These records consist of oversized returns of militia personnel, both annual returns, 1874-1903, and quarterly or semi-annual returns (by brigade and regiment), 1900-1903.

Information contained on each annual return includes the following: name of division commander; number of each rank of officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted men; total enlisted, and aggregate. Also included is a recapitulation of the numbers of each rank of general and staff officers, cavalry, artillery, infantry, and total men; the number of men available for military duty; and the names and ranks of the general and staff officers. Annual returns for the 1870s were not published in the annual reports of the Adjutant General, and are very deteriorated (probably as a consequence of heavy use).

The quarterly and semi-annual returns for 1900-1903 represent divisional, brigade, and regimental levels of organization. (The 1st Division contained the 1st and 2nd Brigades. The 1st Brigade consisted of the 1st and 2nd Regiments of Infantry, and the 1st Squadron of Cavalry; the 2nd Brigade consisted of the 3rd and 4th Regiments of Infantry, and the 1st Artillery Battalion.) Information contained on these returns includes: stations of companies and names of company captains; numbers of officers and enlisted men present and absent, both by status (e.g., sick) and by rank; alterations (gain/loss) since the last monthly return; numbers of horses and pieces of artillery; absent enlisted men accounted for by name; a record of events; the commissioned officers (names, ranks, and stations); and alterations among enlisted men (name, rank, company, date, place, and remarks).

These records consist of morning reports of officers and men present at encampments, on several different organizational levels: division, brigade, regiment/battalion, and company. They date 1890, 1893-1894, 1897, 1900, 1903 (bulk 1893-1894). Except for the company morning reports, all are oversized. Information given for each unit within a sub-division includes: number present for duty (by rank); numbers of officers, non-commissioned officers, and musicians and privates sick, on extra duty (including cooks and waiters), and in arrest; and names of officers present.

A similar record is also included, consisting of six oversized reports of guards mounted at Camp Garritty, July 4-9, 1900. Each report lists the last name and company of each soldier on each of three reliefs of guard duty, at 9 or 10 posts. Space is provided to list prisoners, but there were none. All soldiers were attached to the 3rd Regiment of Infantry.

These records consist of multi-purpose reports that combine either quarterly returns of companies, drill reports, and returns of property (1900-1901), or semi-annual returns of companies and drill reports (1901-1903). Thus the only differences in the two types of forms are the number of months covered by each form, and that the later forms do not include returns of property.

The return-of-company portion of each form contains the following information: a record of strength at the last return (commissioned officers and enlisted men, by rank, plus total and aggregate), numbers of losses (deducted), numbers of gains (added), and present strength; plus the names of officers and men lost (resigned, dismissed, died, promoted, discharged honorably and dishonorably) and men gained (elected, appointed, transferred, recruited, and re-enlisted).

The drill-report portion of each form contains the following information: date of drill, number of officers and men present and absent (with and without leave), kind of drill, and remarks as to progress, efficiency, interests, etc.

The return-of-property portion of the earlier forms (1900-1901) contains returns of quartermaster supplies and ordnance and ordnance stores.

These records consist of reports of inspections of selected companies in 1885, 1891-1893, and 1897; a volume containing inspection reports of 1896 and 1897; and reports of fairly comprehensive inspections in 1900-1903.

The inspection reports for 1885, 1891, and 1892, are on consolidated (oversized) charts, and include such items for each company as number present at inspection, appearance of company, average age of members, size of armory, rent per month, color of uniform, where the captain received his military education, etc. For each inspection, the questions differed somewhat. The inspections for 1891 and 1892 contained detailed information concerning ordnance, including the serial numbers of guns issued in 1892. In 1885, 27 companies were inspected. In 1891, 16 companies in the 1st Brigade, and 14 companies in the 2nd Brigade were inspected. 16 companies were inspected in 1892, and 4 companies in 1897.

