furnished the Army and Navy by that county, Aug. 1, 1862-May 31, 1864; and another volume labeled "Hyde Park Bounty A/C" contains a record of bounties paid to individuals in the town of Hyde Park, N. Y., for Civil War enlistments and of money paid by drafted men to their substitutes. National Archives, Preliminary Inventory [No. 55] of the Administrative Records of the Bureau of Pensions and the Pension Service, comp. by Thayer M. Boardman, Myra R. Trever, and Louise W. Southwick (Washington, 1953). The correspondence files of the Pension Office are missing. Other records relating to pensions are in the records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior. In the census of 1890 an enumeration was made of the Union survivors of the Civil War or their widows. This was done to ascertain their numbers for pension legislation purposes and to provide addresses of veterans to whom their comrades could write for testimony to support pension claims. The special schedules that resulted list the names of those who served in the U. S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps during the Civil War, and give for each man his residence, rank, company and regiment (or vessel if a Navy veteran), dates of enlistment and discharge, length of service, and any disability incurred. These schedules were transferred by an act of Apr. 21, 1894 (28 Stat. 60), to the Bureau of Pensions for the use of the Army and Navy Survivors' Division. Nearly all the schedules for the District of Columbia and the States of Alabama through Kansas and half of those for Kentucky are missing; the schedules still extant are for the States of Louisana through Wyoming. These schedules have been microfilmed on 118 rolls (M 123), and the States and counties for which they are available are named in List of National Archives Microfilm Publications. Statistical data derived from the schedules are published in U. S. Census Office, Report on Pop ulation of the United States at the In examining the flood of pension applications during 1861-62, the Pension Office staff became aware that attempts were being made to defraud the Government, and the Commissioner of Pensions detailed clerks to try to detect frauds. The act of July 14, 1862, provided for the appointment of a special agent in the Pension Office to assist in detecting and prosecuting fraud. Bradford Rixford became special agent on July 19, 1862, but the statutory provision for the position was repealed by the act of July 4, 1864, which authorized the temporary detail of clerks to investigate suspected fraud. This function became a regular duty of the Pension Office and eventually was put under its Law Division; after the consolidation with the Veterans' Bureau, it was assigned to the Office of the Solicitor. The pertinent records are case files of investigations made in connection with Civil War pensions; they relate to charges of malfeasance against individual attorneys, pension agents, notaries, and others. The files contain correspondence between the Commissioner of Pensions and attorneys for pensioners or claimants; and correspondence with notaries public, examining surgeons, certifying officers, and others. In cases in which infractions of the law or rules were discovered, there are also reports from special examiners, exhibits, depositions, affidavits, copies of rules and regulations, reports of indictments and of court proceedings, and appeals for reconsideration. Some files relate to the oath required of attorneys for admission to practice, powers of attorney, substitution, and consent to transfer of attorneyship; others contain forms returning information on changes of address or death. Information on the status of attorneys, firms, subagents, and organizations admitted to prosecute claims before the Bureau of Pensions is in a card file, which serves as an index to the case files. Pension Files The pension records that concern the Civil War period are among the following classes of case files: Civil War and later military operations, 1861-1934; the Navy, 1861-1910; Indian wars, 1817-98; and the Mexican War, 1846-48. Subgroups in each class are as follows: "survivors' originals," consisting of rejected applications and accompanying papers; "survivors' certificates," consisting of papers for cases in which pensions were granted; "widows' and dependents' originals," similar in content to the "survivors' originals"; and "widows' and dependents' certificates," similar in content to the "survivors' certificates." The typical case file contains the original application for pension, a jacket covering the claim before its allowance and another jacket covering the claim after its allowance, a brief of the case prepared by the Pension Office, a statement of the claimant's military record supplied by the War or Navy Department, affidavits and other documentary evidence supporting the claim, correspondence, a certificate of discharge, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, a certificate of death and papers relating to claims for burial expenses (if the claim was filed by a widow), and a returned questionnaire supplying family data. A file may also contain papers giving powers of attorney, papers relating to guardianship, a medical history, personal histories of dependents, and decisions of adjudicating agencies. Materials that do not fit the case files are in a separate file; they include such items as family Bibles, diaries, account books, and photographs. The pension case files include, of course, cases of Negroes and Indians who served in the Union forces during the Civil War. Although an alphabetical card index to the files has been retained by the Veterans Administration, a microfilm of it is available. The nature of these records is suggested by the requirements of the Pension Office that claimants submit documentation establishing their rights