Official Records of the American Civil War Totally Explained

Everything about The Official Records Of The American Civil War totally explained

The Official Records of the American Civil War or often more simply the Official Records or ORs, constitute a unique, authentic, and comprehensive collection of first-hand accounts, orders, reports, and correspondence drawn from War and Navy Department records of both Confederate and Union governments during the American Civil War.

Union and Confederate Armies

Collection of the records began in 1864; no special attention was paid to Confederate records until just after the capture of Richmond, Virginia, in 1865, when with the help of Confederate Gen. Samuel Cooper, Union Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck began the task of collecting and preserving the archives of the Confederacy. In 1866 a joint resolution of Congress authorized the compilation and publication under auspices of the War Department. Eventually, seventeen Secretaries of War were involved in the process. Their original title was The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion and they were later renamed The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, which has led to some lasting controversy over the official name for the war. As finally published, the records consist of 138,579 pages with 1,006 maps and diagrams assembled in 130 books, organized as 70 volumes grouped in four series, published between 1881 and 1901.

Series I ť Records of all military actions and seizure of property

; Series II ť Records relating to prisoners of war, state prisoners, and political prisoners

Series III ť All official records not relating to the subjects of the first two series.

; Series IV ť All records that were for whatever reason not published in the first three series

A final comprehensive index was published in 1901 with remaining additions and corrections.
Because of the enormous volume of material, the lengthy time period of collection and publication, and the constant and continuing process of correction by veterans of both sides still living contemporarily, the records are perhaps the most intensely peer-reviewed documents in historical publication. Historians have argued that some of the modifications made years after the events have decreased the accuracy of the records and were made simply to enhance personal reputations (or to denigrate the reputations of rivals).

Union and Confederate Navies

Unfortunately, most of the Confederate Navy Department records were lost during the burning of Richmond. Union Navy Department records were preserved, but not until 1884 was work begun by Navy Department librarian, later Assistant Secretary of the Navy, James R. Soley to collect and publish. Intending to partially replace missing reports, many personal narratives were collected and included, often gaining Navy researchers incidental access to draft copies of original reports once thought lost. The official title of publication is Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion.

Series I ť Records of all naval operations including all inland waterways

; Series II ť Records relating to statistics and condition of both forces at the outset of conflict, returns of captured materials, and records of naval prisoners of war

A proposed third series was deemed unnecessary; the final volume of series two was published in 1922. The Navy Department didn't publish a comprehensive index to these volumes.

Other historical sources

While the Official Records are probably the most-used of all sources for historical research on the Civil War, there are other contemporary and reliably accurate published works that provide well-sourced insights not constrained by the types of sources compiled by government:

Southern Historical Society Papers ť Published in 52 volumes from 1869 to the 1950s, includes reminiscences and analyses of war experiences by Confederate veterans.

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War ť A series of articles published between 1884 and 1887 in The Century Magazine and then assembled into a four-volume set of books, includes battle studies by Union and Confederate commanders of all ranks, from Ulysses S. Grant down to company officers. (In the 1990s, additional related material was compiled into two more volumes.) Accounts are usually first-hand and often written by an officer actually in command in a subject engagement or campaign.

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