Texas General Land Office
Muster Rolls

A muster roll is a register of all soldiers in a company, who are present or accounted for on a particular day, or for a period of time. The commander of the company, usually a captain, was required to sign the muster roll, pledging on his honor that the roll correctly represented the true military service of all men in the company. The original muster roll was then sent to the Texas Adjutant General's Office as a record of the men's military service. A copy, made at the same time and often signed by the captain, might be kept for the captain's use. Muster rolls for much of the period of the Revolution (1835-1836) were reconstructed later by members of the companies and filed with the Adjutant General's Office.

Most of the original rolls and lists were lost in a fire in the Adjutant General's Office, October 10, 1855. Surviving muster rolls can be found in the Texas State Library and Archives (Adjutant General's Records) and other libraries and archives. Fortunately, many of the original muster rolls were copied before the fire. Bound volumes of these copies are in the Texas General Land Office (TGLO) in Austin.

In 1986, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas published MUSTER ROLLS OF THE TEXAS REVOLUTION  [T1], which included transcription of the TGLO Volume, MUSTER ROLLS #2 (1856/1857) ("MR#2") [see Archive Reference A3], containing copies of rolls for service between 1835 and 1838.

In 1996, Michael T. Moore, Archivist of the TGLO, rediscovered another book of Republic of Texas muster rolls in their collection. This book, now known as MUSTER ROLLS #1 1850 ("MR#1")  [A2], provides earlier copies of original rolls and lists of the commands of Fannin, Ward, Travis, Grant, and Johnson during 1835-1836, and the first-known copy of a muster roll of Capt. Thomas Lewellyn's Company. MR#1 was apparently misplaced or overlooked in 1986 when the Daughters of the Republic of Texas transcribed MR#2.

MR#1 was last mentioned in Thomas Lloyd Miller's 1967 book, BOUNTY AND DONATION LAND GRANTS OF TEXAS, 1835-1888  [T18, p. 33], but was not listed with his TGLO sources. His passage is:

"By a joint resolution of Congress of May 24, 1838, a special headright was granted to the heirs of those who fell with Fannin, Travis, Grant, and Johnson in the spring of 1836. The resolution declared that a statement by the Secretary of War should be sufficient evidence for the board of land commissioners of each county to issue the headright [Gammel, THE LAWS OF TEXAS, I, p.1520, now online]. Apparently the boards had some difficulty in carrying out the provisions of this law, for an act of February 9, 1850, required the Adjutant General to make a list from the muster roll of those who fell with Fannin, Ward, Travis, Grant, and Johnson and to file it with the commissioner of the General Land Office. This muster roll is preserved in the Land Office."

MR#1 was used also by Harbert Davenport in 1936 for his study of the men of Fannin's command [T19]. Davenport referred to the contents of MR#1, but did not identify it as a separate volume.

Most of the rolls and lists in MR#1 appear to be copies of the same original rolls and lists that were copied in MUSTER ROLLS #2, with small differences in names, name spelling, and notations, some of which appear to have been added in later years. The online NOTE page for each roll transcription includes a name-by-name comparison with the similar roll in the 1986 DRT transcription [T1]. Additional rolls and lists in MR #1 not found elsewhere are:

• A list of names from the Record Book of Foreign Volunteers not placed upon the original muster rolls in the Adjutant General's Office. The Record Book of Foreign Volunteers is believed to have been lost in the 1855 fire.
  
  
• A muster roll of Capt. Thomas Lewellyn's Company of the Johnson and Grant Expedition (Matamoros Expedition).

Many of the rolls in MR #1 have had initials added or names changed in another hand. (These modifications have been noted in the transcriptions.) Notes on land certificates issued have been added to some names, also in another hand.

MUSTER ROLLS #1 1850

The following is a description of MR#1, from Michael T. Moore:

This copy of the muster rolls is contained in a manuscript book (275 mm x 424 mm) in the TGLO Archives consisting of the following sections:

• A. Name Index (smaller than the other sections: 197 mm x 315 mm), blue paper with red vertical rules added. Ten leaves. Two sections. Section two begins on page 6 with the title: "Index of Names not appearing in Record of Muster Rolls." The last five pages are blank.
  
  
• B. Name Index of commanders, 2 pages, blue lined paper with red vertical rules added.
  
  
• C. Copies of muster rolls, white paper 31 leaves, including insertions and blank pages, with additional documents glued in. This copy is certified by Benjamin Hill, adjutant general, March 11, 1850 (seal of the adjutant general is attached). The additional documents date from 1851 to 1856.
  
