Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War (review)

216CIVIL WAR HISTORY he entered Congress again as a Representative and served continuously for die next dozen years; re-elected for another term, he resigned to accept election to the U.S. Senate. In 1891, he resigned to accept membership on the Texas Railroad Commission, of which he was chairman until 1903. Such in brief was the career of this outstanding Texan, who has waited until now for a biography—and well he might, for Ben Procter, of Texas Christian University, has written one (whedier definitive or not) which should be good for die next century. Procter writes widi skill and scholarship, and with a deep perception of his subject. No one can truthfully say that Reagan the man, as well as the statesman, fails to appear in these pages as a living figure. Reagan was able, honest, and courageous, and if Procter found littie to condemn in him, he was merely writing true to the record. Without belaboring the point, he shows diat Reagan was the main force in Congress to keep alive the fight for railroad regulation, which finally resulted in the very significant Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. This book is heavily documented and sometimes it seems a bit beyond what is called for; die background for various episodes and periods of Reagan's life also may appear to some readers as too long drawn out. The book is important. It rescues a man whose significance may not have dimmed for Texans, but which certainly needed brightening up for Americans in general. E. Merton Coulter University of Georgia Guide to Federal Archives Refoting to the Civil War. By Kennedi W. Munden and Henry Putney Beers. (Washington: National Archives, 1962. Pp. x, 721. $3.00.) Despite its title, its blue and gray cover, and a perfunctory nod to Centennial inspiration, this compilation concerns more than the Civil War. Mr. Munden and Mr. Beers sensibly recognized that no comprehensive guide to official materials on the United States government during the 18611865 conflict could be limited in scope to the actual war years. Their tendency to transgress die bounds imposed by die title is only to die good, deserving of highest praise. What diey have produced deals not merely widi wartime military and naval documents; nor is the book solely a guide to federal records relating to die war effort. Instead die authors have surveyed the records of all U.S. governmental activities during the war—bearing on die conflict or not—in addition to the records pertaining to Reconstruction. This volume is dierefore a research gold mine not only for scholars of the conflict itself, but for those as well who are interested in any facet of the 1860's wherein die federal government maintained some sort of jurisdiction. The book has been organized widi laudable rationality, its chapters corresponding to die governmental structure of the period. Following brief summaries on general and Congressional files come chapters on the federal judiciary, die Presidency, and each of the executive departments. These Book Reviews217 include scores of bureaus, dieir divisions, and dieir subdivisions. A quick sampling reveals record descriptions for such diverse agencies as die U.S. district court for Nevada, die Treasury Department's Steamboat-Inspection Service, the Deserters Branch of the Provost Marshal General's Office, the Civilization Division of the Office of Indian Affairs, and the District of Columbia jail. These chapters close widi a section on miscellaneous agencies, encompassing files of the Panama Railroad Company, the U.S. Christian Commission, the National Academy of Science, and odier organizations defying strict classification. An appendix lists all seventy-nine pertinent record groups by number, keying them to descriptions within the text. An excellent 117-page index completes this vast but handy compendium. The text is much more than a listing of document files. The authors have included a brief historical summary within the discussion of each bureau or special set of records. A typical individual entry also possesses a suggested reading or two on die governmental unit or files being considered. If any of die records are available on microfilm, such information is given. If pertinent files now repose in state or private collections, their locations are revealed, as...