to receive pensions. Circulars issued by the Commissioner of Pensions, July 21, 1862, provided separate instructions to be followed in applying for Army or Navy pensions; both required declarations made before a court of record or before an authorized officer of such a court, as well as testimony taken before a justice of the peace or other officer authorized to administer oaths. The testimony was to prove a claimant's identity and, in the case of an applicant for an invalid pension, the circumstances of a wound or disability. The surgeon's certificate for discharge or, if that was lacking, the certificate of an Army or Navy surgeon or of "two respectable civil surgeons" had to be submitted. Furthermore, two credible witnesses were required to testify to the habits of the applicant. For widows, minor children, mothers, and sisters, proofs of marriage, birth, age, or relationship, as appropriate, were required; and the guardians of minor claimants had to produce evidence of their authority. The legality of a marriage could be established by the submission of the certificate of the officiating clergyman; and the ages and number of children by the mother's deposition, by the testimony of persons having knowledge of the facts, or by duly authenticated transcripts from parish or town registers. With respect to claims of invalid veterans, they could be proved by "record" evidence only or by "record" and "parol" evidence, but never by "parol" evidence alone. The Adjutant and Surgeon Generals' reports and certificates of disability constituted what was called the "record." The Adjutant General was sole judge of all questions pertaining to enlistment, service, and discharge of a soldier. Parole evidence was testimony of any character, other than "record," tending to establish a claim. The comparable record of service of naval personnel was obtained, for officers, from the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation; for seamen, from the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury; and for marines, from the Commandant of the Marine Corps. The record of disabilities was obtained from the Surgeon General of the Navy. Among U. S. Army general officers whose names appear in the pension case files through their widows' claims to pensions are Daniel E. Sickles (WC 785, 655); George A. Custer (WC 178, 408); U. S. Grant, whose widow was pensioned by act of Congress (WC 219, 162); William Grose (WC 525,208), and George Gordon Meade (WC 219, 235). The file of Mary Lincoln (WC 146, 718), widow of the President, who was pensioned by an act of Congress in 1870, contains several letters written by Robert Todd Lincoln. Case files of interest because of the kind of service rendered by the applicant include those on John L. Worden, commander of the U. S. S. Monitor at the time of its engagement with the C. S. S. Virginia (NWC 12, 948); David Baker, who assisted in the capture of John Wilkes Booth (WC 665,992); Boston Corbett, who shot Booth during his capture (SC 218, 545); Pauline Cushman ("Pauline Dickinson, now Fryer"), theatrical star and Union Spy (WC 363, 644); George Beniski, Grover Cleveland's substitute (SO 561, 108); Lemuel M. Hancock, chaplain of the 49th Indiana Volunteer Infantry (WC 582, 165); John S. Staples, alleged substitute or "representative" of Abraham Lincoln (Min C 336, 972); Emma A. Porch (née Emma Alvira Smith), who served in late 1864 as despatch bearer, guide, scout, and spy in the Department of Missouri (SC 276, 360); S. Emma E. Seelye (alias Franklin Thompson), pensioned for her service as a soldier of Co. F, 2d Mich. Volunteer Infantry (Special Act SC 282, 136); Robert Smalls, a Negro who singlehanded seized the Confederate gunboat Planter and turned it over to the U. S. Navy in May 1862 (NSC 18, 992); Lewis K. Whitmore, "locomotive engineer in the military service" during the war (SC 963, 259); Feliz G. Stidger, Union spy engaged in counterespionage, 1864-65, against the Copperheads of the Northwest (C 2, 518, 210); and Timothy Webster, a detective of the U. S. Secret Service who was executed as a spy, Apr. 13, 1862, in Richmond (WC 142, 855). The pension cases illustrate the occasional perpetration of frauds-one by a former Confederate prisoner of war who became a bounty jumper. The pension case files may also be used to illuminate the lives of persons whose later or nonmilitary careers transcend in importance their Civil War service. Such a case is that of Benjamin F. Stephenson, a Civil War surgeon who founded the Grand Army of the Republic (WC 171, 985). The cases may also supplement regimental or company history; for example, one file (on George W. Buck, Min C 72, 980) contains what appears to be an original muster roll of Company G, 21st Wis. Volunteers, Dec. 31, 1863Feb. 29, 1864, and the original monthly returns for the same company, July-Aug. 1864. The pension claims files also throw light on the enlistment in the U. S. Army of Confederate prisoners of war, for the Frontier Service, and the question of the eligibility of such persons for pensions (see the cases of George W. Kirk, WC 571, 150, and George W. Nelson, C 2,467,751). Case files and other records relating to the provision of artificial limbs or other prosthetic devices for veterans are described under the Surgeon General's Office, War Department. Forms used in the Civil War decade in applying for pensions and instructions regarding their preparation are in Henry C. Harmon, A Manual of the Pension Laws of the United States of America. . . (Washington, 1867). Lists of pensioners on the rolls in 1883 are in S. Ex. Doc. 84, 47 Cong., 2 sess., Serials 2078-2082 (Washington, 1883). A list of the names of Indian claimants on the pension rolls in 1866 is in H. Rept. 96, 42 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 1543. Financial Records A number of records provide information on payments