You can find a helpful user guide here which explains the various terms and abbreviations that are used throughout this table, such as Family Code and Owner Code.
Please note: When you see the term “Free” in the Owner field, that doesn’t mean that the soldier was a free man of color when he enlisted. It just means that since no enslaver name is included in his military record, we can’t be certain of his enslavement status. He could indeed have been free, or he could have escaped from his enslaver and chose not to disclose that fact to the military clerk when he enlisted. To check his status at the time of his enlistment, you can look at the “Eman” field. If it says “True,” that means that we have found a record of him being emancipated. Similarly, when you see the term “Federal Army” in the owner field, that doesn’t mean he was enslaved by the Army. If he was previously enslaved, he did become a free man legally at the time of his enlistment.
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