Let me put my two cents in about this Pennsylvania born young man joining the Army immediately after the Revolution: This is based solely on my research on one of my early Pennsylvania German ancestors. After the death of his father (don't know about mother's death), he was apprenticed to a sadler. He ran away from his apprenticeship and joined in the early 1770s with Daniel Boone, as believed by his son (Draper Manuscripts letter), Boone being then at New River. My understanding from reading various history books (not much) by Bernard Bailyn is that masters of such apprentices/indentured servants posted notices in whatever papers existed that this person was a runaway, and good physical descriptions were given. Bailyn has illustrations and examples of such posters. Bailyn's book to which I am referring Voyagers to the West. I have not done enough Pennsylvania research to learn whether the sadler posted such a notice. However, there was generally a reward for the return of such a runaway. Many of them, of course, were indentured, and had not worked off their indenture. (Do a google search for Bernard Bailyn--good books!) Had your man run away? Perhaps. Joining the Army was to emancipate himself, perhaps. Regarding military records of a later era: Old War pension records sometimes include persons who were in the Army (perhaps Navy and Marines, also) prior to the Civil War. Do not overlook these lists when you can find them. I read the filmed Army Register for 1852, and found my [later] German had enlisted, when he was practically off the boat at New Orleans. His fellow enlistees were either German or Irish. When I obtained his pension file, I learned he was in the Army before the formation of the First Cavalry. It was previously called Mounted Rifles, and they were apparently all over Indian country. (More history is in order.) Genealogy is a fascinating hobby, leading you to do reading you never expected to do!!! E.W.Wallace