A Board of Inspection in July, 1893, assigned scores to all Texas Volunteer Guard companies for police, and field, and general average. In addition, seven companies received inspection in December, 1893, summarized in a brief chart, with more detailed textual reports on an additional three companies.

Volume 401-1015 contains reports from the State Board of Inspectors regarding Camp Bliss, July 13, 1896; a report of an inspection at Camp Culberson in July, 1897; and a program of prizes from a state drill at Tyler, Texas.

Each of the companies in the comprehensive inspections of 1900-1903 was reported on a separate form, containing the following sections: 52 questions, with answers written in longhand; property returns; remarks and recommendations; and numerical strengths of the company (present and absent). Included in the 52 questions were the following types of queries: (1) What service has company seen since last inspection? (2) Military bearing and appearance? (6) Average attendance at drills? (7) Company proficient in the school of the soldier? (12) [Are the company officers proficient] in street riot duties? (15) Instructed in creating artificial cover and obstacles? (33) Any officers addicted to intemperance or gambling? (35) How many men could be depended on to respond to an emergency call for service on 3 hours' notice? The property returns, including both quartermaster stores and ordnance and ordnance stores, included name of articles, number on hand, number lost/destroyed/stolen, condition (including the number that should be condemned, and (for ordnance) the number and names of parts missing.

Finally, there are a series of miscellaneous reports from 1900 through 1902, of camps of instruction and tours of inspection. These provide information of a heterogeneous nature, such as a report on the attack of a position in open country, the scores earned by various companies in target practice, and the questions and answers of a School of the Soldier.

These records consist of lists of signatures to the enlistment oath sworn by members of the Texas Volunteer Guard, often on pre-printed forms, dating 1880-1903. The oath is some variant of the following: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the State of Texas, and will support the Constitution thereof; and I do further swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully observe and obey all laws and regulations for the government of the Volunteer Guards of this state, and the orders of all officers elected or appointed over me, for the period of three years. So help me God.

Many of these collective oaths, especially those in the 1880s, are part of a packet of organization papers, affixed by an adhesive, that includes a cover letter, muster roll, and other related documents in addition to the oaths. The oaths are often in the nature of an application, either for enlistment in the company, or for organization as a company. Sometimes--usually for small numbers of men--the oaths are on a form that includes physical descriptions. The name and/or designation of the company is occasionally included on the oath, or is sometimes added in pencil, but for the majority the only identifier is the name of the county (sometimes only in the notarial embossment). For this reason, no attempt has been made to separate companies by unit designation.

These records consist of 3-by-4 inch index cards, compiled at some unknown date by unknown persons, comprising what appears to be an index to Texas Volunteer Guardsmen, [ca. 1890]. Information on each card includes only name and company designation (the nickname, not the company letter or regiment); e.g., Jackson, A., Rusk Rifles. The vast majority of these guardsmen are not included in the Texas Volunteer Guard muster roll abstracts in the Search Room.

These consist of the following types of Texas Volunteer Guard quartermaster records, dating 1880-1903, and undated (bulk 1891-1903): requisitions of quartermaster supplies required by individual companies; bids to furnish rations or other quartermaster supplies; contracts to furnish supplies; invoices of clothing and equipage transferred by the Quartermaster of the United States Army to the Governor of Texas; invoices of groceries and other quartermaster stores from private firms; bills of lading; receipts for supplies; memorandum receipts for supplies in use; abstracts of articles received from officers by the Governor of Texas; affidavits from officers concerning their responsibility to the State of Texas for quartermaster stores; lists of articles lost or destroyed/expended in public service; affidavits concerning lost, stolen, or damaged supplies; accounts of sales of public property at auction; vouchers; statements of cost of articles of clothing and equipage issued to the Governor of Texas; daily ration returns of individual companies; consolidated ration reports/returns of subsistence stores issued and remaining on hand by individual companies; annual returns of clothing and equipage/quartermaster supplies for use of militia (rendered by the Governor of Texas to the Quartermaster of the United States Army); special orders concerning quartermaster supplies; and correspondence concerning quartermaster supplies. Many of the items of correspondence are transmittal letters that contain abstracts of the substance of the letters on the reverse, e.g.: Philadelphia Depot of Quartermaster Department (Schuylkill Arsenal) to the Governor of Texas: Enclosed find invoice and blank receipt of stores turned over to ___ for transportation to your address; abstract on reverse: [Date, place, name of quartermaster], Invoice and receipts for 93 blouses--requisition of [date].

