Missouri Territory in the War of 1812

United States   War of 1812    Missouri Military    Missouri Territory in the War of 1812



Introduction
During the War of 1812, the Missouri Territory supplied 1,556 cavalry men. On the map of the Upper Mississippi River: (1) Fort Bellefontaine, U.S. headquarters; (2) Fort Osage, abandoned 1813; (3) Fort Madison, defeated 1813; (4) Fort Shelby, defeated 1814; (5) Battle of Rock island Rapids, July 1814 and the Battle of Credit Island, September 1814; (6) Fort Johnson, abandoned 1814; and (7) Fort Cap au Gris and the Battle of the Sink Hole, May 1815.

Explanation of the Major Record Types

 * Pearson, Thomas A., comp. Genealogical Records of the War of 1812: an Introduction and Selected Bibliography of Materials in the Collection of St. Louis Public Library. (St. Louis, Missouri: St. Louis Public Library, July 2004).

Service Records

 * The Missouri Soldier's Database: War of 1812 - WWI is a database from the Missouri State Archives that provides information from service cards created by the Missouri Adjutant General's Office. The service cards include more than 576,00 Missouri soldiers who served in conflicts from the War of 1812 to World War I. Once an ancestor is found, others who served in the same unit can be seen by clicking on the unit link in the view details field.The Missouri State Archives has a brief description of Missouri troops in the War of 1812.


 * St. Louis Public Library owns NARA's microfilm set, Index to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the War of 1812.


 * Ancestry. War of 1812 Service Records. ($). This database gives name, company, rank at time of induction and at time of discharge of men mustered into the armed forces between 1812 and 1825.(Accessed 11 May 2012).
 * Missouri. Adjutant General's Office. Military Records, 1812-1904, has records related to: (1) the Seminole War of 1837; (2) Mexican War; (3) War of 1812; (4) Mormon War; (5) Civil War; (6) Iowa War; (7) Heatherly War; and (8) Black Hawk War. Records alphabetical by surname, but not always in strict alphabetical order within each letter. Indexes are included.

Pension Records
A soldier may have been recorded in state records (see below) or in federal records (see US War of 1812 Pension Records).


 * Fold3. Missouri War of 1812 Pension Files . (Free). Alphabetical by surname. Shows the entire pension file for those digitized. Incomplete as of 1 Jun 2012.


 * War of 1812 Pensioners, Missouri: Transcribed from Government Printing Office Material, 1883. (Gregath Publishing Company, Eastern Division, 1983). 222 pages.


 * McGhee, Lucy Kate: Missouri Revolutionary Soldiers, War of 1812, and Indian Wars-Pension List. 53 pages.

Bounty Land Warrants

 * WorldCat. Military Land Warrants in Missouri, 1819: An Alphabetical Index of Missouri Patentees. (Reprint:1858). Lists the date, name of patentee, land warrant number, regiment, and land description. WorldCat gives location of printed copies. No digital copy currently available.


 * 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 Missouri patentees are indexed in "War of 1812, military bounty land warrants, 1815-1858" (NARA M848) ; . The records provide the name of the soldier and his rank, unit, date of warrant, and the date the land was located.


 * Dunaway, Maxine, compiler. Missouri Military Land Warrants, War of 1812. Springfield, Missouri: Maxine Dunaway, 1985. ; Lists the name of purchaser, section, township, range, warrant number, patent date, book, and page.


 * Military Land Warrants in Missouri, 1819: An Alphabetical Index of Missouri Patentees. 1858. Reprint, not published, 1988. ; Lists the date, name of patentee, land warrant number, regiment, and land description.


 * Till, Louise Gay Rogers. Military land warrants in Missouri, 1819: alphabetical index of Missouri patentees,(1988


 * The St. Louis Public Library website provides a bibliography, Bounty and Public Land Claims, 1788-1855: a Selected Bibliography of Items in the Collection of St. Louis Public Library.

Bounty Land
Veterans were offered a total of 6 million acres of bounty land in Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, and later, Missouri. Starting in 1852 bounty land warrants were also awarded outside these assigned districts.

Bounty land applications and warrants for the Revolutionary War and some warrants for the War of 1812 have been microfilmed. They are available at the Family History Library and are described in this set of Wiki pages for those wars. For more information about bounty land records, the following sources will be helpful:


 * Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives. Rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Record Administration, 1985. (FHL 973 A3usn 1985.) See chapter 8.
 * Hone, E. Wade. Land and Property Research in the United States. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997. (FHL book 973 R27h.) See chapter 9, pages 115–26.


 * Land Warrants U.S. War Bounty Land Warrants, 1789-1858, can be found on Ancestry.com ($). This data base contains bounty land warrants issued to veterans of the War of 1812, between 1815-1858.


 * War of 1812 Bounty Lands in Illinois. Thomson, Illinois: Heritage House, 1977. A reprint of Lands in Illinois to Soldiers of Late War. (26th Congress, 1st Session, 1840. House Doc. 262.) These records are arranged by date and include number of warrant, name of patentee, rank, description of the tract, and to whom delivered.

Important National and International Sources

 * United States in the War of 1812 has lists of records, books, etc. for the United States, not just one state. The federal records are listed here rather than on each state page. Two of the most important are:


 * FamilySearch Historical Records Collection On line Database:


 * FamilySearch Historical Records Collection On line Database:


 * War of 1812, 1812 to 1815 has lists of general books and documentaries, as well as a list battles with links to web sites about the battles, and other information not tied to one country.