An Introduction to the Surgeon's Certificates Forms
In the Union Army Dataset, we talk about Surgeon’s Certificates as one set. I don’t think it is realized
that there are 12 different forms that were used, from which the inputters take the data to enter into the Disease
screens. Because the wording on the forms and/or the information available on the different forms may be
significant to the researchers, I have put together the following discussion about the different forms. For ease of
discussion, I have labeled the forms by letter (i.e. Form A, Form B1, Form B2, etc.); these letters have nothing
to do with anything actually on the form. Each section will have a mock-up of the form, then a discussion of
the form, including the years it was in effect (though there is some overlap when a new form was introduced;
some surgeons were still using the older form), what information was available on the form, and how it was
input into the screens. For the forms before the 1886 form (Form F), there were separate forms for Original,
Increase, Restoration/Renewal, and Additional pensions. After the 1886 form (Form F) there was a single form
and the surgeon filled in the type of application. (Note that this discussion deals only with the forms for
“Original” pensions and “Increase” of pensions. The forms for “Additional” and “Restoration,” will be not be
dealt with here.) Following the discussion of the forms will be a variable index for the variables on the entry
screen denoting which forms each variable appears on. For instance, the occupation variable (a_ocpat) does not
occur on the forms until the 1901 form, so if you are looking to find occupation information from the disease
data, you would have to exclude any exams before 1901 to be consistent.
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