One copy of such record shall be deposited in the bureau of military record within four months after the passage of this act, and one copy shall be preserved among the records of the town. And said town clerks shall be entitled to a reasonable compensation for their services and expenses in performing the duties devolved upon them by the provisions of this act, to be paid by their respective towns, in the same manner as other town charges.
§9. It shall be the duty of mayors and common councils of cities to furnish or cause to be furnished to the chief of the bureau of military records a detailed statement similar to that required of town clerks...
In 1865, under authority of the above law, the Town Clerk of each town in the state was directed to complete a form listing the Civil War servicemen of that town. As seen in that form's column headings, the data requested included the veteran's name including full middle name, his place and date of birth, his parents' names and extensive details of his military service. The forms sent to the town clerks, along with follow-up letters, detailed the manner in which the forms were to be completed and remitted, and even suggested sources of information which may have been helpful to the clerks.
Some clerks were very diligent in completing the form, entering all the information requested where it was available to be collected. Other clerks, as may be found in every record-keeping endeavor, were not so conscientious, and recorded only a minimal amount of data. For some towns and most cities the booklets of forms, if ever completed, do not survive. Where diligence was employed, however, and where the registers survived to the present, there was recorded a wealth of genealogically and historically priceless information. Surviving registers transferred from the Bureau of Military affairs to the Archives have been microfilmed and those films may be viewed at the New York State Library Archives/Manuscripts Section. The original Town of Northumberland register, apparently never completed or sent to the Bureau of Military Affairs, and remains in the vault of the Town Clerk in the municipal building in Gansevoort. The entire register was photocopied and those copies placed in the collection of the Saratoga County Historian.
The surviving records transcribed in this book include the Saratoga County Towns of Ballston, Charlton, Clifton Park, Corinth, Edinburgh, Galway, Greenfield, Halfmoon, Northumberland, Providence, Saratoga Springs, Stillwater, Waterford and Wilton. The remaining towns of the county must have been requested to complete the forms. Whether this was actually done, and the location of any of those completed registers, is now unknown.
Nathaniel Sylvester in his History of Saratoga County stated regarding Malta (p.390), "Unfortunately, as in many other cases, no record was written up in the town clerk's office under the law of 1865." He also wrote, however, "Only five towns out of the twenty in this county have written the record called for by the state in 1865" (p.408) which is now evidently incorrect.
Sylvester did obtain and publish, in that history, lists of servicemen from each town in the county. Where the record books were not found, he had posted lists at town halls and advertised for entries. Those lists will help confirm military service for an individual, particularly if he served in a unit from another state or county, which happened frequently. Most town sections of that history contain such a list, and the text of that volume is available on this website. (go to Sylvester's History).
Keep in mind that the record for a substitute sent in place of another individual lists the birthplace of the substitute. It may also list the Post Office Address of the principal who sent the substitute. The substitute's enlistment and military service record is described in that entry if known. Furthermore, Town Clerks were instructed to include those men who were enlisted to fulfill their town quotas. This resulted in the listing of men who were recruited in locations other than the towns to which they were credited. Often the enlistee had never heard of Saratoga County, much less ever intended to set foot in that town. Occasionally mentioned in the records are the nicknames of the various units. For example, the 77th Infantry Regiment was known variously as the Saratoga Regiment and as the Bemis Heights Regiment, and the 115th Infantry was the Iron Hearted Regiment.
In the index, an entry will indicate which town (by abbreviation) and page number holds the primary entry of information about the individual serviceman. That page number corresponds to the original page number in the manuscript book now at the New York State Archives. Naval personnel pages occasionally lacked numbers: these pages are designated by the letter "N" rather than a number. Information requested on the forms was organized into labeled columns. Those columns were headed:
(A): for "Soldiers and Officers in the Military Service" pages:
1. NAMES (Give Middle Name in full), Residence, Time and Place of Birth
2. PRESENT RANK
3. PRESENT REGIMENT
4. Letter of Company
5. E--WHEN ENLISTED; M--WHEN MUSTERED; AND RANK
6. Enlisted for: M--Months, Y--Years
7. PLACE OF ENLISTMENT
8. W--White, C--Colored
9. Bounty Paid by Town
10. Bounty paid by County, disbursed by Supervisor
11. Relief granted to family by Town
12. S--Single; M--Married
13. NAMES OF PARENTS AND PREVIOUS OCCUPATION
14. PROMOTIONS, RESIGNATIONS, DISCHARGES, DEATHS, &C., WITH DATES, CAUSES, &C.
If Deceased, state whether by Disease, Accident or on the Field of Battle; give Place of Burial. If not deceased and out of Service give present Post Office Address.
(B): for "Officers and Seamen in the Naval Service" pages:
1. NAMES (Give Middle Name in full), Residence, Time and Place of Birth
2. PRESENT RANK
3. E--WHEN ENLISTED; M--WHEN MUSTERED; AND RANK
4. Enlisted for: M--Months, Y--Years
5. NAME OF VESSEL AND TRANSFERS
6. PLACE OF ENLISTMENT
7. W--White, C--Colored
8. Bounty Paid by Town
9. Bounty paid by County, disbursed by Supervisor
10. Relief granted to family by Town
11. S--Single; M--Married
12. NAMES OF PARENTS AND PREVIOUS OCCUPATION, PROMOTIONS, RESIGNATIONS, DISCHARGES, DEATHS, &C., WITH DATES, CAUSES, &C.
If Deceased, state whether by Disease, Accident or on the Field of Battle; give Place of Burial.
If not deceased and out of Service give present Post Office Address.
Note: Spelling errors in this transcription and in the index are solely attributable to the compiler, Lynn Calvin
NAME INDEX
RETURN TO INTRO.