Minnesota Indian War Claims

The majority of Indian War claims accounting records comprise itemized statements of differences that arose on individual claims (expenses) during their audit by the Office of the Third Auditor and review by the Office of the Second Comptroller, as well as itemized explanatory responses by the state prior to final settlement of the claims.

Individual expenses (claims) are listed in both federal and state accounting documents by installment number, and thereunder according to the same alphanumeric system of abstract letters (A-G) and voucher and schedule numbers. These alphanumeric designators correspond to those assigned to the vouchers and other records submitted by the state in support of its claims. In most documents that are part of either installment 1 or installment 2, individual expenses are listed by abstract letter and number, followed by voucher number, e.g., A21.3, or, as in the case of abstract C, by abstract letter alone, followed by voucher number, e.g., C.2. Each abstract letter represents a particular type of expense (claim): A, citizen militia and home guard units payroll; B, subsistence; C, [?]; D, transportation; E, arms and equipment; F, property lost and destroyed; and G, miscellaneous. The number immediately following the letter in the Abstract A entries identifies the particular militia or home guard unit; it has not been determined if this number serves the same purpose for abstracts B and D-G. In at least one document whose claims are referenced in relation to installments 1 and 2, as noted in the reel contents list in the Detailed Description section of the inventory, the expenses are listed by schedule number rather than by voucher number. Entries in installments 3 and 4 are identified solely by voucher numbers.

It should be noted that since the documents generally relate to disputed claims, there are often gaps in the numerical sequence of voucher numbers; also, some documents whose titles refer to expenses incurred in 1862 may include entries that reference expenses incurred in 1863.

Each claim/expense entry generally indicates the abstract and voucher designators; name of the payee; date(s), description, and amount of the expense and/or payment; ruling of the Third Auditor's or Second Comptroller's office (admitted/allowed, disallowed, suspended pending further explanation and/or documentation from the state; an explanation of or reason for the ruling; or some combination of these options); or a justification by the state. Many documents exhibit handwritten annotations of later rulings by the federal government or explanations by the state and some include a recapitulation that summarizes the financial data presented and indicates the current settlement status.

Minnesota Civil War Claims

The Civil War claims accounting records reproduced on the microfilm may represent only a portion of Minnesota-related records present in this series of state Civil War claims records. Some include references to the state's Indian War claims.

The Civil War records are similar in form and content to the Indian War records. Most expenses in the documents are listed by settlement number and thereunder by abstract letter (A-G) and voucher number. However, individual letters of the alphabet do not indicate the same type of expenditure that they do in the Indian War claims documents, and their meanings also vary from installment to installment. The types of expenses represented by the abstract letters are explained in only some of the documents. In at least one document that is part of installment 7, the abstract categories, as well as the vouchers, are identified by number.

Since the focus of this microfilm is on the Minnesota Indian War claims, there is less information on the Civil War claims in this section and in the Detailed Description section of the inventory.