Personal information given during enlistment - Spanish American War

Dear Ms. Davenport,

Thank you for contacting the History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located several series relevant to the Spanish-American War. One series titled, “Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the Spanish-American War, 1899 - 1927” [NAID 300400] has been digitized and is available online. The cards are housed in “jackets” and provide name of soldier, his organization and rank, and cards on which information from original records, such as muster rolls, returns, and descriptive books, relating to the military service of the individual has been copied. Jackets containing the "record of events" for the regiment and for each company are filed at the beginning of the records for each regiment. Personal papers are generally filed in the main jacket for the individual. There is also a small quantity of miscellaneous personal papers filed at the end of each state file. On the “Muster-In” card, after the question as to whether the soldier was single or married. If single, there is a space for his parent’s name to be included. The main jacket also includes the carded medical records (taken from medical registers, prescription books, reports of sick and wounded, and other documents), which give name, organization, rank, date of enlistment, age, birthplace, years of service, date of admission to hospital, source of admission, cause of admission, and disposition of patient, together with the description of the record from which the information was obtained.

We hope this information is helpful. Best of luck with your research!