The Compiled Military Service Records (CMSRs) are one of the best places to look for information on the military careers of your Civil War ancestors. Compiled by the Record and Pension Division of the War Department starting in the 1890s, the Civil War CMSRs contain basic military service information for soldiers in the volunteer armies…
In honor of Veterans Day, Fold3 is offering free access to our World War II Collection November 10-30. Explore the records of the war that shaped America’s “greatest generation”—and look for your family’s own WWII heroes along the way. Whether you’re interested in historical aspects of the war or are searching for specific individuals who…
On November 11, 1921, President Harding presided over the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknowns, also commonly called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which originally honored fallen American servicemen from World War I whose remains had not been identified. Congress approved the creation of the memorial in March 1921. To ensure that the…
The Battle of Franklin, on November 30, 1864, was the second engagement in two days between John Bell Hood‘s troops and John M. Schofield‘s, the first being the Battle of Spring Hill on the 29th. Following Spring Hill, however, Schofield and his Union soldiers slipped through Hood’s grasp during the night. Schofield’s aim was to…
Break out the peanuts and Cracker Jack—it’s time for the World Series! While Fold3 might not be the first place you’d think to find interesting bits of baseball history, in reality it has many quality photos and anecdotes about America’s favorite pastime, especially in the World War II collection. The World War II collection may…
If you’ve spent any time looking through Fold3’s WWII War Diaries, you probably know it as a huge collection of action reports and day-to-day activity records submitted by Navy and Marine Corps units. But if you dig a little deeper into the collection, you’ll find that it also has more than 800 pages of personal…
On October 19, 1781, after almost 2 weeks of being under siege, the British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, surrendered to combined American and French forces, effectively signaling the beginning of the end of the Revolutionary War. A few weeks before the American and French troops began their bombardment of the British defenses at Yorktown, the…
