Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies is the definitive nineteenth-century documentary compilation of the American Civil War, presenting orders, reports, correspondence, and returns from commanders and units involved in major campaigns such as Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chancellorsville. Compiled under the auspices of the United States War Department and used by later historians, veterans, and institutions including the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration, the series shaped scholarship on figures like Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and George B. McClellan.

Background and Publication History

The project was initiated during the postwar period when organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic and commissions led by veterans like Edwin M. Stanton pressed for official documentation of campaigns including Shiloh and Fredericksburg, prompting the United States Congress to authorize publication. Responsibility fell to the War Department (United States) under Secretaries including George W. McCrary and editors such as John S. Barnard, producing a multi-part series from 1880 through 1901 that paralleled contemporary compendia like the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. The undertaking occurred amid debates in state legislatures, veterans’ associations, and institutions like the Smithsonian Institution over preservation of papers belonging to officers such as Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, Ambrose Burnside, and Philip Sheridan.

Organization and Content

The compilation comprises 128 volumes organized into series and subseries that present operational reports, returns, orders, and correspondence from campaigns including Petersburg, Atlanta Campaign, Seven Days Battles, and Shenandoah Valley Campaign (1864). Each volume arranges materials by army department or theater—e.g., reports from the Army of the Potomac, Army of Northern Virginia, Army of the Tennessee, and Army of the Cumberland—and includes dispatches involving commanders such as Henry Halleck, James Longstreet, Nathaniel P. Banks, and Braxton Bragg. The set documents engagements like the Wilderness (1864 battle), Fort Donelson, Second Battle of Bull Run, and Cold Harbor, and preserves orders issued by subordinates such as Ambrose Burnside and staff officers like Joseph Hooker, as well as prisoner exchanges arranged under protocols following the Lieber Code and events tied to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Contributors and Editorial Process

Primary contributors included officers who submitted original reports—ranging from generals (Winfield Scott Hancock, John Bell Hood) to staff officers and artillery commanders—alongside clerks and adjutant generals within departments like the Department of the Tennessee and the Department of the Gulf. Editors working for the War Department collated, transcribed, and sometimes abridged material, consulting repositories such as the National Museum of American History and private collections held by families of veterans like J.E.B. Stuart and Lewis Armistead. The editorial process negotiated disputes over authenticity involving figures such as Joshua Chamberlain and Fitzhugh Lee, and incorporated official correspondences with political leaders including Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Salmon P. Chase, and Montgomery Blair.

Reception, Use, and Historical Significance

Contemporary reception by veterans’ groups and periodicals like Harper's Weekly recognized the set as foundational, while later historians—among them James Ford Rhodes, Bruce Catton, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Shelby Foote—relied on it for narratives of campaigns such as Vicksburg Campaign and personalities like George Meade. Scholars in institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and the University of Virginia cite the records for operational analysis, order-of-battle reconstructions, and controversies over leadership at battles including Second Manassas and Mobile Bay. The compilation influenced monument debates involving the United Daughters of the Confederacy and preservation efforts by the American Battlefield Trust, and remains central to legal and genealogical inquiries involving pension records and veterans’ pension adjudications in courts including the Supreme Court of the United States.

Accessibility, Editions, and Digital Availability

Print editions issued by the Government Printing Office were distributed to repositories such as the New York Public Library, Library of Congress, and state historical societies like the Virginia Historical Society and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Twentieth- and twenty-first-century reprints and annotated editions have been produced by university presses associated with University of North Carolina Press and private publishers using materials from the National Archives and digitized collections at institutions including HathiTrust, the Internet Archive, and university digital libraries at Cornell University and University of Michigan. Modern research utilizes searchable transcriptions hosted by academic projects at Brigham Young University and integrated databases maintained by the Civil War Trust and library consortia for advanced study of campaigns such as New Orleans (1862 capture) and personnel like Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Category:American Civil War sources