John, The three-year enlistment period began on the enrollment date, and ended on its anniversary date three years later. Thus, many members of Illinois volunteer regiments who enrolled in 1861 became eligible for discharge in 1864, while their regiments were involved in Sherman's Atlanta campaign. It was considered vital by the War Department in Washington to retain as many combat veterans as possible, and so the men were offered $402, a thirty-day furlough (if current conditions permitted), and the right to remain in the original regiment if a majority of the men in the regiment choose to re-enlist. These men would be mustered into federal service on the day they re-enlisted in the state volunteer regiment, so those two dates will be the same (the phrase "mustered-in to date" would indicate that the soldier had previously been mustered into federal service). While mustered into federal service, the men were paid ($13 per month for white privates, $10 for black), fed, clothed, equipped, and provided medical care by the federal government. The men were paid in cash on the field or at a military post by a Union Army paymaster. The next-of-kin of a man killed while serving in the Union Army would have been entitled to a payment of $100 from the federal government. The next-of-kin would also have been entitled to payment of any unpaid bounty money and any unpaid monthly wages due that soldier. Tom Pearson