Personal Servants in the Army

Records of reimbursement for payment of travel and subsistence of officers prior to the Civil War are found in Record Group 217, Entry 516, Settled Accounts of Army Paymasters. The documents contain information relating to reimbursement for the travel and subsistence of valets and personal servants. Officers would file with the appropriate paymaster quarterly. In order to efficiently access these records in the National Archives, the time period and the name of the paymaster have to be known. This makes them difficult to use. One work around is to located the officer seeking reimbursement on a muster roll of a fort or post and from that roll determine the name of the paymaster of that fort and post.

As a side note, Revolutionary War and War of 1812 (prior to 1871) survivor, invalid, widow, widow half-pay pensioner payment vouchers, not found in pension agencies? This may be because the pensioner lived on the frontier and obtained their payments from the local post or fort paymaster.