and outbound ship manifests, with shippers' oaths, 1861-65, that the cargo was not "to be used to give aid or comfort for the enemy." In Record Group 41 are records relating to the licensing, enrolling, and registering of vessels, including bills of sale, mortgages, leases, and other conveyances; oaths and bonds of masters and owners; and other documentation and ownership records, but excluding licenses for vessels over 20 tons. Here also are records relating to the building, inspection, and admeasurement of vessels. The terms employed in these records are defined in the entry on the Office of the Register of the Treasury, above. The documentation for merchant vessels of the United States for 1860-66 approximates 100,000 papers (ca. 50 ft.). Among them are documents for about 500 steamers that went into or out of U. S. Navy and Army service during the period, about 100 Confederate steamers captured or destroyed while in the Confederate Navy or merchant sevice, and about 100 British or Confederate steamers captured as prizes and later registered as U. S. vessels (among them the Ella Worley, the Ella, and the Annie). There are also records showing the ownership before and after the war of many vessels chartered by the Army during the period. Other customhouse records of the Civil War period are in several Federal Records Centers. The Dorchester, Mass., Center has some records of collectors at Boston, Fall River, and New Bedford, Mass. ; Portland, Maine; Hartford, New Haven, and New London, Conn.; and Newport and Providence, R. L The Center in Philadelphia has some records of the Philadelphia collector. The Center in New York has some records not only of the collector at New York but also of collectors at Buffalo and many northeastern ports; these are of particular interest because they include correspondence on smuggling from Paris, confiscation of mail from the Confederacy, requests for permits to trade with Southern ports, Copperhead activity in the New York Customhouse, and the protection of that customhouse during the draft riots. Still other records of collectors for the Civil War period are in the Federal Records Centers at East Point, Ga., Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. The records of the collector at Olympia, in the Seattle Center, relate among other matters to the withdrawal of the revenue cutter Shubrick, the arrival of the bark Torrent (which carried the famed Mercer girls to the Northwest), and the reservation and sale of town sites on public lands under the law of 1863. National Archives, unpublished Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Bureau of Marine In spection and Navigation, comp. by Forrest R. Holdcamper. MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE This Service, which in 1902 was to become the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service and in 1912 the Public Health Service, originated under an act of July 16, 1798 (1 Stat. 605), to provide temporary relief and maintenance of sick and disabled seamen in hospitals already established or to be acquired. A tax on seamen--paid by masters of all merchant ships arriving from foreign ports to the collectors of customs at the ports of arrival and by the masters of coastal vessels--was collected almost continuously from 1798 to 1870 and was supplemented by appropriations from other Government funds. Until the creation of a central administrative agency for the Marine Hospital Service by an act of June 29, 1870 (16 Stat. 169), directors of the marine hospitals established at various ports--usually ex officio the collectors of customs--rendered quarterly accounts direct to the Secretary of the Treasury. In 1861 there were 24 U. S. Marine hospitals: along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts at Portland, Chelsea, Norfolk, Ocracoke, Wilmington, Charleston, Key West, St. Marks, and Mobile; on the Pacific coast at San Francisco; on the Mississippi River at Natchez, Napoleon, St. Louis, Burlington, and Galena; on the Ohio River at Paducah, Evansville, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh; and along the northern lakes at Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Burlington. Concerning the marine hospitals at the outbreak of the Civil War, Secretary Chase wrote in his report of 1861: The number has been increased far beyond necessity or utility, and to the serious prejudice of the fund for sick and disabled seamen . . . At present, indeed, some of these hospitals are made available for the benefit of the troops, but this use must necessarily be partial and temporary. Of these, therefore, as well as those not thus used, the Secretary recommends that those least advantageously situated and employed be disposed of . . . and that no new structures be undertaken except in cases of the clearest expediency or necessity. As a result of this recommendation an act of Mar. 1, 1862 (12 Stat. 348), authorized the Secretary to rent marine hospitals to municipal authorities and to contract with hospitals for the medical treatment of seamen. In point of fact the "mode of accommodation" used during the war varied: it included care in private hospitals, private homes, city hospitals, and infirmaries, and even "city counsel" care. Statements of expenditures and receipts of the marine hospital fund, by fiscal year, appended to the Civil War annual reports of the Secretary of the Treasury on The State of the Finances; Laurence F. Schmeckebier, The Public Health Service . . . (Baltimore, 1923). Record Group 90.