The Knox County military discharges index is abstracted from the Knox County Register of Deeds books including Warranty, Trust, and the Armed Forces Discharge Register from the American Civil War to the beginning of World War II.
Following the Civil War, military discharges were recorded in local deed books at the recommendation of the various branches of the armed forces. Beginning in 1927, however, the Register's Office formalized the process by creating the Armed Forces Discharge Register books. Public access to the DD-214s recorded in Tennessee are restricted by Tennessee state law for a period of 75 years following receipt by the government agency (TCA § 10-7-513). For veterans who served from 1912-1960, the DD-214s recorded with their local government agency are often the only surviving record of his/her service due to a fire in 1973 at the Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, that burned a majority of the records created over this time span.