The Arsenal of History: The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion

THE ARSENAL OF HISTORY: THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE WAR OF THE REBELLION Harold E. Mahan Efforts to understand the Civil War preoccupied Americans in the late nineteenth century. A diverse group of writers—including journalists, scholars, and veterans composing their memoirs—molded public perceptions and argued for various interpretations of the conflict. Some attempted to fix blame for political and military blunders committed during hostilities; yet many observers found this polemical approach distasteful. In reaction, they sought ways to go beyond argumentative perspectives and thus understand the war objectively. This was only possible, in their view, by a close analysis of original documents. Read without distorting editorial comments, these would allow scholars and laymen alike to understand the past on its own terms. This search for objective insight motivated the federal government's first systematic historical editing project, The War of the Rebellion: A Compifotion of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.1 The Official Records, produced by the War Department between 1881 and 1901, assembled in 128 serial books the most "historically valuable " documents on land operations of the war.2 Editing of the series rested upon many nineteenth-century assumptions about how best to understand history. Compilers at the War Records Office, the division which supervised the project, eschewed annotation in a conscious effort to let each report, dispatch, and command roster speak for itself. When possible, they presented different views on the same issue or event, which would allow a "judicial" approach to the records, leaving historians free to weigh details of each argument and offer decisive determina1 70 volumes in 128books (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1881-1901). Hereafter cited as OH. 2 This essay does not discuss the Navy Department's Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, 31 vols. (Washington: GPO, I894-I927). On that work, see Kenneth W. Munden and Henry Putney Beers, Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1962), pp. 448-53. Civil War History, Vol. XXIX, No. 1 Copyrightß 1983 by The Kent State University Press 0009-8078/83/2901-0001 $01.00/0 6 CIVIL WAR HISTORY tion of its validity.3 Thus purged of bias, so the editors contended, the series would settle all arguments about a conflict that had already fostered protracted rhetorical battles. Ironically, although the compilers assembled the papers to facilitate an objective view of history, the Official Records became a major source for further controversy as writers continued to refight the war into the twentieth century.4 The original documents, themselves subjective creations of fallible humans, were just as open to varying interpretations as postwar memoirs. Lieutenant Colonel Robert N. Scott, whose compilation work had prodigious influence on the Official Records, recognized the controversial potential of the series when he jokingly compared his role to that of an ordnance chief who indiscriminately opened his arsenal to both sides in a battle.5 Scott did not see his work as a failure because of this; rather, he assumed contentions would inevitably flourish for a generation after 1865. Later, however, researchers would seek objectivity more wholeheartedly, in Scott's view, and then the series would prove its real worth. The history of the Official Records project thus elucidates the early development of Civil War historiography. It offers insights to methods of assembling and organizinghistorical collections in the late nineteenth century, and to interaction between manuscript curators and various political and sectional forces. Finally, so much Civil War research depends on this series for documentation that understanding its context is essential for scholars for the period. Not every aspect of the compilation process can be treated fully, but a basic chronology of the project brings us closer to understanding these records. The period from 1878 to 1887 when, under Scott's direction, the Official Records took definite shape is most important, but events antedating Scott's arrival at the War Records Office set the stage for his work. In October 1878 Secretary of War George W. McCrary summarized his bureau's efforts to assemble and publish Civil War documents. He observed that, at least so far as Union battle...