This web page is focused on American war veterans themselves. In addition to the searchable database table of over 2 million names, several other sources are described (and some are linked) below. It is not about the generals and admirals, although the table includes many of those. However, they get plenty of fame and glory elsewhere. This site is about the rank and file of people who have served, whether volunteers or draftees, making up the depth of the forces needed in the times of our wars.
Links to some of the sources I have used, plus sources in printed books, are described below.
Revolutionary War
Probably the best source of information about the individual American soldiers of the Revolutionary War is the books published by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). These are the result of extensive research, and should be available in major public libraries. As far as I know they are not generally for sale publicly.
Valley Forge
Possibly the most famous place associated with the American Revolution is Valley Forge, an encampment outside Philadelphia where the men of George Washington’s army spent a bitterly cold winter early in the war. A searchable database is available at the Valley Forge Muster Roll site. That site will not produce a complete list of every person in their database by a single query, and is limited to 1,000 names per query, but can provide a list of all the persons with a given last name or all of those in a particular regiment (if the regiment had not more than 1,000 members there).
Saratoga
The most decisive engagements of the Revolutionary War were the series of actions around Saratoga, NY in 1777. A site containing information about each of the participants in those actions is at the Saratoga List.
National Parks Service (Civil War)
The National Parks Service (NPS), among its other duties, is responsible for the administration and care of the National Battlefield Parks that were the sites of major Civil War battles. Some years ago the NPS undertook a major project involving thousands of volunteers to digitize the written records of the people who served in that war, on both sides. The result of that effort is now online at the NPS web site.
This is a treasured resource, but one of its characteristics is that in many cases it lists several names that are actually different spellings of one person’s name. As a result, although about 3,500,000 persons participated in the war, the NPS list includes about 6.5 million entries.
World War I
Soldiers of the Great War, is a printed book published in 1920, written by W.M. Haulsee, F.G. Howe, and A.C. Doyle. This publication includes those Americans who died in World War I, listed by state, type of casualty, and rank. These books may be found in major libraries. I found them in the Tampa Florida public library.
At least four states published lists of all of their residents who served in World War I. These books are very detailed, giving quite a bit of information about each person listed. The states for which I have found such volumes are Maine, Maryland, North Dakota and Ohio. I found them in the Columbus Ohio main public library.
Kansas also published a list of its residents who served, by military service and by county, but this publication only lists the names. It was found in the library of the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka Kansas.
World War II
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) (commonly known as the National Archives) has a website that lists the 425,000 American military people who died in service during World War II, and also lists Navy and Marine Corps personnel who were wounded, missing, or POW. That site is the NARA site. This link takes you to the state index of the Army and Air Force (Army Air Corps) deaths during the war, and has a link to the index of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard casualties.
WW II Navy Muster Rolls
A site called Fold3 (a pay site) shows the quarterly muster rolls of enlisted men serving aboard the Navy ships in World War II. See the Fold3 site.
Marine Corps Muster Rolls
A site called Ancestry.com (a pay site) includes the muster rolls of U.S. Marine units (officers and enlisted) for World War II and a much longer period before and after. Their site is Ancestry.com. I have so far used this source in finding the names of the Marines who were at Guadalcanal.
American Battle Monuments Commission
Many American war veterans who died overseas are buried in a cemetery in or near the country where they died, especially those who died in World War II. These American cemeteries are administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). That organization maintains a web site showing the names of persons buried in their cemeteries, as well as some information about those people, including their rank, serial number, state, and location of their burial. See the ABMC search site. This will not produce a displayed roster. It is a searchable database.
Some Rosters
Of the many large Army units in the war, such as the Infantry divisions, most have not posted rosters on the Web, or at least I have not found them. Following are a few of the ones that are available.
- 10th Mountain Division
- 30th Infantry Division
- 35th Infantry Division (Partial) – roster index
A Roster of the Officers and Enlisted Men of the 84th Infantry Division has been published in book form. I found a copy through interlibrary loan.
Three books have been published showing the rosters of the three Marine Divisions that participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima. They are available in paperback from online sources:
- Complete 3rd Marine Division Unit Rosters: Compiled from January 1945 Muster Roll (USMC WW II Unit Rosters)
- Complete 4th Marine Division Unit Rosters: Compiled from January 1945 Muster Roll (USMC WW II Unit Rosters)
- Complete 5th Marine Division Unit Rosters: Compiled from January 1945 Muster Roll (USMC WW II Unit Rosters)
Korean War Project
About 38,000 Americans lost their lives in the Korean War. (Various sources give vastly different numbers.) Information about those persons is included in a site titled Korean War Project. That site is maintained by two brothers in Dallas in honor of their uncle who served in that war. Go to the Korean War Project site.
Vietnam War
Hundreds of thousands of Americans went to Vietnam in the uniform of their country. I don’t believe there is any public list of all of them. But about 58,000 of them died there or because of their service there. In addition to being on The Wall in Washington DC they are listed by state in a National Archives Vietnam War web site.
Department of Veterans Affairs
This site includes veterans buried in U.S. National Cemeteries as well as other veterans who have met certain criteria for being included in the list, as well as many wives and dependent children. Both war veterans and other veterans are included. The war in which a veteran served is shown where applicable. I estimate that the site includes on the order of 8 million names, of which maybe half are war veterans. Go to the Grave Locator.