An Expanded “American Wars & Engagements Before 1900” List
Because many genealogists do not know of all the “wars” which might have affected their ancestors. I certainly don’t — do you?
For example, if you had ancestors in Florida in 1739-1742, they might have been affected by the “Jenkin’s Ear War”. No—that’s not a typo. There really was a Jenkin’s Ear War.
I had ancestors in Pennsylvania in 1782-1787. Did you know there was a “Wyoming Valley War” also called “Battle of Wyoming” & it was fought in Pennsylvania during that time? I’d never heard of it but I wasn’t raised in Pennsylvania. But then I’d never heard of the “Heatherly Disturbance” which occurred in 1836 in Missouri.
Restrictions to the list?
When you view the list, there are going be was some “wars” you have never seen. The list could become huge. But if I restricted it to only the conflicts of ancestry I research—how boring & how limiting. Time will, as always, apply the limiting factor.
How the list came to be.
The Northeast Alabama Genealogy Society (NEAGS) recently received a very large donation of a member who had passed away. Books, papers, charts, research letters—many boxes, tubs of papers, magazines and even some pictures. I volunteered to organize the boxes & tubs of papers. June was a meticulous researcher and never used a computer database. Her handwriting is beautiful; she was a school teacher. Viewing one of her Pedigree Charts is a joy. We’ve titled this large donation as “The June Maddox Collection”. It is taking months to organize the papers and each will have to be labeled, stamped and then placed in correct surname files.
One paper caught my eye.
Well, actually a LOT of papers did. But this particular single sheet was titled“American Wars and Engagements Before 1900”.Three columns labeled“War”, “Dates” and “Area”.I have to admit I never saw such a list and immediately decided to display it on this site & hopefully set a page on the NEAGS site to display the page as well. I’ve modified that thought but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I’ve been called an ‘experienced web researcher’ so I’m surprised I’ve never seen this list before. IT’S ALL OVER THE INTERNET in one form or other. I guess I’ve always focused on the ‘large’ wars.
Anyway, as I searched for various “wars” I discovered that not all lists had the same wars, battles, rebellions, etc. Dates don’t always agree. It appears each compiler chose the “wars” listed as well as the “title” for the war, dates, and even areas (locations). Ergo, I’ve compiled this expanded list from various sources.
Be sure to checkthe Google Books listed among the sources at the bottom of the list. More links added as time permits. And enjoy what I hope is a great research tool.
List is categorized under Genealogy Research & Military categories & can be found here.
Note: Post updated April 8th, 2020.