Arkansas Military Records

United States U.S. Military  Arkansas  Military Records

Many military records are found at the Family History Library, the National Archives, and other federal and state archives. United States Military Records provides more information on the federal military records and search strategies. For Arkansas the following sources are also very helpful:

Forts
Arkansas Post-- Established by the French in 1686. In 1768 the post was transferred to Spain and the name was changed to Fort San Carlos.

Fort Hindman--Established by the Confederacy; taken by the Union army January 11, 1863.

Fort Logan H. Roots--First garrisoned in 1896.

Little Rock Barracks-- Textual records of this post, 1864-1890, including registers, reports, and correspondence, are in the National Archives and are described in. (Family History Library book .) under the section entitled Records of Posts, 1820-1940 (Record Group 393.7).

Fort Minor-- Civil War Fort

Fort Pinney--Civil War Fort

Fort Smith-- Established December 1, 1817.

Fort Steele--Civil War Fort

Post of Washington -- Textual records of this post, 1867-1869, including registers, reports, and correspondence, are in the National Archives and are described in Records of United States Army, Continental Commands, 1821-1920. (Family History Library book .) under the section entitled Records of Posts, 1820-1940 (Record Group 393.7).

Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
Some veterans of the Revolutionary War ventured out into Arkansas.

The 1835 Pension Roll

On June 5, 1834, the U.S. Senate required the Secretary of War to submit a statement showing the names of pensioners who were on the pension rolls or had previously been on the pension rolls. For more information on the 1835 Pension Roll see Revolutionary War Pension Records. The 1835 Pension Roll for the Territory of Arkansas, which includes Revolutionary War pensioners and heirs of War of 1812 casualties, is available online:


 * Report from the Secretary of War... Vol. III (Google Books)
 * The Pension Roll of 1835, Vol. III (Ancestry) ($)

War of 1812 (1812-1815)

 * Bounty land in Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri was issued to soldiers who served in the War of 1812. Copies of the bounty land warrants are on 14 films at the Family History Library. The names of Arkansas patentees are indexed in "War of 1812, military bounty land warrants, 1815-1858" (NARA M848) (Worldcat). The records provide the name of the soldier and his rank, unit, date of warrant, and the date the land was located.


 * A list of 6,600 grantees, arranged by county name, is in Katheren Christensen, comp., Arkansas Military Bounty Grants (War of 1812). (Family History Library book ) (Worldcat)

Civil War (1861-1865)


See Arkansas in the Civil War for information about Arkansas Civil War records, web sites, etc. with links to articles about the Arkansas regiments involved in the Civil War. The regimental pages often include lists of the companies with links to the counties where the companies started. Men in the companies often lived in the counties where the companies were raised. Knowing a county can help when researching more about the soldiers and their families.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System allows name searching for soldiers. The result set gives the regiments for the soldiers. Then you can check the Wiki regiment pages to determine counties. Often knowing the counties that had men in a regiment will help you determine if a soldier was your ancestor.

Wiki articles describing these collections are found at:


 * Arkansas, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Arkansas, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers (FamilySearch Historical Records)

World War I (1917-1918)
World War I draft registration cards for men age 18 to 45 may list address, birth date, birthplace, race, nationality, citizenship, and next of kin. Not all registrants served in the war. For registration cards for Arkansas, see:

United States. Selective Service System. Arkansas, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M1509. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1987-1988. (On Family History Library films beginning with .)

To find an individual's draft card, it helps to know his name and residence at the time of registration. The cards are arranged alphabetically by county, within the county by draft board, and then alphabetically by surname within each draft board.

Most counties had only one board; large cities had several. A map showing the boundaries of individual draft boards is available for most large cities. Finding an ancestor's street address in a city directory will help you in using the draft board map. There is an alphabetical list of cities that are on the map. For a copy of this map see:

United States. Selective Service System. List of World War One Draft Board Maps.Washington, DC: National Archives. (Family History Library film .)

The WWI draft cards are digitized, indexed and online at www.ancestry.com ($)

World War II (1941-1945)
A wiki article describing this collection is found at:


 * Arkansas, Second Registration Draft Cards (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Online Resources

 * http://search.ancestry.com/Places/US/Arkansas/Default.aspx
 * http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/
 * http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/3680/cw/cw-ar.html
 * http://www.accessgenealogy.com/military/civil/rosters/arkansas.htm
 * http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pensions/civilwar/arindex.htm
 * http://www.civilwarbuff.org/links.html
 * http://www.arkmilitaryheritage.com/exhibits/wwi.htm
 * http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/ww2/army-casualties/arkansas.html
 * http://www.accessgenealogy.com/worldwar/arkansas/index.html