4 AO DOCUMENT NESOBI:- . ED 156 128 Ieoos NOTHOR Aimone, Alan Conrad . - TITLE 'The Afficial ,Records of the American Civil Mars A Researcher's Guide. 2nd Edition. PUB DATE 77 Jr, NOTE 55p.; DocumentiSof. limited reproducibility due to , size of types EDRS PRICE EE-10.83 Plus Postage. BC Not Available fro' EDES., DESCRIPTORS Archivei: Armed Forces; *Civil Mar (United Statas); Government Publications; *Guides;-Letters. (Correspondence); *military` Science; *Primary Sources; *4Research Tools; *United. States History ABSTRACT Official reports and._ccfresFoidence of, the American Civil Ear Were printed by the United States Government Printing Office as the "Official Records, Army" 40.8.) in 129 volumes and the "Official Records, Navy" (1.0.R.) in 31 vellums. This corrected and expanded edition of the guide provides-a brief historical sketch of the O.R. and 1.0.R. and states the tyceeof matoefials that were includfid and excluded. The editing procedures, Organization of the.' 'material, distribution, system, acccaEanying publications (atlas, maps, iadex), gaps in coverage, accuracy of the original documents, and other insights into the use of the Q.R. and N.O.R. as research resources are discussed. Appendix A indexes diagrams, aaEs, victu;es, and sketches in flit O.R. and 1.0.R. AFFendix B_is a bibliography of books and articles which either were not cited in be first edition of this guide or have been printed since its publication. (JAB) # 4. 4 441**#44,444444,3*****443014 #3***314g**44#3********ii*****************44444***** . * Reproductions supf by tDRS are the best that can be made *. *- . froa the original document: :********************************************************************** . L9LitrarySOLletin No. 11A The Official Records of the Ameriban CiVil War: A Researcher's (Aida U S DEIDARTNIENT Of EDUCATION INELFAR NATIONAL INSTITUTE O EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN. ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW O OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECES*RILY REFRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY 2h1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MA1RIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Dean Hough TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC AND BY USERS OF THE ERIC SYSTEM " ALAN Alp/E- Special actions Division US Milita Academy Library Foreutird , EilP Weise, Librarian United States Military Acaderay , .., It . 1177 a ,b V 4 UNTIED STATES MIIJIARY ACADEMY WEST,POINT, N YORK 10996 3 May 1972 it , PcoPlcif45 The issuance of the Researcher's Guide torthe Official Recordsof the Civil War augurs well' to the. student of Military History. Whoever has attempted to use successfully the -War of the Rebellion set can attest to the frustration, despair, and anguish involvedin getting at the information expeditiously. judicious use of the Official Records 0, further complicated ,by the relative ignorance of the scope and depth of each work. What at arrangements and the idiosyncrasies of the editors who omittedcertain Importantmaterials? What, about the cartography? How comprehensive are the maps? What about different editions? What about the use ofindexes?What are otherimportant dcoxnentary materials ofrelevance? i . These and otherbi)Itrographicquestions areIiausibly resolved.by titan Aimone'sstraightforwardtreatment which factildldsiinraluable insightsinto the genesis and scope of theseparammint historical P''' sources. It is appropriate, tnexefore, that-thisinlide be;published as, a Library Bulletin in that the USMA Library's holdings of/American "Militaria" is unique and directly r ated to Military Academy's interestand proficienby in the His of Mildtary Art as exemplified by the cadetcurriculum' the hing andresearch activitiesof its faculty. It .s hoped,' therefore, that = much new referencetool will assist cadetsat theMil as wellas the student of American Military History and out of school. iii el raiewCird introduction 'to the 2nd Ecitica- vi fig stottcal hackgrourrl 1 Cortent inc1usion74 exclusion.. 2 Confederatemataiial 5 - 4 Bitting IF8 ofthe0.9 R.andN. 0.R 9 anent and dikribution 9 O. R. Atlas . 