Because they formed distinct files, the affidavits of officers concerning lost, stolen, or damaged supplies for the years 1901-1903 are maintained separately.

Also maintained separately are the semi-annual returns of state property of individual companies of the Texas Volunteer Guard for the six-month periods ending September 1901, March and September 1902, and March 1903. These latter documents reported the numbers of each specific item of quartermaster's supplies and ordnance and ordnance stores received, issued and remaining on hand for each captain; the answers to 12 questions concerning the armory, lockers, and gun racks of each company; and a list of unserviceable articles, with the reason why they are in that condition.

There is an order book dated July, 1901, that contains lists of quartermaster stores issued to various companies. In addition, there are seven booklets containing the uniform measurements for individual guardsmen in the following companies: Fry Guard of Marshall (December 1, 1893), Mexia Minute Men ([ca. 1892]-1897), Garitty Rifles of Corsicana ([ca. 1892]-1897), Boggess Volunteers of St. Jo (undated), Dilley Rifles of Palestine, under Captain W. E. Williams ([ca. 1889]-1892), Jeff Davis Rifles of Jasper, under Captain E. I. Kellie (undated), and the Stone Fort Rifles of Nacogdoches (undated).

Also included are three volumes. Two of these are account books of public property and (especially) ordnance stores for individual companies of the Texas Volunteer Guard (1883-1899), Frontier Battalion (1876-1899), Special State Troops (1876-1878), and Special Force (1876-1887). Both contain indexes loose in the front. The third volume is a shipping book for 1900-1903, itemizing quartermaster supplies and ordnance stores, including shipper and date shipped, arranged by captain.

The researcher should be reminded that considerable documentation of ordnance was included in the Texas Volunteer Guard Quartermaster records described elsewhere.

These records consist of the following types of documents concerning ordnance, 1874-1903: requisitions for ordnance and ordnance stores for use of individual companies; invoices of ordnance and ordnance stores turned over to the Governor of Texas; bills of lading; vouchers for freight on ordnance and ordnance stores; receipts of ordnance; sales of ordnance; certifications of the expenditure of rifle cartridges; annual abstracts of property (i.e., metallic ammunition and miscellaneous) expended or consumed by the militia of Texas; annual abstracts of ordnance stores lost or destroyed by the militia of Texas; annual ordnance returns (General Statements, Articles Issued, Dropped, Stored, Loaned Out, and Rough Memorandum of Ordnance); annual reports/returns of ordnance and ordnance stores for which individual companies were responsible; lengthy, detailed, company by company reports of inspections of arms (especially for 1887); reports of boards of survey to examine the condition of ordnance; and correspondence concerning ordnance (especially from Ordnance Office, War Department, Washington, D.C.).

Because they form a consecutively numbered run of records, the affidavits of loss of ordnance and ordnance stores for 1901 have been separated.

Also arranged separately are bonds filed by the commanding officers of individual companies of the Texas Volunteer Guard. These bonds were required as security, primarily for ordnance, but also (especially 1900-1903) for quartermaster stores; the property so secured was itemized in detail on the bond. 305 separate company designations are represented, followed by 32 colleges/schools/universities/academies.

Annual returns of ordnance are arranged separately by virtue of their size.

In addition, there is an undated volume that lists, by company, the case numbers and rifle serial numbers of Model 1898 magazine rifles (caliber .30). The volume also contains regimental summaries of how many weapons and appurtenances (e.g. slings, scabbards, bayonets, ramrods, etc.) were on hand.