  
• D. Copy of section C, 33 leaves, blue lined paper with red vertical rules added. Leaves 29-31 list donation certificates issued 1850-1854. Certified by Stephen Crosby, land commissioner, on verso of 31 as a copy of the "copies of the muster rolls of the several companies that were under the command of Fannin and Ward, and the list of names of those who fell in the Alamo with Travis, and the list of those who fell with Grant and under the command of Johnson, during the war with Mexico.... filed in this office in accordance with the provisions of  'an Act for the relief of the heirs of those who fell with Fannin, Ward, Travis, Grant and Johnson...'" October 7, 1850.
  
  

The following is an explanation by Moore with a few additions in square brackets.

"We have essentially two books: one made in 1856 [A3], which includes statements that suggest that at least some of these were copied from documents obtained by the Court of Claims in 1856; the other book [MUSTER ROLLS #1 1850] was clearly made in 1850 by the Adjutant General specifically for the TGLO."

"The DRT used the 1856 book, which was probably made specifically for the Court of Claims and came to us along with the Court's records in 1861. The TGLO was also directed to copy its muster rolls (the 1850 book) for the Court of Claims, which would appear to be the 'blue section' [Section D] of the 1850 book (now bound with the original), signed and certified by Stephen J. Crosby. Since the Court had this copy of the 1850 TGLO book, they probably just didn't bother to add the additional names into the 1856 book and the blue section has a note stating: 'Index of names not appearing in record of muster rolls' (presumably a reference to the 1856 book)."

Transcription of MUSTER ROLLS #1 1850, Section C

This online Index contains a complete transcription of Section C of MR#1. The online transcription is separated by military list or roll in the muster roll group, "Revolution and Following Year 1835-1837", starting with the first listing of Col. J.W. Fannin, Jr.'s command. Transcription of the notes attached to some leaves (see below) can be found with the associated commander's roll.

While a reader is viewing the pages of the group "Revolution and Following Year 1835-1837", the browser's FIND function can be used to search for "A2", which will locate all parts of the transcription of Section C.

Additions and rebinding of the material in Section C have changed the original order of the copies so that the page numbers are no longer sequential. The following is the present order of the leaves in Section C, with two sets of old page numbers noted. Old circled page numbers have been transcribed within parentheses.

Leaf  Old Page
 No.  Numbers

 37   (1)      Note re Stephen Winship/Breece Comm.
 38   (1) 33   Names on Record Book of Foreign Volunteers
 39   (2) 34   (Cont.)
 40   (3) 35   (Cont.)
 41            Blank
 42   (4) 37   Capt. Thos. H. Breece Roll
 43   (2)      Capt. Thos. Lewellyn Roll
 44            Certification of Capt. Lewellyn Roll
 45            Blank
 46   (5)  1   List of men who fell in the Alamo
 47   (6)  2   (Cont.)
 48   (7)  3   (Cont.)
 49   (8)  4   Lt. George C. Kimbell Roll
 50   (9)  5   Capt. W.A. Wadsworth Roll
 51  (10)  6   (Cont.)
 52  (11)  7   Capt. U.J. Bullock Roll and verso attachment
 53  (12)  8   (Cont.)
 54  (13)  9   Capt. James C. Winn Roll
 55  (14) 10   (Winn Cont.)/Capt. Isaac Ticknor Roll
 56  (15) 11   (Ticknor Cont.)/Capt. Ira Westover Roll
 57  (16) 12   (Westover Cont.)
 58  (17) 13   Capt. Amon B. King Roll
 59  (18) 14   Capt. B.H. Duval Roll
 60  (19) 15   Capt. P.S. Wyatt Roll
 61  (20) 16   Capt. David N. Burk Roll and verso attachment
 62  (21) 17   Capt. Saml. O. Pettus Roll and verso attachment
 63  (22,23) 18   Capt. Jack Shackleford Roll
 64  (24) 19   Capt. A.C. Horton Roll and verso attachment
 65  (25) 20   Col. Fannin Field and Staff / B.F. Hill Cert.
 66  (26) 21   Note attached, re Perry Davis/Wyatt Comm.
          22   Note attached, re Micajah Autry/Travis Comm.
     (28) 23   Note attached, re Lewis Duel/Travis Comm.

      26 1/4   Note re Capt. John M. Bradley's Roll
               [separate sheet with book]