the total number of volumes, books and pages in the entire publication: Volume. XI. XII II (Supp.) III XIII XIV X XVI 21 I XVII XVIII XX I. 756 July 22, 1881 1, 107 Aug. 27, 1881 822 Dec. 9, 1881 797 Apr. 17, 1882 1, 209 Sept. 14, 1882 976 Dec. 2, 1982 1, 026 Apr. 12, 1883 911 June 15, 1883 807 Sept. 12, 1883 1,033 Feb. 16, 1881 701 Apr. 25, 1881 1. 176 Sept. 15, 1881 1,097 Oct. 31, 1881 751 Jan. 21. 1885 889 ay 14, 1885 903 June 29, 1885 325 Dec, 13, 1856 1,035 Aug. 20, 1885 1,096 Oct. 14, 1885 1, 125 Nov. 24, 1885 1,272 May 13, 1856 1,248 June 19, 1880 1,112 July 31, 1886 901 Sept. 3, 1856 1,019 Feb. 7, 1897 1,214 Aug. 8, 1887 1, 222 Oct. 21, 1887 821 Nov. 11, 1887 1. 122 Jan. 21, 1888 581 Mar. 17, 1888 1, 287 May 25, 1888 1,036 Nov. 28, 1888 1, 265 Feb. 13, 1889 969 Mar. 14, 1859 1,090 Apr. 12, 1899 SSO Aug. 7, 1889 793 Sept. 7, 1889 1, 195 Oct. 2, 1849 1,277 Nov. 8, 1899 975 Dec. 5, 1889 1,018 Mar. 22, 1890 636 Apr. 19, 1890 1,173 Dec. 31, 1883 1,118 Jan. 17, 1890 1, 242 Feb. 12, 1890 Aug. 7, 1890 6722 Aug. 23, 1890 1, 163 Sept. 13, 1890 1,0744 Oct. 21, 1890 1,171 Xov. 15, 1890 912 Nov. 26, 1890 1. 111 Dec. 9. 1890 859 Dec. 29, 1890 973 Jan. 13, 1891 867 Jun. 24, 1891 1,029 Feb. 6, 1891 816 Feb. 25, 1891 967 Mar. 5,1891 1.018 Mar. 25, 1891 1..535 Apr. 22, 1891 1, 196 May 13, 1891 1, 235 June 13, 1891 June 27, 1891 807 July 11,1891 730 July 23, 1891 719 Aug. 3, 1891 1,233 Sept. 21, 1891 1, 127 Oct. 9, 1991 986 Oct. 24, 1891 878 Nov. 19, 1891 681 Dec. 11, 1891 1,038 Feb. 19, 1892 938 Mar. 11, 1892 1, 109 Mar. 21, 1892 871 Apr. 7, 1892 XXVI. 11 XXVII. 1,040 June 27, 18.? 1,015 Aug. 22,193 1,031 Oct. 4, 1892 915 Dec, 20, 18.12 796 Feb. 17, 1893 905 Mar. 20,1893 1,150 May 18, 1893 1,238 July 7, 1893 1,128 July 19, 1893 1, 310 Oct. 5, 1893 1, 137 Oct. 21, 1993 1, 136 Nov. 11, 1893 1,531 Jan. 6, 1894 1, 160 Mar. 16, 1894 1,067 Apr. 3, 1894 1, 120 Apr. 24, 1894 1,424. May 31, 1894 903 July 2, 1894 1,508 Dec. 21, 1894 1, 493 Sept. 9, 1895 1,519 Nov. 1,1895 1,219 Jan. 16, 1896 1,587 ! Mar. 6, 1896 974 Mar. 28, 1896 1,671, June 9, 1896 1, 181 Dec. 7, 1896 1,233 Mar. 17, 1897 1, 4-10 May 24, 1897 1, 288 June 21, 1897 1,389 July 14, 1897 1,471 Dec. 23, 1897 1, 216 Jan. 18, 1898 863 Mar. 17, 1898 928 Apr. 8, 1898 1, 201 July 27, 1898 XLIII I. II.11: 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 II. 109 110 111 . Oct. SERIES III. 122 123 121 125 126 1 1,021 1,013 1,260 1,356 1, 111 Nov. 8, 1899 SERIES IV. The total cost of the publication has been as follows: 70 128 138, 579 1,006 For salaries... Printing and binding Misellaneous $1, 265, 895. 68 1, 479, 47.49 113, 171.50 Total Vome LIV and I.V serial Nos. 112 and 113) have not been published, and no material for the hand. They are reserved to contain such additional matter as it may be decided to pub in future, but they will not be issued unless sufficient matter to justify their publication shall be 2, 858, 514.67 The foregoing statement of cost, however, does not include the pay of the army officers detailed from time to time for duty in connection with the work. It is believed that with this, the final, volume of the publication a brief review of the work will be appropriate and not without interest. The initiative of the project of collecting for publication the official records of the civil war appears to have been taken by Congress in a joint resolution approved May 19, 1864 (13 Stat. L., 406), which directed the Secretary of War to Furnish the Superintendent of Public Printing with copies of all such correspondence, by telegraph or otherwise, reports of commanding officers, and documents of every description in relation to the existing rebellion, to be found in the archives of his Department since the first day of December, eighteen hundred and sixty, to the present time, and during the continuance of said rebellion, which may be, in his opinion, proper to be published, (which] said correspondence, reports, and documents shall be arranged in their proper chronological order. In accordance with this resolution the work of preparing the records of the war for convenient use was begun by Col. E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General, l'nited States Army (then in charge of the Adjutant-General's Office and subsequently Adjutant-General), who reported October 31, 1864, that a large part of the official reports of the operations of the armies of the United States had been copied, and that the work was progressing. Especial attention does not appear to have been given to the subject of the Confederate records until Maj. Gen. H. W. Halleck's visit to Richmond shortly after its capture, when, on May 11, 1865, he wrote Secretary Stanton of his efforts to secure and preserve the archives of the Confederacy, and reported that over ninety large boxes had been shipped to Washington. Shortly thereafter (July 21, 1865) a division was organized in the Adjutant-General's Office “ for the collection, safe-keeping and publication of the rebel archives that have come into the possession of the Government," and Dr. Francis Lieber was placed in charge of the work. In his annual report of November following, the Secretary of War reported that cight volumes of the war records, with maps and indexes, had been sent to the printer, but it appears that none of this matter was actually printed, no funds therefor having been appropriated. On July 27, 1866, the joint resolution of May 19, 1864, was repealed and another enacted that provided for the appointment by the Secretary of War of “a competent person to arrange and prepare for publication the official documents relating to the rebellion and the operations of the army of the United States, who shall prepare a plan for said publication and estimates of the cost thereof, to be submitted to Congress at its next session " (14 Stat. L., 369). Hon. Peter