War Department Service Inquiry
Despite the September affidavits from Roberts and Eberly on page 27, the Bureau pressed forward with its own investigation. This October 14, 1893 form letter, signed by Acting Commissioner D.S. Murphy, asks the War Department's Record and Pension Office to furnish a statement of Elias Roberts' service — citing an enlistment date of April 24, 1847 in Gillespie's Company of Texas Mounted Volunteers and a discharge of June 4, 1847, and specifically asking whether he served in Mexico, on its coast or frontier, or en route there, for 60 days. The marginal notation "Mex. Inv. Cert. No. 17,403" — a different case number from the "No. 20682" seen earlier in the file — suggests this inquiry was filed under a separate investigative docket.
Full Transcription
(top left, printed:) OLD WAR AND NAVY DIV.
(handwritten:) [stamp "6881"?] R.K. Ex'r.
Mex. Inv. Cert. No. 17,403
(bold stamped number, vertical:) 915730 [?]
___________________ Reg't
(bottom left, handwritten, partly obscured by the stamp:) L[1?] 409 [?]
Department of the Interior,
BUREAU OF PENSIONS,
Washington, D.C., Oct. 14, 1893.
SIR:
I have to request that you will please furnish a statement of the service of Elias Roberts who it is alleged enlisted April 24, 1847, in Gillespie's Company of Texas Mtd. Vols. and was discharged June 4, 1847. Service is also alleged in [blank]. Please furnish information to show whether the soldier was in Mexico, on the coast or frontier thereof, or en route thereto, 60 days.
Very respectfully,
D.S. Murphy,
Acting Commissioner.
To Chief R.&P.O. [Record and Pension Office]
War Dept.
12053 b—5 m (printed form/stock number, bottom left)
