Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: Surgeons' Certificates, United States, 1862-1940 (ICPSR 2877)

Version Date: May 18, 2018

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Robert William Fogel, University of Chicago. Center for Population Economics, University of Chicago. Graduate School of Business; Dora L. Costa, The National Bureau of Economic Research, University of California, Los Angeles

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02877.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2018-05-18]
  • V1 [2006-01-18] unpublished
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Summary

This data collection, Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: Surgeons' Certificates, United States, 1862-1940, constitutes a portion of the historical data collected by the project "Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death." With the goal of constructing datasets suitable for longitudinal analyses of factors affecting the aging process, the project collects military, medical, and socioeconomic data on a sample of white males mustered into the Union Army during the Civil War. The surgeons' certificates contain information from examining physicians to determine eligibility for pension benefits. Also included are questions regarding the age, occupation, residence, and military experience of the veterans. These data can be linked to "Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: Military, Pension, and Medical Records, 1820-1940" (ICPSR 6837) and "Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: United States Federal Census Records, 1850, 1860, 1900, 1910" (ICPSR 6836) using the variable "recidnum."

Citation

Fogel, Robert William, and Costa, Dora L. Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: Surgeons’ Certificates, United States, 1862-1940. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-05-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02877.v2

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health (NIH-PO1-AG10120), National Science Foundation (NSF-SBR-9114981)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Street

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1862 -- 1940

Date of Collection

1991 -- 2000, 2016

Data Collection Notes

  1. This collection contains 98,195 cases that are split into ten files.

  2. There are multiple observations per individual. An individual observation can be identified by the unique combination of the variables "recidnum" and "examnum."

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Study Purpose

The purpose of this collection is to add data from surgeons' certificates to the project "Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death."

The surgeons' certificates contain information from examining physicians to determine eligibility for pension benefits. Also included are questions regarding the age, occupation, residence, and military experience of the veterans.

Sample

A one-stage cluster sample of Union Army companies was randomly selected from the "Regimental Books" housed at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Cohort / Event-based

Universe

Union Army recruits in white volunteer infantry regiments. Commissioned officers, Black recruits, and other branches of the military were excluded from the universe.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Source

Surgeons' certificates from Civil War pension records stored at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

2000-06-21

Version History

2018-05-18 Standard codes for occupation and location variables have been applied to the datasets. An additional 16,318 observations from Indiana and Wisconsin veterans have also been added to the collection.

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Fogel, Robert William, and Dora L. Costa. Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: Surgeons' Certificates, United States, 1862-1940. ICPSR02877-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-05-18. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02877.v2

2006-01-18 File DOC2877.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-01-18 File CB2877.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.