H. Watson, formerly Assistant Secretary of War, was appointed to the position thus created, but it does not appear that he rendered any wrvice under the appointment, which expired July 27, 1868, by 'imitation The designation of the military records, Union and Confederate, as * The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion " first appeared in the act approved June 23, 1874 (18 Stat. L., 222), which appropriated the sum of $15,000, to enable the Secretary of War to begin the publiution of those records. Under this act the preliminary work was resumed by General Townend. To W. T. Barnard, the private secretary of the Secretary of War, was assigned the duty of examining the telegrams sent and received by the Secretary of War and General Halleck, and the examination of papers in the Adjutant-General's Office was conducted by Joseph 11. Kirkley, A. P. Tasker, S. R. Davis and N. W. King, clerks in that office, outside of office hours, in addition to their regular duties, and for a long time without additional compensation. Progress under this arrangement was so discouragingly slow that Secretary B-Iknap asked and obtained, by the act of March 3, 1875 (18 Stat. L., ), a further appropriation of $50,000, which became immediately available. This act provided extra compensation for employés who should perform extra services in connection with the war records. A reorganization of personnel and methods was then attempted, but the work nevertheless retained a somewhat desultory and disjointed character, being still considered a species of piecework, to be performed in addition to other duties and without interference with them. The chief clerk of the War Department, H. T. Crosby, was designated to compile the records and have general superintendence of the whole work. To W. T. Barnard, who had previously been charged with the preparation of telegraphic correspondence of the Department, was designed the selection of material from the Confederate records and l'nion telegrams and the superintendence of copying and printing. A number of experienced clerks in the War Department was desiunated to select matter from the files, and to collate and arrange it for the Public Printer. The small printing force previously employed was slightly increased, and an additional number of copyists was appointed. The energies of this force were especially directed to bringing forward the preparation of the Confederate records, so that they might be ready for publication simultaneously with the Union records. A further appropriation of $10,000 was made by the act of July 31, 1576 (19 Stat. L., 119). On the 25th of the same month Mr. Barnard was directed, in addition to his other duties," to assume charge of the compilation of the records of the War of the Rebellion, and was placed in direct control of the force of printers, copyists and other employés connected with the work. Orders were also given for the detail from various bureaus of “such clerical force as may be absolutely required for the selection and arrangement for publication of the records of the clerks so employed." Mr. Barnard retained charge of the work less than a year, being relieved therefrom, at his own request, May 26, 1877, when Thomas J. Saunders, a clerk who was then engaged upon the work, was designated to “perform all the duties of superintendent," without additional compensation. By the act of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat. L., 360), another appropriation of $20,000 was made. I'p to December 1, 1877, $125,000 had been appropriated for the work, which had been carried on spasmodically, without system, under different superintendents," and with divided responsibility, so that it is not surprising that the work was still in an inchoate and unsatisfactory condition. At that time forty-seven volumes (thirty-seven relating to Union and ten to Confederate operations) had been compiled and put in type, and thirty copies of each had been printed. No attempt had been made to collate the matter so that the records relating to particular actions and events should be assembled in consecutive order. This first compilation was not regarded by those most familiar with the records, or by prominent actors in the events, as satisfactory--the Union reports l'especting any battle being in one volume, the Confederate reports in another, the Union correspondence, in letter form, in a third, that in telegraphic form in a fourth, the Confederate correspondence, in letter and telegraphie form, in two more; so that in order to find all matter pertaining to any event it was necessary to consult at least six separate volumes. Perceiving that the work required the undivided attention of a single head, Secretary MeCrary, December 14, 1877, detailed Capt. Robert N. Scott, Third United States Artillery (subsequently major and lieutenant-colonel, same regiment), to take charge of the work. • The Publication Office, War Records," afterward known as the “War Records Office," received its first detinite organization under his charge. The statute of 1874, which directed that the publication be begun, also directed that the Secretary of War have prepared for the Public Printer copies of "all reports, letters, telegrams and general orders, not heretofore copied or printed." A literal interpretation of the language would have warranted the printing of a great quantity of matter of no historical interest. Secretary McCrary, therefore, approved a proposition submitted by Captain Scott January 26, 1878, to omit from the publication (1) Applications for appointment, arms, contracts, discharge, special exchange, muster in, &c. (2) Charges of disloyalty, &e., preferred by private individuals or anonymously against officers, agents, &r. (3) ('laims of all descriptions. |
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