made to pensioners or the widows of servicemen. The most extensive series is the pension agency roll books, 1805-1912, arranged by pension agency. These roll books contain records of payments made to pensioners through the agencies, give data concerning military service and pension payments, and sometimes provide genealogical data. A card index to the roll books is of some help in finding records of payments to individual pensioners, A record on cards of the establishment and administrative history of the pension agencies facilitates the use of the card index. A file of award cards, which in 1912 superseded the pension roll books, is easier to use than the roll books because it is arranged alphabetically by name. There are also roll books of Army invalid pensioners, Army widow pensioners, Navy pensioners, Navy widow pensioners, and Navy invalid pensioners. "Abstracts of payments to pensioners," received from pension agents, cover not only payments to pensioners but also other disbursements made by the agents. In several series arranged in different ways are records of certificates issued to pensioners. A special record of Navy invalid and widow pensioners is available for 185765. The numbers of pensioners under different laws can be ascertained from statistical records. (Other records concerning payments to pensioners are now in the General Accounting Office records, Record Group 217.) PATENT OFFICE and After more than 40 years during which patents had been issued by the Secretary of State (act of Feb. 21, 1793; 1 Stat. 318), the Patent Office had been established in the State Department under a Commissioner of Patents (act of July 4, 1836; 5 Stat. 117). The 1836 act required investigations of inventions submitted for patents to determine their priority, novelty, utility before issuing patents for them; required fees from applicants (which provided funds for operating the Office); and authorized the establishment in the Office of a "library of scientific works and periodical publications. Under an act of Aug. 29, 1842 (5 Stat. 542), the Patent Office had authority to issue patents (for a period of 7 years) for designs of manufactured materials, art objects, and impressions or ornaments. The registration of trademarks was not to be provided for until 1870. By the act of Mar. 3, 1849, establishing the Department of the Interior, the Patent Office had been transferred to the new Department, where it was to remain until its transfer to the Department of Commerce in this century. In the first months of the Civil War the number of applications received by the Patent Office declined and the fees consequently decreased. As a result the examining and clerical force of the Office had to be reduced. Several employees who refused to take the prescribed oath of allegiance resigned or were removed. In Sept. 1861, according to the Official Register, the staff comprised a chief clerk, 3 examiners in chief, 8 primary examiners, 7 assistant examiners, a librarian, 3 copiers of drawings, 18 clerks, 22 temporary clerks, a messenger, and 5 watchmen. Subsequent lists show also a "machinist" and a disbursing clerk. As chief administrative assistant to the Commissioner, the chief clerk received and distributed incoming mail and franked the outgoing mail. The patent examiners scrutinized the specifications, claims, models, and drawings to make sure that they were consistent and searched the patent files of the office,patent publications of European governments, and other publications to determine whether devices were patentable. From the large drawings submitted by applicants, the copiers prepared small drawings that were engraved as illustrations to accompany the Patent Office reports. The clerks recorded letters, patents, specifications, and transfers of patents; transcribed patents onto parchments; abstracted transfers of patents; and kept accounts of fees received. The "machinist" received, classified, and arranged the models, which were exhibited in halls open to visitors in Washington as well as to inventors. During the Civil War, however, the model rooms were used as a hospital, and toward the end of 1862 they sheltered 800 wounded soldiers. An act of Mar. 2, 1861 (12 Stat. 246), provided for the appointment of three examiners in chief as a board to consider appeals from applicants whose patent applications had been rejected, to review decisions of examiners in interference cases, and--when required by the Commissioner--to consider applications for the extension of patents. Under this provision, which legalized a practice already developed in the Office, appeals could be taken from the board to the Commissioner. Until 1863 decisions of the Commissioner could be appealed to the circuit court of the District of Columbia (act of Aug. 30, 1852; 10 Stat. 75); thereafter appeals were taken to the District's supreme court. Though at first a brake on invention, the war soon stimulated inventors' creative activities. By 1862 Commissioner David P. Holloway considered it "remarkable that the inventive genius of the nation within the last few years had taken a direction which has prepared the nation for the enormous demands upon her men and treasures." The war, he reported, had "stimulated our creative power in every branch of industry"; for the year 1863 had seen the patenting not only of 240 inventions in implements of war but also of 490 inventions of agricultural implements. Commissioner Holloway, having found the "classification of inventions, by means of which the work of examination was distributed into distinct departments, and the vast collection of drawings and models arranged for ready reference, defective in philosophical arrangement, while the development of new branches of industry exhibited the need of forming new classes," prepared a new classification. The primary headings of this were as follows: |