The Tennessee in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Next of Kin
In Response To: Re: Next of Kin ()

Gentlemen,

If you look at the CMSR and find effects left, money due, or claims made, you are looking at different records sources for each of these. You need to look at county court records because that was were the attorney for the family filed the initial papers. A copy of these original documents are often found in the CMSR. Effects left would have been in the hospital records. Pay due and any other money due the soldier at the time of death was calculated by the Office of the Second Auditor, Confederate Treasury Department. This is what you will often find cards of in the CMSR.

Record Group 109.10.5 Records of the Office of the Second Auditor

Textual Records: Register of rolls, 1861-62. Registers of requisitions for army expenses, 1861-65. Register of letters received at Pay Division, 1862-65. Register of payments to officers and soldiers, 1861. Records of payments to soldiers, discharged soldiers, and troop units, 1861-64. Payrolls of officers, 1861-63. Letters sent relating to claims of deceased soldiers, 1862-65. Registers of claims, 1861-65. Returns of deceased soldiers and soldiers from hospitals, regimental and company officers, and others, 1861-65. Record of accounts reported to and returned from the comptroller, 1861-62. Record of bonded quartermasters and commissaries, 1861-65.

In answer to the following questions:

Do you believe that the small number of these claims found in service records is due to the fact that such claims were not common...? You will find that the time between the soldier's death, the time a claim was made, and the time of settlement is a very long time line. You will also find that the claims that paperwork survived for was early to early mid-war. This is due in part because of the time it takes to settle claims. Those that were filed for mid to late war were never settled because there was no Confederate Government to settle with. So that being said, it would be wise to check the county court records and especially mid to late war for any claims. In addition, if the county changed hands during the war then it is likely a claim was never made because the county at that point was under Union control.

...or that the part of a service record containing these claims were lost? There were not "individual service records" during the American Civil War. You were a name on a muster roll that was filed through the chain of command in accordance with Regulation of the Army of the Confederate States of America.

...or were never intended to be included in a CMSR? The CMSR was put together in the late 1800's as Civil War Veterans began to age and claims were beginning to be made for assistance. For Southern soldiers this was done at the state level. The states asked the War Department for assistance with these claims by requesting access to military records to either prove or disprove the service claim of an applicant. Files were created and a system of indexing took place to identify men. If a record was pertinent to an individual that was placed into that soldiers file. If a record, such as a muster roll, had multiple names then the pertinent data was extracted and placed on a "card" and then that "card" was placed into that individuals record.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Respectfully,

Gerald D. Hodge, Jr.
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)
M.A. Military History - Civil War Concentration
Research - Preservation
Historian: 39th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment
http://39thgavolinfrgt.homestead.com/39thHomepage.html
Athens, Tennessee

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