Commission in the Mississippi Militia

Miclew,

ITEM 1: 'Should this be recorded as a military record or a state-government record?' Do you mean what tag you should use to record the details in your relational database? (Or did you use "record" to mean "cite"?) If  the former, EE usually usually shies away from answering questions about databases because each is different, but you raise a good point here.  EE would not use a "military" tag for a militia appointment. EE would create a "militia" tag. The reasoning here is that so many people confuse militia service with military service and then they (or their readers) waste time and money seeking military records that don't exist from agencies that had nothing to do with the state militia.

ITEM 2: The citation. You've done a good job here. EE might still tweak it a bit:

• The document number needs to be in the citation. The database title will get you back to the right set of records, but the document number is still needed to drill down further.
• The governor should be identified also. Let's compare this to something more familiar. If we're citing a letter to Willliam Simmons, we would identify the writer, not just the recipient. Right?  This document has two partie,s as well. In this case, it's doubly important to identify the governor because most state archives, when they organize their collections of "governors' papers," will arrange them by governor.
• The date of the commission should also be included. With every manuscript document, it's customary to identify the major parties and the date. Virtually everyone will automatically do that when citing a letter. We need to do that, as well, when we cite a report or a commission or any other archival document.