PROVO, Utah, Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Ancestry.com, which
has the largest online collection of historical military records,
today added more than 115,000 U.S. Military Academy Cadet
Application Papers from West Point to its online collection of
military records to commemorate Veterans
Day.
"Handwritten cadet application papers are true gems in family
history research, as they provide such depth and personal insight
into the military veterans that came before us," said Quinton Atkinson, director of content
acquisition for Ancestry.com. "It is a treasure when we can see
personal letters and records intersect with our shared history as a
country. This Veterans Day, we hope
this new collection will allow millions of Americans to explore
their military ancestry, while inspiring them to discover the rich
history of our nation's past military leaders."
The West Point Application Papers include letters from
applicants from 1805-1866 requesting appointment, letters of
recommendation and notification from the War Department if the
candidate was accepted and letters of acceptance from the
candidate. Over 115,000 candidates are listed and include well
known graduates of West Point, including:
- William Tecumseh Sherman (1835) – known for his
outstanding military strategy as a Union Army General during the
Civil War, this collection contains several letters of
recommendation for Sherman from his guardian, Thomas Ewing. Ewing's letter praises 16-year-old
Sherman as a "stout athletic lad, and very well prepared for
entrance, a good Latin, Greek & French scholar… His father died
insolvent… [and] it was his father's wish… that he should receive
an education which would fit him for the public service in the Army
or Navy."
- Thomas J (Stonewall) Jackson (1842) – one of the most
well-known Confederate commanders, eighteen-year-old Stonewall
Jackson was the subject of a nomination letter for West Point from
South Carolina Governor
F. W. Pickens. In his letter,
Pickens asks if there are any vacancies at West Point for the state
of South Carolina, and requests a
copy of the department rules and qualifications for admission.
Jackson went on to graduate 17th out of 59 students in the Class of
1846.
- George Pickett (1842) –
an acceptance letter now available on Ancestry.com shows that
Pickett, known for leading the appropriately named "Pickett's
Charge" at the Battle of Gettysburg, was accepted as a cadet at
West Point in 1842. Also included in the collection is
Pickett's resignation letter from the US Army's 9th Infantry in
1861 to join the Confederate army, which also shows that upon
resignation from the Union army he owed $96.38 in "expenses recruiting."
- George A Custer (1856) – most remembered for a
disastrous military engagement at the Battle of the Little Bighorn,
Custer's nomination letter describes him as "17, 5' 9 3/4", good
health, no deformity, reads well, spells correctly, writes a fair
and legible hand, able to perform with facility and accuracy the
ground rules of arithmetic, fully possesses all the qualifications
physical, mental, and moral required." This nomination letter sent
to Jefferson Davis was written and
signed by Congressman John A.
Bingham, the judge advocate in the trial of Abraham Lincoln's assassination and a principle
framer of the 14th amendment. Custer went on to graduate last in
his class at West Point.
The collection includes many other records and letters relating
to artist James Whistler, Dupont
dynasty heir and Civil War veteran Henry
Dupont, and Union Army Major General George B. McClellan.
The West Point Cadet Application Papers are part of
Ancestry.com's U.S. Military Collection, which includes 100 million
names that span more than three centuries of American military
service.
In honor of America's military heroes, the entire U.S. Military
Collection on Ancestry.com can be searched free from Veteran's Day
through Nov. 14. To begin exploring
your family's military heritage, visit
www.ancestry.com/military.
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online
family history resource, with nearly 1.4 million paying
subscribers. More than 6 billion records have been added to the
site in the past 14 years. Ancestry users have created more than 20
million family trees containing over 2 billion profiles.
Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries that
help people discover, preserve and share their family history,
including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.
SOURCE Ancestry.com