Source:Texas, United States. Index to Military Rolls of the Republic of Texas 1835-1845

From the website:

A muster roll is a register of all soldiers in a company, present or accounted for on a particular day, or for a period of time. The commander of the company, usually a captain, was required to sign the muster roll, pledging on his honor that the roll correctly represented the true military service of all men in the company. The original muster roll was then sent to the Texas Adjutant General's Office as a record of the men's military service. A copy, made at the same time and often signed by the captain, might be kept for his own use.

Muster rolls for much of the period of the Revolution (1835-1836) were reconstructed later by members of the companies and filed with the Adjutant General's Office. Most of these original and reconstructed rolls and lists were lost in a fire in the Adjutant General's Office on October 10, 1855. Surviving muster rolls can be found in the Texas State Archives (Adjutant General's Records) and other libraries and archives. Copies of these rolls, made in the 1850s before the fire, are in volumes at the Texas General Land Office.

The purpose of this Index is to assist researchers in locating

• original or earliest copies of military rolls and lists
• published transcriptions of military rolls and lists

Over time the Index is being enhanced to include

• transcription of rolls and lists
• name indices of the published transcriptions
• other records describing military activities of the companies

The hope is the Index will eventually include all the surviving Republic of Texas military rolls, with the help of reviewers and contributors of additions and corrections. Corrections rarely catch up to a book; this Index can become more accurate over time.

The bulk of this Index was created from the online index to the muster roll collection of the Texas State Archives. The Archives' index was reformatted to allow room for references, adding information on military organization, commander, and places of deployment, where available. An example of this new format can be found in the section Index Format. The remainder of the Index has been assembled from sources other than the Texas State Archives.

Transcribing century-and-a-half-old handwritten muster rolls is a difficult task, particularly if working with a photocopy. These online transcriptions are a best attempt at reading handwriting, but are always open to correction if someone provides supporting evidence from other Republic records. It is not the intent of this Index to "correct" the spelling of names on the muster rolls, which is not good research practice, so the transcriptions are literal. The associated NOTE pages, however, do show alternative name spellings from other Republic records.

The grouping of the rolls is eclectic and can be improved. The grouping called "Revolution and Following Year 1835-1837" is basically that of the Texas General Land Office muster roll books, with other rolls added. No attempt is being made to define rolls of "The Revolution" as other rolls of this same time period can be found in the other groups.

The Militia rolls are organized alphabetically by captain's name and may contain rolls of "The Revolution" or the Army. The "Army of the Republic 1836-1845" rolls are organized by military company. The Navy rolls follow the organization of the online index of the Texas State Archives, listing companies by ship.

The organization of rolls in "Campaigns of 1842" is an experiment using the work of J. M. Nance to group the rolls by military campaign, which may help a researcher find records of a company's activities.

NOTE: There is also a series of "Research Help" pages.