--Now part of the records of the Public Health Service, the Civil War records of the Marine Hospital Service consist chiefly of letters and reports received by the Secretary of the Treasury, 1861-67 (11 vols.), from collectors or surveyors of customs and others concerning the hospitalization and care of individual sick and disabled seamen, the provision of funds and supplies, the staffing of marine hospitals, and similar matters. Included is some correspondence on the seizure of marine hospitals by the Confederacy and on the military and other use made of marine hospitals during the war (particularly for the care of wounded and sick soldiers and for emergency hospitalization after battles); offers or requests to lease for local purposes the less used marine hospitals; reports by boards of visitors and other inspectors on conditions at hospitals; and contracts and bids for the private care of seamen. This correspondence includes occasional copies of letters sent by the Secretary; from 1865 it is arranged by State of origin or destination. (The main file of letters on marine hospitals sent by the Secretary is in Record Group 56--see Office of the Secretary.) There is also a "Statement of the Marine Hospital Fund," 1861-64 (3 vols.), showing expenditures and supplying sketchy statistical information on the number of patients and deaths. Few hospital registers and related records for the Civil War period are extant, but the Federal Records Center in New York City has those kept by the Seamen's Rest and Retreat, Staten Island, 1843-88, including the minutes of its board of trustees, 1863-77. National Archives, unpublished Preliminary Checklist of the Rec ords of the Public Health Service, comp. by Leo Pascal. U. S. REVENUE-CUTTER SERVICE The seagoing military service established by an act of Aug. 4, 1790 (1 Stat. 145), which authorized the construction and equipment of cutters to enforce the collection of customs and tonnage duties, was the nucleus of the U.S. Coast Guard. This service was under the administrative control of the Treasury Department. With no official name for the cutter force the semiofficial terms Revenue Service and Revenue-Marine became popular, but Congress referred to the "United States revenue cutter service" in an act of Feb. 4, 1863 (12 Stat. 639). From 10 to 20 cutters at a time were in commission during the Revenue-Marine's first half-century; the service was expanded beginning in 1840; but after the Mexican War it gradually dwindled. The Revenue-Marine thus was unprepared for war in 1861, and it was further weakened at the outbreak of hostilities by the loss of some ships turned over by their commanders to Confederate or Southern State authorities. Its operations, however, were greatly expanded by the war. The President ordered many of its cutters to cooperate with the Navy, and those so assigned helped to seize Confederate shipping and ports, to maintain the blockade, to protect Union shipping, and to increase the Navy's support of Army operations. The protection of the revenue became more important than ever with the higher tariffs of 1861, 1862, and 1864. From 1862 onward the Service aided also in preventing illegal immigration--specifically the importation of coolie labor, forbidden by an act of Feb. 19, 1862 (12 Stat. 340). In short, as Evans emphasizes in his "definitive history," no attempt was made to transform the Revenue-Marine into a "little navy," for "the vessels acquired by the Treasury were needed first and foremost for marine safety and law enforcement under war-time pressure. Despite the Navy's priority for the ships, the Revenue-Marine managed to acquire some of the additional tonnage it needed by purchase from private owners. One such acquisition was the Naugatuck (known as the Ironsides and as the E. A. Stevens), which had been designed by its owner to demonstrate the theories of the Stevens Battery. The cutter fleet was augmented also by the Treasury's own building program. Cutters that participated in the war or in single episodes of extraordinary interest included the Miami, in which President Lincoln, Secretary Stanton, Secretary Chase, and General Viele made a secret reconnaissance down the Potomac in May 1862; the Naugatuck, which participated in the engagement against Sewell's Point; and the Harriet Lane, in the Navy's service from before the fall of Sumter until her capture at Galveston in 1863. Stephen H. Evans, The United States Coast Guard, 1790-1915; a Definitive History (Annapolis, 1949); bibliography in H. Doc. 670, 62 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 6298. Record Group 26. --Now part of the records of the United States Coast Guard, the Civil War records of the supervision of the Revenue-Marine or Revenue-Cutter Service were originally records of the Office of the Secre- The series of logs or abstracts or transcripts of logs of Coast Guard vessels includes many logs of vessels in the Revenue-Marine or RevenueCutter Service during the Civil War. The logbook entries include data on the weather, crew, and significant activities of the cutter. The log of the Cutter Miami, Apr. -May 1862, records trips by President Lincoln with his family or members of his Cabinet and a trip to Fortress Monroe to protect the landing of troops there; and the logs of other cutters presumably contain useful information about the war. The series includes the last logs kept in Federal service