U.S. Army Generals' reports of Civil War service, 1864-1887

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Microfilm of original records in The National Archives, Washington, D.C.

This microfilm publication reproduces "16 volumes containing originals and copies of some 430 reports submitted by 317 Union Army generals to the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) between 1864 and 1887, concerning their military service during the Civil War"--Introd.

"The AGO has been charged, from time to time, with matters relating to command, discipline, and administration of the Army. It has had the duties of recording, authenticating, and communicating the Secretary of War's orders, instructions, and regulations to troops and individuals; it also has been responsible for issuing commissions, compiling the Army Register, preparing general returns of the Army and militia, and recruiting. Before 1883, the AGO also received final custody of virtually all records of the U.S. military establishment"--Introd.

"Following the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, President Lincoln called for volunteers to supplement the small Regular Army. The latter was raised directly by the U.S. Government and consisted of individuals who joined both before and after the commencement of hostilities. In response to the emergency, so-called 'Volunteer Army' forces were generally raised by the states and only later brought into the Federal service. In this microfilm publication, the Regular Army and the Volunteer Army are usually referred to collectively as the U.S. or Union Army"--Introd.

"The volumes of general's reports of service represent an attempt by the AGO to obtain more complete records of the service of the various generals contacted. In 1864, the Adjutant General requested that each such general submit '...a succinct account of your military history ... since March 4th, 1861.' In 1872, and in later years, similar requests were made for statements of service for the remaining period of the war. It should be noted that almost 600 permanent generals, plus more than twice that number with only brevet commissions as general, served in the Union Army during the Civil War, but there are reports of only 317 generals in the volumes reproduced in this publication. The reason for the variance between the total number of generals and the number for whom there are reports has not been determined"--Introd.

Includes a comprehensive name index compiled by the NARS staff.

"There are 16 volumes of reports numbered from I through XIV, two volumes serving as appendixes to volume X. The reports in the volumes appear to have been bound approximately acccording to the dates of their receipt by the AGO; although exact chronological order is not followed within any one volume, the first volume contains reports that were written mainly in 1864 and the last volume includes reports written as late as 1887. Follow-up reports are bound separately from the initial report by the same general, and therefore were filmed apart from initial responses"--Introd.

"Each volume contains an alphabetical name index, showing, for each general listed, the corresponding report number and/or first-page number of his report in the volume. The names in the indexes to volumes I through IV are arranged by the first letter of the surname, and thereunder numerically by report number. The indexes in the remaining volumes list names in strictly alphabetical order. To supplement the individual volume indexes, the staff of the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) prepared a comprehensive index, which follows these introductory remarks"--Introd.

"The pagination of the volumes is sometimes confusing. Some reports are written on both sides of each sheet of paper; others are written on one side only of each sheet. In the first case, every page may or may not have been numbered consecutively by the writer; in the second case, every other page may or may not have been numbered consecutively. The AGO bound the reports of the generals in volumes and assigned its own numbers within each volume, but gave only one number to each sheet (generally centered at the top), even if both sides of the sheet were written upon. The AGO numbered the sheets of the reports as follows: 1,3,5, etc; the opposite side of each sheet, whether they contained writing or not, were implicitly but not actually numbered 2,4,6, etc. The result is that each side of a sheet containing writing may bear two numbers, the general's and the AGO's, or none at all. In this publication the fact that blank pages (within their implicit AGO numbers) usually were not reproduced accounts for the absence from the microfilm of numbers in the AGO pagination sequence within individual volumes. All page-number references in these introductory remarks, in the original and NARS indexes, and in the roll notes are to the page numbers assigned by the AGO. Finally, it should be noted that the first page of each report also bears a.

report number, usually in large figures in the upper right-hand corner, assigned consecutively by the AGO within each volume"--Introd.

"Seeking both comprehensiveness and uniformity, the AGO requested of each general that he include certain kinds of information in his report. As a result, most of the reports consist of chronologically arranged sketches of activities associated with battles and other engagements. The generals also usually included information concerning the inclusive dates of their service with each command, the dates of their tours of duty as members of military commissions and courts-martial, and periods of leaves of absence. Many reports give the names, ranks, and dates of service of their personal staff officers, and a summary or list of engagements in which the general took part. In order to provide information about specific engagements, many of the generals included copies of pertinent reports made by other officers during the course of the war. The lengths of the generals' reports range from the one-paragraph response of Brig. Gen. Francis Vinton, declining an AGO request for information, to the multivolume reply of Brig. Gen. Henry W. Benham. A few reports include newspaper clippings, maps, or pamphlets"--Introd.

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