One of our library volunteers, Steve Higham, has created a new online research resource to help those studying family and local history during the Civil War.
Here is Steve’s Description of the manuscript he worked with over the summer. “In the Civil War, the Federal government established quotas for each state as to the number of required enlistments. To meet these quotas, the states set quotas for the counties and authorized funds that the various counties could offer to entice volunteers to enlist. This payment (bounty) was paid to the volunteer at initial enlistment and a subsequent payment was made at a later date. In Cecil County, Maryland, most local enlistees received an initial bounty in September/October 1862 and the second payment (if still serving) was made later. A ledger was kept by Cecil County accounting for these bounty payments. The ledger indicated the name of the soldier, the locale and election district of the volunteer, his age, marital status and payee and payment date. Also shown is the date of the subsequent payment (if any) and the unit in which the soldier served.”
Here is the link to the Excel spreadsheet containing the names of the soldiers. Steve carefully scrutinized the 19th century handwriting, entered the data into a spreadsheet, photographed the appropriate page and linked it all together.
At Cecil County’s history and genealogy library, our volunteer librarians are working to use web-based technologies to increase the study and understanding of the area’s history. Thanks Steve for giving your time to create this digital research product.
By-the-way, he is working on other online research materials and we will announce those as he finishes working on them.
