Maryland Military Records

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This entry was originally written by Roger D. Joslyn, CG, FUGA, FGBS, FASG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.

This article is part of
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the Maryland Family History Research series.
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The Maryland State Archives has an incomplete index to colonial muster and payroll records for the period 1732 to 1772, as well as various records and indexes for the later wars and military units. Muster and payrolls of colonial Maryland militia are included in Murtie June Clark's Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732'1774 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983). Also helpful is Henry C. Peden, Jr., Colonial Maryland Soldiers and Sailors, 1634'1734 (Westminster, Md.: Willow Bend Books, 2001). The National Archives'Mid-Atlantic Region has microfilms of the Revolutionary War military service (with index) and pension records (arranged alphabetically), the index to War of 1812 and Spanish-American War service records, and name indexes to Union and Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Lists of Revolutionary War muster rolls were published in volume 18 of Archives of Maryland (1900; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1972). Helpful for Revolutionary research are Raymond B. Clark, Jr., Maryland Revolutionary Records: How to Find Them & Interpret Them (St. Michaels, Md.: the author, 1976); S. Eugene Clements and F. Edward Wright, Maryland Militia in the Revolutionary War (Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1987); and Harry Wright Newman, comp., Maryland Revolutionary Records: Data Obtained from 3,050 Pension Claims and Bounty Land Applications (1938; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987). Much manuscript material is located through An Inventory of Maryland State Papers, Volume I, The Era of the American Revolution, 1775'1789, edited by Edward C. Papenfuse and others (Annapolis, Md.: Hall of Records Commission, 1977). For Marylanders on the other side, see Richard Arthur Overfield's The Loyalists of Maryland During the American Revolution, thesis, University of Maryland (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1968), and M. Christopher New, Maryland Loyalists in the American Revolution (Centerville, Md.: Tidewater, 1996).

For the nineteenth century, helpful published references include William M. Marine, The British Invasion of Maryland, 1812'1815 (1913; reprint, Hatboro, Pa.: Tradition Press, 1965; and Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977); F. Edward Wright, Maryland Militia, War of 1812, 7 vols. (Silver Spring: Family Line Publications, 1979'85); Thomas Huntsberry, Western Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia Militia in Defense of Maryland, 1805 to 1815 (Baltimore: the author, 1983); L. Allison Wilmer and others, History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861'5, 2 vols. (1898; reprint, Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1987); William W. Goldsborough, The Maryland Line in the Confederate Army 1861'1865, 2d ed. (1900; reprint with index, Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1972); and Daniel P. Hartzler, Marylanders in the Confederacy (Silver Spring: Family Lines Publications, 1986).

World War I participants from Maryland are found in a list compiled by the Maryland War Records Commission (Baltimore, 1933). The War Records Division of the Maryland Historical Society compiled five volumes of Maryland in World War II, Register of Service Personnel (1965). Some military history is available at the State of Maryland Military Department, Room B14, Fifth Regiment Armory, 219 29th Division St., Baltimore, MD 21201-2288.

At Ancestry.com, subscribers can access Maryland Military Men, 1917-18 which provides the names of men who served in the army, navy, and marines during World War I.

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