Robert Barker Civil War Research
Submitted by Joy Locke
Many Thanks to Joy for sharing her research!!
NAMES
The Robert B. Barker collection of Civil War research consists of fourteen volumes and one section of loose material. Mr. Barker, (deceased 1980), a lawyer and an avid Civil War historian, placed the material in the C.M. McClung Historical Collection (Knoxville, Tenn.) in 1972. His special interests were Civil War soldiers from the Western Carolina and East Tenn. area and related frauds and bushwhackings. McClung had the material microfilmed in 1985. [Taken from the introduction to the microfilm.]
The following libraries have the microfilm that I know of: McClung Collection, Madisonville Public Library, Maryville Library, Cleveland Historical Library in Cleveland, Tn, and maybe the library in Murphy NC. Just contact the libraries in this area to find out if they have the film. But please do not request them to make copies or to view the film for you.
What I have done was to do a spreadsheet with some of the material he gathered from mostly Union pensions and other war pensions. Many of the soldiers might have served in several companies and many of them served in both Confederate and Union forces. There was so much more than what I have been able to relate to you. There are many that have the children listed along with birth dates. So many have some great information that I couldn't list. Even if you can access the microfilm, which I do recommend you do, the actual pension would probably be worth ordering for some of you. In two cases of my own that he had transcribed pensions, he mixed up the two wives both named Elizabeth and also left out a wife on another when the pension clearly had that information. On the other hand Bob visited many gravesites and put in many census records and correlations that you won't normally find in a pension.
I give you a word of caution on some of the marriage dates. Sometimes I looked up a date in sources I have. Sometimes the date might be off by 2 or 3 days, but many marriage records did not have returns on them to show actual marriage date. Many may have just forgotten the actual date. Where you can, you need to confirm the dates given.
The pensions that were a part of the Boyd frauds were difficult to do. In many cases I typed in wives' names and dates only to find out that Boyd made it up. This too makes research difficult. It apparently got to where that if Boyd's name showed up on a pension it was highly suspect.
The collection is huge and there's so much more to it than what I've given you on the spreadsheet. If you want to know more about the Kirkland bushwhackers and the Boyd frauds, here's where to find it. There's also a volume on Capt. Goldman Bryson's Co.; Southern Claims Commission; James Taylor-Olmsted Lands; the McFalls case; Prisoners of War, Cherokee Co. NC; and pensions from War of 1812, Indian Removal / Indian Wars, War with Mexico, and Rev. War. [Joy Locke]
Here are some of the pension abbreviations:
SF- Survivor's file
SA- Survivors Application
SC- Survivors certificate
W - Widow
WF- Widows file
WA- Widows application
WC- Widows certificate
SO- Service original
C- certificate
DO- Dependants original
I- Invalid
IA- Invalids application
IC- Invalids certificate
IF- Invalids file
MA- Minors application
MC- Minors certificate
MF- Minors file
BL or BLW- Bound land warrant
PC - ?
XC- ?
The Old War numbers you sometimes find are claims based on death or disability incurred in service between end of Revolutionary War 1783 and the outbreak of Civil War in 1861. These were Regular army, navy or marine corp. in War of 1812, Mexican War, Indian Wars and in some cases the Civil War.
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Robert Barker Transcription Project
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