Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 46, Number 3 - Kentucky Historical ...

Ephraim Kibbey’s Company of Scouts and Spies
from Hamilton County also showed “the above
company was called into the service as a substitute
for any deficiency in the number of volunteers from
Kentucky.” 11
Some of the caption cards contain general
statements about company pay abstracted from the
original rolls. The cards for Maj. William Price’s
Battalion, Kentucky Mounted Volunteers, include
an endorsement from battalion paymaster, Samuel
Postlethwait, which validated the payroll submitted
to the War Department for services rendered from
10 July to 21 October 1794. Postlethwait certified
receipt of $823.16 from Paymaster Thomas Love,
“for the subsistence of the officers of Maj. Price’s
Battalion.” Additional endorsements verified payroll
disbursements to the troops as well, including Capt.
Anthony Bartlett’s Company ($7087.86); Capt. John
Francisco’s Company ($7039.61); Capt. George
Frazer’s Company ($6668.35); Capt. William Lewis’s
Company ($10,012.11); and Capt. John Arnold’s
Company of Spies ($8378.36). Brevet Maj. E.W.W.
Butler of the Fourth Sub-Legion of the United States,
appointed to inspect volunteers, also endorsed the
battalion’s muster rolls as a true record of the men he
mustered out of service on 21 October 1794. 12
The original muster rolls—the documents upon
which the carded service records were based—still
exist for many volunteer militia organizations. The
rolls provide information about troops actually
present at monthly or special reviews. During such
inspections, officers (usually an inspector general)
noted the number of troops present, their condition,
and the status of their arms and equipment. Special
notations include the names of company officers, and
the number of soldiers absent, including those sick
or under arrest. Muster-for-payrolls were used for
monthly and quarterly pay periods, and contain more
detailed information such as the names of all privates
receiving pay, their rank, date and place of enlistment,
date of muster into service, and the date and amount
of last pay received. Notations regarding desertions
and deaths also appear. Muster-out rolls, created just
before a regiment’s final disbandment, usually contain
the most complete information, including aggregate
lists of all members associated with the organization
during its term of service. 13
130 | Kentucky Ancestors
Muster rolls relating to early Indian campaigns
are also located in RG 94, with rolls for Kentucky
militia from 1791–94 in the series “Muster Rolls
of Volunteer Organizations: War with Northwest
Indians, 1790–95” (Entry 54). Records for Kentucky
units called out during 1806–07 are also included, as
well as rosters for federal organizations (U.S. Levies
and Rangers) and other state militias, including
Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the
Territory South of the Ohio. This series sometimes
contains assorted papers relating to particular
companies, including orders for pay, payrolls and
accounts, certificates of discharge, and legal papers.
Although the series is not completely arranged, most
of the records for each company are bundled in small
packets and filed by state or federal organization. 14
Because of the fragile condition of the original rolls,
the compiled service records should be consulted
first to obtain basic information about individual
volunteers.
Company rosters for Kentucky units are also
filed in the series “Muster Rolls of Volunteer
Organizations in Various Indian Wars and Other
Incidents Requiring the Employment of Troops, ca.
1793–1858” (RG 94, Entry 56). While most of the
records document participation in the Indian wars of
the early-to-mid-nineteenth century, a small portion
also reflects the service of various state militias during
the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, including several
Kentucky mounted companies raised in 1793 under
Captains John Forsyth, John Steen, John Cochran,
Richard Taylor, George Frazer, John Wilkerson,
Joseph Bane, Henry Greider, William Lewis, and
Robert Floyd. 15 The existing rolls, however, do not
indicate whether these units participated in the actual
military expedition into western Pennsylvania in
October 1794 or if they were only raised in response
to the general civil unrest against the 1791 whiskey
excise tax that spread across the frontier during the
preceding summer.
A few related military records from the War
Department are also available in the series “Post-
Revolutionary War Manuscripts, 1784–1811” (RG
94, Entry 17), reproduced with an accompanying
name index as War Department Collection of Post-
Revolutionary War Manuscripts (National Archives