New York State Comptroller's Office Selected Audited Accounts of State Civil and Military Officers

Arranged by (proposed) volume number, then by subject, then by name of civil or military officer.

The series includes vouchers, accounts, construction contracts, and some correspondence of various State Commissioners of Highways, 1790-1818, who were responsible for surveying and constructing long-distance roads in various parts of the state; vouchers, accounts and other documents (including contracts for building blockhouses) of the Commissioners of Fortifications on the northern and western frontiers, 1794-1796 (among the commissioners were Peter Gansevoort, John Tayler [sic], Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben); vouchers, accounts, correspondence, and other documents of the Commissioners of Fortifications who were responsible for repairing and erecting fortifications in the harbor of New York, 1794-1819 (among the commissioners were DeWitt Clinton, George Clinton, Nicholas Fish, and Richard Varick); and documents of Governor Daniel D. Tompkins relative to the harbor fortifications.

The series also contains vouchers and accounts of the Commissary of Military Stores and the Commissary General, 1796-1821, pertaining to the construction of state arsenals at New York City, Albany, and other locations, and to the procurement of military arms, equipment, ordnance, and supplies, particularly during the War of 1812 (Anthony Lamb, John McLean, Gerard Steddiford, and Richard Platt served as Commissary of Stores or Commissary General). There are also documents of Governor Tompkins relating to military expenditures, particularly during the War of 1812, and to the post-war controversy over reimbursement of monies the Governor advanced for state purposes during the war.

The series also contains miscellaneous vouchers and accounts of the Council of Appointment, 1811-1817; of the Pay Master General (Samuel Edmonds), 1812-1819; and of the agents of New York State with the United States, 1812-1828. The series also contains vouchers and accounts of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 1783-1790 (the commissioners were Abraham Cuyler, Henry Glen, and Philip Schuyler), and the Indian agents, 1790-1816. There are documents relating to the treaties with the Six Nations held at Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix), 1784 and 1790, and Fort Herkimer, 1785; treaties with the Cayugas, and Oneidas, 1795, and the St. Regis Indians (Mohawks), 1796; and state agents' attendance at the federal treaty with the Senecas held at Big Tree, 1797.

The series also contains vouchers and accounts, correspondence, and other documents (including some payrolls and numerous original enlistment papers of corps members) of the Corps of Sea Fencibles. The Corps of Sea Fencibles was a volunteer artillery unit recruited pursuant to an act of the U.S. Congress, passed July 26, 1813. It was assigned to defend the city and harbor of New York from attack by sea.

The series also contains miscellaneous vouchers and accounts of the Adjutant General, Quarter Master General, and Pay Master General; some documents relating to state payments to the so-called "Niagara Sufferers," refugees from the burning of Buffalo by the British in 1813, pursuant to an act of the Legislature passed on Feb. 18, 1814; and accounts of General Peter B. Porter's Volunteers, 1813-1820.

The series also contains numerous financial and other documents relating to "detached" militia companies that were placed under Federal command and served during the War of 1812, under the general orders dated April 13, June 18, and July 31, 1812, September 4, 1813, and July 20, 1814. These documents are arranged by date of order, then by division, brigade, and regiment. The documents include regimental estimates or accounts of pay, subsistence, and forage; regimental pay masters' bonds; many company pay rolls (most apparently copies of the original documents); and some company inspection returns. The documents also include numerous letters and depositions submitted, mostly after the war, by militia officers seeking payment of their wartime accounts; those documents occasionally contain some details of service. Occasionally there is documentation concerning the acceptance or rejection of financial accounts and claims.

There are also vouchers and accounts for the special detachment of the state militia ordered to defend the city and harbor of New York in 1814; and some honorable discharge certificates issued to militiamen who volunteered to relieve Fort Erie, September 1814. There are also warrants by the Comptroller to the Treasurer, for payment of claims for militia and volunteer services rendered and supplies furnished during the war, pursuant to an act of the Legislature passed April 9, 1819.

Also found in this series are other miscellaneous documents, such as a few accounts of Quakers paying tax in lieu of military service, Cayuga, Dutchess, Rensselaer, Washington Counties, ca. 1808-1812; a few accounts of annuities paid to Indian nations or groups, 1818; and the memorial of Hendrick Aupamut and other Stockbridge Indians requesting that the Legislature remunerate John Sergeant, Jr., 1826.

High resolution images of selected original documents in this series are available in State Archives Digital Collections.

A0005Series A0005, Journals, ledgers, and registers of receipts and payments by the state, contains related records.

Container list and volume/folder list available at the repository.

The documents in this series were selected from records of the State Comptroller's Office by the State Historian for their historical value. The documents were transferred from the Comptroller's Office to the New York State Library in 1910. The documents were unfolded, arranged by subject and name of officer, and mounted on large sheets of paper in preparation for binding into volumes. The sheets suffered smoke and water damage during the Capitol fire of March 29, 1911, but the documents are intact. The sheets remained unbound, and the records were transferred from the State Library to the State Archives in 1978.

Building Contract for Arsenal to be Located in Albany. This item was removed from the series as part of the Freedom Train exhibit that traveled the state from January 1949 to February 1950 (L. 1948, Ch. 659).

Photocopying is restricted because most of the documents are fragile and many of them are pasted in overlapping sets on a folio page.