1840 Census Was First to Collect Data on Veteran Status and Only Men Were Considered Veterans Through Most of the Nation

In 1841, for the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau published information about veterans in a special bound volume on the men who served in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and other American conflicts.

Although it had been nearly 60 years since the American Revolution had ended, the compendium (now available online) listed the surviving pensioners, including widows, of that war.

Who was counted as a veteran depended on when and where a man served in the U.S. armed forces. And, yes, for most of the nation’s history, only men were considered veterans.

In the 18 decades that followed, the data that the Census Bureau collected about veterans continually shifted and expanded, providing a historical record of just how much the definition of military service has been redefined over centuries.

Who was counted as a veteran depended on when and where a man served in the U.S. armed forces. And, yes, for most of the nation’s history, only men were considered veterans.

It wasn’t until 50 years later, in 1890, that another census collected data on veteran status. That census identified only veterans of the Civil War and the widows of Union and Confederate ex-service members.

At that time, the main reason for classifying veterans in the United States was for determining pension eligibility. As veterans benefits expanded in the early 1900s, the importance of including veterans data in the decennial census also increased, particularly to track whether veterans were engaged in military operations or were killed in action and left surviving widows and children.

For decades, the decennial census only classified as veterans the men who served during wartime or went abroad as part of a military operation. By 1930, the definition of a veteran expanded to include men who served on military expeditions, which included the Spanish-American War (1898), Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902), Boxer Rebellion (1900–1901), and Mexican Expedition (1916–1917).

Men who served in peacetime, or who did not experience combat or service overseas, were not counted as veterans.

<div id="titlecore-b937e67df9"

Where this page came from

This page was imported from U.S. Census Bureau. Published by the U.S. Census Bureau and, as a work of the United States government, in the public domain; material credited to others is left out.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.