner of Pernsions for record evidence in the consideration of Army pensions, it was decided to apply to the military records the same system involving the use of the index-record card that had been previously used successfully in connection with the medical records. The military history of a Volunteer is found on company muster rolls, which were made out every two months, on company and regimental monthly returns, on company and regimental descriptive books, and on several other types of records.

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