South Carolina Archives
Series Description

Militia Enrollments, 1869  

CALL NUMBER:         S 192021

CREATOR: Military Dept. Adjutant and Inspector General.

TITLE: Militia enrollments

DATE: 1869

VOLUME: 27.00 volumes and 2.00 microfilm reels (35mm)

ARRANGEMENT: Series arranged alphabetically by county, thereunder by township, thereunder by age group, and finally alphabetically by first letter of last name.

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL NOTE: Article XIII of the South Carolina Constitution of 1868 provided for a militia comprised of "all able-bodied male citizens of the State between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, except such persons as are now, or may hereafter be, exempted by the laws of the United States." S.C. Statute 1869(14)215, An Act to Organize and Govern the Militia of the State of South Carolina, ratified on March 16, 1869, exempted government officials; clergymen; firemen; "practicing physicians, professors, teachers, and students in colleges, academies and common schools"; soldiers and sailors in the armed forces of the United States and those who had been honorably discharged from such service; and "Idiots, lunatics, paupers, and persons convicted of infamous crimes." General Order No. 1 dated May 3, 1869, in an order book containing general and special orders, 1869-1876, in Series S192084 defines the procedure for exemption.

By order of Robert K. Scott, Governor and Commander-in-Chief, the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office in early June 1869 required the enrollment to be made by the state census takers and their assistants in each county. Adjutant and Inspector General Franklin J. Moses, Jr., also ordered that the census takers should consider no applications for exemption but rather enroll such persons and direct such persons to apply for exemption from the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office. He also ordered that his instructions be followed and not complicated "by reference to the act." A January 12, 1870, report on clerical staff to the governor makes clear that the enrollment had been completed by the end of December 1869. Correspondence concerning the enrollment can be found on pp. 10-11, 14, 20, 23-24, 28, 29, 56, and 66-68 of the 1869-1870 letterbook in Series S192007, Letterbooks, 1869-1898.

SUMMARY SCOPE NOTE: This series consists of militia enrollment books for individual counties in South Carolina. The enrollments were made between June and December of 1869. County volumes are subdivided by township. The lists of male citizens in each township are divided into two categories, those between the ages of eighteen and thirty and those between thirty and forty-five. Information includes name, age, occupation, place of residence, and race. The entries for the city of Columbia include street names under place of residence. The Williamsburg County volume includes the name of landowner, head of household or plantation name under residence. The volumes for Horry, Orangeburg, Laurens, and Oconee counties apparently do not survive.  The Charleston volume includes only wards one through three and a part of ward four.

INDEX/FINDING AID: The repository has indexed this series in its On-Line Records Index.  Names of the enrollees, counties, townships, and other geographic locations are included. Street names in Columbia and the landowners, heads of households. and plantations listed under residence for Williamsburg County were not indexed.

ADDITIONAL FORM: This entire series has been digitized.  The digital images are linked to index hits from the On-line Records Index on the repository's website.  The entire series is also available on two rolls of microfilm produced by the repository.

ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: Series S192094, List of Persons Exempted from State Militia Service, 1869-1870, contains a list of 531 persons who were exempted. Information includes name, age, residence, race, and cause and date of exemption.

HIERARCHICAL NOTE: Forms part of the records of the Adjutant and Inspector General of the Military Dept.