by several vessels that joined the Confederacy. Vessels whose available logs cover all or part of the war period are the following: Aaron Brown, Agassiz, Antietam, Ashuelot, Bronx (formerly Addison F. Andrews), Crawford, Cruiser, Cuyahoga (formerly Santa Anna), E. A. Stevens (named Naugatuck for 6 months in 1863), Flora (later Nemaha), George M. Bibb, Hercules, Isaac Toucey, Jacob Thompson, James Campbell, James C. Dobbin, Jefferson Davis, Jeremiah S. Black, Joe Miller, Joseph Lane (formerly Campbell), Kewanee, Mahoning (later Levi Woodbury), Miami (formerly Lady le Marchant), Morris, Naugatuck, Nemaha (formerly Flora), Northerner, Pawtuxet, Philip Allen, Reliance, Shubrick, Tiger, Varina, Wayanda, William H. Seward, and William L. Marcy. Muster rolls are available for many of these and other Revenue-Cutter Service vessels operating during the Civil War; these are monthly lists of officers and other personnel assigned to cutters, showing dates of enlistments and leave, discharges or desertions, and ranks and ratings. National Archives, Preliminary Checklist of the Records of the United States Coast Guard, 19151941, comp. by Hope Frances Kane (Washington, 1945), and List of Logs of United States Coast Guard Vessels in the National Archives, 1790-1941, comp. by Thornton W. Mitchell and Arthur Dyer (processed by the U. S. Coast Guard; Washington, 1944). STEAMBOAT-INSPECTION SERVICE Although the Steamboat-Inspection Service was not put definitely under the control of the Secretary of the Treasury until 1871, the "Steamboat Act" of Aug. 30, 1852 (10 Stat. 61), had given the Secretary some indirect supervision over the work of the Service. Under sec. 18 of this act, which superseded earlier laws for safeguarding the lives of passengers and crews on steamboats and other vessels, 9 (later 11) supervising inspectors were appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. These inspectors acted in a dual capacity. As a board they established regulations for the uniform administration of the inspection laws and defined the territory to be supervised by each inspection. As an individual each inspector in his own district supervised the work of local inspectors, helped in the actual work of inspection, reported cases of neglect or inefficiency to the Secretary of the Treasury, and furnished the Secretary with technical information. Under sec. 9 of the act local inspectors-usually one for hulls and one for boilers--were chosen (subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury) by a commission consisting of the district collector of customs, the supervising steamboat inspector, and the judge of the U. S. district court. Local inspectors also had twofold responsibilities: as a board they licensed and classified engineers and pilots of passenger-carrying steamers and investigated accidents, and as individuals they inspected hulls, boilers, and equipment. Besides approving the appointment of local inspectors, the Secretary of the Treasury, under the 1852 act, received reports of the Board of Supervising Inspectors, checked on the operations of the inspection laws, and made appropriate recommendations to Congress. He was represented at the annual meetings of the Board by a personal agent. During the Civil War such meetings were held at Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and St. Louis; and the reports of the Board president, sent soon after each meeting to the Secretary of the Treasury, show that despite "the great disturbing element which results from the war, in the use of steamers as transports by the government to carry troops," both inspectors and steamboat owners seemed "ready in their compliance with the provisions of the law." The war affected the Steamboat-Inspection Service also because parts of some of its supervising districts were occasionally or continually under Confederate jurisdiction. Investigation of wartime steamboat disasters not only detected violations of safety regulations but helped improve safety standards. Among such disasters were the loss of the Nevada, Feb. 7, 1862, bound from Sacramento to San Francisco; of the Golden Gate, July 27, 1862, with 138 passengers and a crew of 37 en route from San Francisco to Panama; and of the Pocohontas in a gale at Cape Hatteras Inlet, Jan. 18, 1862, while en route to North Carolina carrying horses for the Burnside Expedition. Other disasters included the collision of the George Peabody and the West Point on the Potomac River near Ragged Point, Aug. 13, 1862; the sinking of the Acacia in the Mississippi, Aug. 20, 1862, en route from Memphis, Tenn., to Helena, Ark.; the destruction by fire, at the wharf at St. Louis, of the H. D. Bacon, the T. L. McGill, the Wm. H. Russell, the A. McDowell, and the Estella, Oct. 27, 1862; the explosion of the boiler of the J. H. Dickey on the Illinois shore of the Mississippi, Nov. 5, 1862, with a loss of 14 lives; and the burning of the Ruth, Aug. 4, 1863, 6 miles below Cairo, with a loss of 30 lives and a quantity of U. S. notes--an affair investigated by a War Department commission discussed elsewhere in this Guide. John Shallcross, president of the Board of Supervising Inspectors of Steamboats in 1861, was succeeded in 1864 by P. B. Stillman. Civil War reports of the Board of Supervising Inspectors of Steamboats, appended to the annual reports of the Secretary of the Treas ury on The State of the Finances; Lloyd M. Short, Steamboat-Inspection Service. (New York and London, 1922). |