Question: I understand there were two fires in the 1800's that burned many records in Washington, D.C. at the War Department. Are there any records surviving that were from these collections?
Answer: The War Department records were destroyed first in a fire in 1800. Then during the War of 1812 additional records were destroyed when the British burned Washington, D.C. in 1814. Recently a new website has been created to transcribe various records that existed fromm 1784-1800 that would have been associated with the War Department collection. You can search this by keyword and other search criteria online at: http://wardepartmentpapers.org/