The service cards were originally created "to collect historical and statistical information about the men and women who served in the military." The information on them was abstracted from original records and maintained by the Missouri Adjutant General's office until they were transferred to the Missouri State Archives. The original cards contain a wide variety of information, including description of wounds, dates of enlistment, service, and discharge, and, of course, personal data.
The Soldiers Database includes entries for twelve wars and military engagements, from the well-known, such as the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I, to the "battles that were peculiarly Missourian, including the Heatherly War of 1836, the Mormon War of 1838, and the Iowa (Honey) War of 1839. The bulk of the service cards, more than 380,000 of them, record the fractured history of Missouri during the bloodiest of all American wars—the Civil War." There are descriptions of all the wars on the site.
The database can be searched by soldier's name or unit. Digital images of original service records are linked for many of the soldiers; however, not all.
Begin your search by placing either a surname or last name, first name into the search box. You will get a list from which to choose that gives you names, wars, and some description. Next, click on a person of interest and you will get a screen like the one below. If there is a button at the bottom next to "Image" so you can view the record, click on the button. A PDF will download to your computer. In this case, notice the interesting information on the soldier's Civil War record on the white card below.
Ready to search? Here is the URL:
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