Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, came to be responsible for preserving and administering information about all aspects of the state’s military service.  Created pursuant to Resolves 1886, c 59, this series establishes those entitled to prize money in Admiral Farragut’s fleet for service during the Civil War.
Arrangement: Arranged by vessel and crew
Notes: Collated: 1886
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength; these activities were intensified during the Civil War.  These lists identify members of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia at that time by regiment and company, providing information about their respective discharge from military service.
Arrangement: Arranged numerically by regiment, thereunder by company in reverse alphabetical order
Notes: Reel GSU 507: regts. 1-26 (start).  Reel GSU 508: regts. 26 (end)-54; re-enlistments regts. 2-19
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength.  During the Civil War these activities were intensified, particularly as they related to fulfillment of municipal recruitment quotas and determinations of entitlement to state aid and bounties. This series identifies recruits credited to specific municipalities in fulfillment of their respective recruitment quotas, and is based on information provided by deputy provost marshals of recruitment districts.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by municipality
Notes: An explanatory note in the Archives control file, prepared ca. 1920 by Frederick W. Cross, military archivist, refers to four volumes that were likely bound into one as this series
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength; these activities were intensified during the Civil War.  This series lists soldiers enrolled in various military units at Washington, D. C. at that time and identifies the Massachusetts municipality to which credit was to be given for each enlistee.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by surname
Restrictions: Restricted as fragile. Access by permission of state archivist or curator of Massachusetts Archives only
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, came to be responsible for preserving information about past military episodes and service relating to Massachusetts.  This series consists of halftone photographs of posed pictures of various units and officers of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia before and during the Spanish-American War.
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Scope and Content: During the Civil War President Lincoln issued a call on July 2, 1862 for 300,000 men to serve for 3 years. The Federal Militia Act of July 17, 1862 authorized the president to call up state militias into national service for 9 months and “to make all necessary rules and regulations.” The President’s General Order 94 of Aug. 4, 1862 called for 300,000 militia to serve for 9 months. States not meeting their quota by Sept. 3 (or Aug. 15 for the July 2 call) would be subject to a draft, the first instance of the federal government assuming the authority to draft in the United States. –The Secretary of War issued General Order 99 (Aug. 9), specifying that governor of each state was to enroll all able-bodied men 18 to 45. In Massachusetts, the state Adjutant General issued General Order 38 (Aug. 21), directing selectmen or other officials of each municipality to assemble an enrollment list of all eligible men. The order also provided for a drafting commissioner for each county and surgeons, to be appointed by the governor. They were to establish exemptions, such as for those already in the military, working on railroads, or with issues of age or poor health. –On Aug. 23, 1862, William Rogers was commissioned Second Assistant Adjutant General to administer the draft in Massachusetts. Rogers established each municipality’s quota based on the total number of able-bodied men before the war had started in 1861, as well as giving credit for the number of men it had already sent to the war effort. –Massachusetts General Order 51 (Sept. 30, 1862) gave Oct. 15 as the final deadline before the draft was to proceed. The bounty was then increased to
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength.  During and after the Civil War these activities were intensified, particularly as they related to fulfillment of municipal recruitment quotas and determinations of entitlement to state aid, bounties, and other benefits.  These payroll sheets, the authority document by which payment was made, record bounty payments to individual soldiers who, in turn, acknowledged receipt of payment by signing the sheet.
Arrangement: Arranged by roll no., thereunder chronologically
Notes: Although the adjutant general had responsibility for militia pay records before, during, and after the Civil War, including this series, from Dec. 1864 (pursuant to General Order 51) such records were in the specific custody of the paymaster general until that office lapsed in 1866. Spine title: Bounty pay rolls of Mass. Volunteers. –Reel GSU 508: 1- 388.  Reel GSU 509: 388-1301.  Reel GSU 510: 1301-2185.  Reel GSU 511: 2185-3118.  Reel GSU 512: 3118-3681
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength.  Originally used to confirm the personnel of each unit and validate payment of the military personnel during the War of 1812, these rolls subsequently were used to substantiate claims of expenditures made by Massachusetts against the United States.
Arrangement: Arranged by military unit
Notes: A report inquiring into records held by the Massachusetts state secretary, pursuant to Resolves 1884, c 60, provides the following information:  “The muster rolls of the War of 1812 are not in the office, but are in Washington, whither they were sent, it would appear, under the Resolve of February 1, 1816, which directed the Secretary and Treasurer to deliver to the agent appointed to prosecute the claims of Massachusetts against the General Government, all rolls, vouchers, accounts and papers necessary to substantiate that claim for expenses incurred during the war.  The Legislature of the state, at various times, has passed resolves looking to the recovery of these rolls, but they have never been obtained.  The Adjutant-General has succeeded in obtaining copies of a part of them….” Reel GSU 530: v. 1-2 (start).  Reel GSU 531: v. 2 (end)-v. 3 (start).  Reel GSU 532: v. 3 (end)-v. 5 (start).  Reel GSU 533: v. 5 (end)-v. 6 (start). Reel GSU 534: v. 6 (end)-v. 7 (start).  Reel GSU 535: v. 7 (end)-v. 9 (start).  Reel GSU 536: v. 9 (end)
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength; these activities were intensified during the Civil War.  Muster rolls demonstrated the strength and readiness of the militia units at that time, as well as providing information for the payment of military personnel.  Rolls were filled out by the provost marshal in multiples with copies returned to the adjutant general.  These lists seem to be confined to information about men conscripted for service and substitutes.  In this, they would be auxiliary to the regular unit rolls.
Arrangement: Arranged within each subseries by regiment. Organized into three subseries: (1) Muster rolls (2) Descriptive rolls of conscripts (3) Lists of substitutes from various districts
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength; these activities were intensified during the Civil War.  Muster rolls demonstrated strength and readiness of militia units for the war, as well as providing information for the payment of the military personnel.  Rolls were filled out in multiples with copies returned to the adjutant general.
Arrangement: Arranged by branch of service, thereunder by military unit, and then chronologically
Notes: Several volumes contain useful explanatory notes by Frederick W. Cross, military archivist, on the front flyleaf.  He apparently reviewed these materials in the period 1919-1921
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