Letters sent by the Office of the Adjutant General, main series, 1800-1890

Noter

"The series here reproduced is the main series of letters sent by the Adjutant General. It is not, however, the only such series. Beginning in 1825 letters relating to the recruiting service and reports and endorsements to the Secretary of War were recorded in two separate series of volumes. During and after the Civil War several organizational units that were created as a result of the great increase in the business of the department maintained their own series of volumes of letters sent. Among these units were the Volunteer Service Division; Colored Troops Division; Enlisted Branch; Appointment, Commission, and Personal Branch; Bounty and Claims Division; and Military Prison Record Division.".

"Not all the communications here reproduced were sent by the Adjutant General. Letters and telegrams sent by Commanding General of the Army William T. Sherman for the years 1869-72 and 1876-80 are copied into these volumes. Also included are telegrams sent by Sherman (1881-83) and some letters sent by Secretaries of War Lewis Cass (1835-36), William L. Marcy (1846-48), John A. Rawlings (1869), and William W. Belknap (1870-72).".

"According to the recordkeeping practices of the time, all letters sent were copied into books. Those in the volumes here reproduced deal with recruiting; the detail, transfer, pay, promotion, leave, and discharge of officers and enlisted men; orders, regulations, and other issuances of the War Department; the establishment, maintenance, repair, and abandonment of military posts and reservations; military organizations; Indian affairs; and many other subjects. The letters were sent to officers and enlisted men of the Army, the Secretary of War, the President, officials of other Government departments, Members of Congress, private persons, and business firms.".

"The first four volumes in this series have been given the letter designations A, B, C, and D; the rest are naumbered from 1 to 85, including three volumes numbered 1 1/2, 2 1/2, and 3 1/2.".

"The intended arrangement of the letters within each volume was chronological, but the clerks were not always able to copy them precisely in that order. Particularly during times of stress and increased activity some of the copying work was delayed. The first few pages of several of the volumes contain letters that should have been entered in the previous volume, and the last few pages of several of the volumes include letters that should have been entered earlier in the same volume"--Introd.

"In the margin beside many of the letters, beginning about 1830, appear two numbers, one above the other, separated by a line. The lower number is that of the next subsequent page in the same volume on which a letter to the same correspondent is recorded, and the upper number is that of the next preceding page on which such a letter appears. Beginning about 1865, and increasingly thereafter, there sometimes are file references to related incoming communications.".

"There is an index in most of the volumes. These indexes are mainly to names, but the later indexes include some subject entries. The index for volume 84 has entries for "A," "B," and part of "C" only. Volumes C and 2 have no index. Volumes 1, 1 1/2, and part of volume D have an alphabetical list of contents instead of an index. In some of the indexes insufficient space was allowed for entries under certain letters of the alphabet, and it was necessary in such cases to continue these entries in unused space allotted to entries falling under other letters. All of the indexes have been filmed before the letters"--Introd.

Microfilm of original records in The National Archives, Washington, District of Columbia.

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