Hi Ray. The rootsweb link was also very interesting but when I read that a soldier's application gives information of unit served, etc., I just had to pull out my copy of William Sheehy's petition. None of that information is there. It took me years to finally find where William served in the Civil War, mainly because of the spelling of his name. I had his petition for naturalization all that time. Would that it HAD contained his military information. This is indeed a soldier's petition because it says Soldier's at the top of the page. That was the first hint that I had that William had probably been in the Civil War. I finally found where he served (NY 5 Cavalry, Co. D) when I found the information on him on a local GAR list. When I got his military file, I listed 9 different spellings of the name Sheehy in that file. It is not a wonder that I had not been able to find him. Add to that, he signed up in Springfield, Massachusetts. So I guess maybe the military information on petitions differed from state to state, too. Monica ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com