PUTNAM COUNTY, TENNESSEE
CONFEDERATE VETERANS

INDEX TO APPLICATIONS

EXPLANATION OF RECORDS IN APPLICATION

The Civil War was one of the most tumultuous periods in American History. At the onset of the war, young men eagerly enlisted in the military, fighting for the cause in which they believed. Both sides sincerely believed that the war would last only a matter of months and that each side would be victorious. The romanticized illusions of war and glory were soon dispelled, replacing them with the harsh realities of war. Approximately 620,000 men lost their lives during the war, more lives lost than in all the American wars from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War, combined. Many men returned home with loss of a limb, eyesight,  or in very poor health.

This research is an attempt to identify the men from Putnam County who served during the four years of war. It begins with a survey of the Tennessee Confederate Pension applications filed from Putnam County. It is not an attempt to completely transcribe the records, but rather to outline the significant events in the soldier's life. The Tennessee State Library and Archives has online a brief description of the history of Pension Board and a complete list of Soldier's, Widow's, and African-American's pension applications filed from Tennessee. The list of applications abstracted in this research was obtained from their website.

The research for this project was extracted from the following resources:

• Census Records: Ancestry's Online Census Records for census years 1850 - 1930
• Military Records: Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations From the State of Tennessee (Record Group 109, Microfilm 286)
• Cemetery Records:
  • Putnam County, Tennessee Cemeteries compiled and published by Maurine Ensor Patton and transcribed by Doris Garrison Gilbert
  • Jackson County Tennessee Cemetery Inscriptions, 1801-2003 by Larry Earl Mabry and Reda C. Knight Bilbrey
  • The Fred Clark Book of Cemeteries of White County, Tennessee compiled and published by the White County Genealogical-Historical Society
  •  Overton County Roll Call : Cemetery Records, 1795-1975 by Gary Denton Norris
• Death Records:
  • Death Records Database
  • Tennessee State Library and Archives Index to 1908 - 1912 Death Records
  • Tennessee State Library and Archives Index to 1914 - 1916 Death Records
  • Overton County Tennessee Death Certificates 1914 - 1925 by Shawn Gray
  • White County, Tennessee Vital Statistics 1914 - 1925 by Edna Wiefering
  • Cumberland County, Tennessee Vital Statistics 1914 - 1925 by Edna Wiefering
  • Cumberland County, Tennessee Vital Statistics 1926 - 1935 by Edna Wiefering
  • Cumberland County, Tennessee Vital Statistics 1936 - 1945 by Edna Wiefering
• Obituaries
  • Obituary Database
  • The Cookeville Press
  • The Putnam County Herald
• Marriage Records:
  • Tennessee Confederate Widow's Application Database
  • Marriage Database by Bettie Goolsby Doyle
  •  Early Middle Tennessee Marriages by Byron & Barbara Sistler
  •  Early East Tennessee Marriages by Byron & Barbara Sistler
  • Ancestry's Online Marriage Database for Tennessee
• Wills Database

This abstract is dedicated to ALL the brave men from Putnam County who served during the Civil War and serves as a way to commemorate their service and sacrifice for the cause in which they believed.