Delaware Military Records Research Guide

Delaware military history in Delaware started out with the establishment of the colonial militia early on in the 17th century primarily to fight against assaults from native inhabitants. The applications and significance of Delaware military records in family history research for ancestors who have been veterans are evident but Delaware military records can also be crucial to researchers whose immediate ancestors just weren’t soldiers in any war. A result of the amount of genealogical information and facts covered in a number of Delaware military pension documents they should never be ignored during the research process.

• Delaware Military Records (Fold3.com)
• Delaware Military Record Books (amazon.com)

Pensions, military rolls and other records for colonial soldiers in 1744 and militia in 1815 are housed at the Delaware Public Archives. A list of Fort Delaware’s Confederate prisoners can also be found there. Other Civil War records housed at the Delaware Public Archives are listed on the website for the archives. Some of those items include card indexes of volunteers from the Spanish-American War, Civil War and Mexican Border Campaign of 1916 and 1917. Service medal applications from World War I and thousands of records (although not a complete list) of World War II soldiers are also on file at the Delaware Public Archives.

A list of Delaware Civil War soldiers is on microfilm at the National Archives-Mid-Atlantic Region. The Delaware Public Archives has a large collection of lists of deceased soldiers, photographs and letters. Also of genealogical interest is the Historical Society of Delaware’s collection of military material.

Delaware in the Colonial War

• Delaware Colonial War Books (amazon.com)

Delaware in the Revolutionary War

• Research in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783 (uswars.net)
• Organized military Delaware units in the Revolutionary War (uswars.net)
• Revolutionary War links from fold3.comwith original data from the National Archives:
  • Delaware Final Payment Vouchers Index for Military Pensions, 1818-1864 These slips serve as an index to final and last payments to over 65,000 veterans of the Revolutionary War and some later wars.
  • Delaware Revolutionary War Pensions Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files.
  • Delaware Revolutionary War Prize Cases – Captured Vessels Prize cases heard on appeal from Colonial and state courts by the Continental Congress and the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture.
  • Delaware Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 Muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
  • Delaware Revolutionary War Service Records Compiled service records of soldiers who served in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783.
• Colonial military organization in Delaware, 1638-1776, by Leon de Valinger, Jr.
• William Gustavus Whiteley compiled The Revolutionary Soldiers of Delaware, Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, (1896) by William Gustavus Whiteley.
• The Delaware Continentals, 1776-1783 (1941) by Christopher L. Ward
• The Loyalists of Revolutionary Delaware (reprint, 1973) by Harold Bell Hancock
• History, Delaware, 1609-1888, by J. Thomas Scharf: Index. (a list of Delaware Civil War soldiers in an appendix in Volume 1)
• Delaware’s Role in World War II, 1940–1946, by William H. Conner and Leon de Valinger, Jr. (1955), does not list all military personnel, although thousands of names are mentioned..
• Revolutionary War links from http://search.ancestry.com:
  • Delaware Pensioners, 1835 This database identifies many Delaware soldiers who were covered under various pension acts in the early 1800s. Most entries list name of soldier, rank, area of military service, and other important information. Those researchers with ancestors in this region will find this military database of particular value.
  • Loyalists and Their Times, Vol. 2  (
  • Loyalists in the American Revolution
• Delaware Revolutionary War Books (amazon.com)

Delaware in the War of 1812

• Research in the War of 1812 1812-1815 (uswars.net)
• Delaware War of 1812 Books (amazon.com)

Delaware in the Civil War

• Research in the Civil War 1861-1865
• Civil War links from fold3.com with original data from the National Archives:
  • Compiled Service Records of Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Delaware
  • Civil War and Later Veterans Pension Index from Delaware
  • Delaware Civil War “Widows’ Pensions”
• Delaware, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865 (familysearch.org) Union service records of soldiers who served in organizations from Delaware. The records include a jacket-envelope for each soldier, labeled with his name, his rank, and the unit in which he served. The jacket-envelope typically contains card abstracts of entries relating to the soldier as found in original muster rolls, returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital registers, prison registers and rolls, parole rolls, inspection reports; and the originals of any papers relating solely to the particular soldier. For each military unit the service records are arranged alphabetically by the soldier’s surname. The Military Unit field may also display the surname range (A-G) as found on the microfilm. This collection is a part of RG 94, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917 and is National Archive Microfilm Publication M1961.
• Delaware Civil War Infantry Regiments and Units
• Delaware Civil War Cavalry Regiments and Units
• Delaware Civil War Artillery Regiments and Units
• Civil War links from ancestry.com:
  • U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 – This database contains an index to compiled service records (CSRs) for soldiers who served with units in the Confederate army. Most of the men whose names appear in this index served with units from 15 different states or territories; others were soldiers raised directly by the Confederate government, generals and staff officers, and other enlisted men not associated with a regiment. Compiled service records are files of cards that abstract original military records relating to an individual soldier. A typical CSR will include an envelope that lists a soldier’s name, rank, unit, and card numbers, followed by cards with details extracted from muster rolls, rosters, hospital rolls, Union prison records, payrolls, and other records, with a new card being created each time a soldier’s name appeared on a new document. The CSRs may also include original documents pertaining to the soldier. The CSRs do not constitute an exhaustive list of all men who served in the Confederate army.
  • U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865
• Delaware Civil War Books (amazon.com)

Delaware Modern Wars

• ?