The Official Records — Sixty-three Years in the Making.

Book Reviews89 The Official Records — Sixty-three Years in the Making.* of the countless publications of the United States Government, perhaps the least read have been the two sets of records relating to military and naval affairs of the Civil War. Begun in 1864, the enterprise was not actually completed until 1927, and in the bulk of materials concerning a single subject and the length of time needed for completion of the task no other governmental undertaking has surpassed the War of the Rebellion Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies and the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. The military series contains the staggering total of 128 volumes of 138,579 pages, plus a series of 1006 maps and sketches in a separate atlas. Naval activities, although not as extensive still account for a set of 31 volumes with more than 35,000 pages. In tracing the story of the compilation of these records, the researcher is inevitably hampered by the paucity of available information. Inquiry at the National Archives and the Library of Congress cannot add materially to the summaries contained in the two sets themselves. Dallas Irvine, of the National Archives, has made several studies of the Confederate records, including a discussion of the Archive Office of the War Department, the repository of captured Confederate documents. In the index volume of the Army records, Elihu Root, quondam Secretary of War, presents the best outline of the work of his department, and likewise a very brief summary of naval affairs is presented by the compiler, Charles W. Stewart. Modern warfare could not be fought without paperwork, and the Civil War was no exception. Every order, report, telegram, or other form of official communication from the smallest squad up to the army corps or flotilla had to be written, copied, transmitted, recopied, and retained. As the war progressed this paperwork piled up at the various headquarters, and in time found its way to Washington. The Adjutant General of the Army and the Librarian of the Navy were responsible for the storing of these records. The immense bulk of material can be realized when we learn that the compilers of the Official Records counted examined papers not by the piece but by the ton, the roomful, and even the entire contents of a building. The army volunteer records filled a fourstory warehouse, the Confederate records a three-story edifice. The records of the Adjutant General's office filled one-third of the old War Department building, a structure large even for Washington. Countless military telegrams were examined, including one collection of more than two million Union dispatches . In addition, papers of other offices and bureaus, the thousands of individual contributions from all over the country, and the many donated, bought, or loaned collections had to be examined. All this material was sorted, read, and sometimes copied, and thousands of hours were spent checking duplicate "Editor's note: It will be the policy of Civil War History to devote these pages not only to reviews of current books but also to other bibliographical aspects, past and present. Thus it is hoped to provide, with a minimum of apology for belated attention, reviews of recent works of the past decade or two, along with reappraisals of older volumes in the light of present-day knowledge. Mr. Eisendrath's account of the Official Records aptly points the way to a wide field of bibliographical and historical reconsideration, with new assessments of interest and value to students of the Civil War. 90CIVIL WAR history and triplicate items. How much more valuable these publications could have been, if historians trained by today's standards could have been assigned to the task! Many of the officers of both armies had been recent observers in the Crimea, and brought back new conceptions of tactics. In the few years afterward until the Civil War began, many new textbooks were published and troops were trained in the new methods of warfare. As these formations and maneuvers were tested, it was realized that permanent records should be kept to improve training and fighting in the future. Even during the war itself a...