12 03ifelSarate Maps 13 O.B.Index 13 Guide-Index totheOfficialRecords \. .14 O. R. gape \ '0. R.accuracy 14 Footnotes ; ~20 Appendix A° - Diagram, crap, pictbre, 6 sketch suojeot index 27146 t AppendixB- Additional Bibliography 47'-50 S I r ,0'- "Introductionto the 2nd" Edition "' The American Civil Sr ais the most written about war in United ' States history.Confederate and Union official ri.iyLls, and the 'comalmvhidence of Officers and civilian administrators were printed by)he United States Government Printing Office as the 129 boa 0 Officsal Fecords,'Aimy and the 31 book Official Records, Navy. th. addition, the Government Printing Office pUbliahed, in eight volumed, the U. S. Congress' Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War: These three sources have been used.extemsively by researchers into traps if they do not use the material critically The Officiat Records, Army (0. R.) and the Official Records, Navy (0; R. N. or N.O., R.) are not infallible. The firsthand reports written by ships' captains, regimental colonels, and ocerarters of operations reflect their stresses, moods and knOw- ledge of the situation. Few reports actually state the =mender lost the battle or his men behaved badly "back-biting'and "apple - ,polishing" can be-detected: Many reports were written either too soon after the battle for as clear perspective or so long afterwards to be merely a judiciously phresednemoir.Although in many cases an offioar6S report was really written to defend his own actions, usually, officers did report events truthfully, as they, saw them. ' Another shortcaning in these repOrts is the inclusion of some falsified documents. This is particularly tfue of Confederate material which should be evaluated carefully before it is used by researchers. The researcher should judge the reliability of the writer and whether the'data is consistent with other,infondatial ' before basing conclusions pn these docyments. meoently Confederate Lieutenant Thomas Bennett Mac:Rail's original diary was scrutinized and compered to the pUblishet-version. It was discovered by) Pliofessor Richard M. MCPUrray of Valdosta State College, Georgia; that Mackall's diary was rewritten before it was turned over to - the editors of the O. R. Entries were deleted, added and changed to enhance General. Joseph E. Johnston's reputation while downgrading General John Bell Hood's leadership capabilities. The Guide Index to the O. R., pUhliehed'by the tional Archives will be a time saver to researchers using the'0. R. 1 references printed in the 0. Rand O. R. Atlas pertaining to a battle or campaign listed. The projected faVb vo Index to the O. R. will be published by 1979. This seoond edition of the Official RecOrds of the American Civit'Mar: A Researchers Guide, has been corrected and expanded. The has been corrected where necessary but otherwise not In addition to this introduction, a new forward, and 410 an "Appendik-B additional Bibliography" have been added The new appendix listsreprints and other literature not cited in the first edition or publications that have been printed since the first edition of, this guide., s, vii e The Official Records of the American Civil Mar: A'Realearchhr's-GUirie . :. 1101s Historical Background 1 _ . 4 Heroics, mistakes,.foibles, and straight-forward accounts are recordeolin the official reports of tne Civil War commonly referred- to as the Naval Official. Record's and the OfficialRecords.l As the -most quoted eturce fo&continuous monographicand-periddic historical works'on the Civil Warkscholarly and otherwise,Ache 0. R. have , been a Jar:mark of evement in historical pUblishing. Olistcrian Allan Nevins has =- . that the O. R. arelone of the most in i .historical -pub ..... ...., to be,credited to any goverment in world."2 A .. ,,.., -. review by John Puritay summed up the Army compilation by stating that they are as nearly a complete and full record Of theoar as it is possible to produge. _There areibousands of books written ultimo fects,are based partly or whcaly on those in s the O. R.', Infocanatign of every description abounds in the two goverment serial sets but it"goes untapped because many researchers are ova-v./I:cubed by the 128 books ot'the Armycompilation and tee 30-0 nooks of the Navy compilation. an containing over f,000 maps, and almost anyone wonders begin researching. Con- seguently, thosa\indispensable reference works baNe'been used -... aimlessly atttimes.4 What prompted the undertaking of these colossal, projects?. The O. R.'shistorybegan on January 20,,1864, whenMassachusettsSenator Henry Wilsonintroducedin the Caress ajoint, resolutioncalling tor the collectionand publication of military'reprotsand corres- pondence. President Abraham Lincoln signed theresolutionon May 19, 1864. were collected for the O. R. from December1, 1860 toihet tion of Civil War related eVents in Texas on AuOst 20, 1866. The United States govermeot wascontinually influences} during the compiling years by theveteransvwho were politleally aMbitiousinndwhopossessedndtable war records, the tastes and ,desiresot the reading public,andtheparticipants'desire to perpetuate the record of the Union and.Oomfederate armies. The greet amount of popular writing on the war before 1880helped tic- inspire Congress.to autnoriee the gathering of documents of tile United States, .bothsides.c. The'yritingtdmil4thry history hadup to this time, beenofconcern only to Lars,radadebiriams,