Record Group 203. --The Secretary's financial records that were inherited by the Office of the Chief of Finance include, for the Civil War period, copies of his letters to the Secretary of the Treasury relating to estimates, expenditures, and the issuance of warrants for the War Department (in a 4-vol. series extending to 1867); registers of letters received, 1863-70 (3 vols.), concerning fiscal matters; registers of Treasury Department appropriation warrants for the War Department (in 6 vols. extending to 1913); registers of requisitions for funds on the Second Auditor (in 39 vols. extending to 1894) and on the Third Auditor (in 44 vols. extending to 1894); an index to the registers of requisitions, 1860-65 (1 vol.); registers of war credit requisitions for funds (in 14 vols. extending to 1898); and ledgers of accounts under appropriations (in 48 vols. extending to 1940).

There is also a register of requisitions for funds, 1868-1906, authorized by an act of July 27, 1868 (15 Stat. 402), that provided for the distribution of the reward offered by the President for the capture of Jefferson Davis.

Records in Other Custody. --Meneely, in The War Department, 1861, wrote that his efforts to find the Simon Cameron papers had been unsuccessful and that probably none of them, except the comparatively small group in the Pennsylvania Historical Society, were in existence. Recently, however, a previously unknown collection of Cameron's papers, 1853-65, found in the Historical Society of Dauphin County, has been microfilmed by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission at Harrisburg. The Edwin M. Stanton papers in the Library of Congress include copies of letters sent, Mar. 1863-June 1865 (5 vols.); telegrams sent to and received from Charles A. Dana, 1864-65 (2 vols.); and a volume of orders, letters, decisions, and memoranda, Jan.-Oct. 1862. Unbound Stanton papers in the Library include 40 letters from President Lincoln; President Johnson's letter of Feb. 21, 1868, dismissing Stanton from the Cabinet; and letters from many other public figures of the period.

War Department Telegraph Office

Although a distinct administrative unit, the War Department Telegraph Office, established early in 1861, operated essentially within the purview of the Secretary himself. As recalled by David Homer Bates, who in his genial reminiscences, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office (New York, 1907), styled himself "Manager of the War Department Telegraph Office, and Cipher-Operator, 1861-1866," the office "was first located in Chief Clerk Sanderson's room adjoining that of the Secretary of War, on the second floor of the building in the southeast corner"; it was shifted to other locations in May and in October; and a "final change was made soon after the Monitor-Merrimac fight in March, 1862, when Secretary of War Stanton directed the office to be located in the old library room." Other quotations from Bates throw considerable light on the work of the office:

The War Department telegraph office was the scene of many vitally important conferences between Lincoln and members of his cabinet, leading generals, congressmen and others, who soon learned that when the President was not at the White House he could most likely be found in the telegraph office.

All military telegraph despatches from or to Washington of necessity

passed through the War Department office. The operators were fully occupied in the work of transmitting and receiving these messages over the wires, and the cipher-operators in translating the more important ones into and out of cipher. There was no time to spare for the task of filing them away in an orderly, careful manner, but the Government was fortunate in having the right man for such an important duty, and historians of the Civil War for all time have cause to be grateful to Major Albert E. H. Johnson for his preliminary work toward the great array of volumes of the "Official Records" published by authority of Congress, which contains thousands of military telegrams all carefully filed by him. . .

During the entire war, the files of the War Department telegraph office were punctuated with short, pithy despatches from Lincoln. For instance, on May 24, 1862, he sent ten or twelve to various generals; on May 25, as many more; and from one to a dozen on nearly every succeeding day for months. It is also worthy of remark that Lincoln's numerous telegrams. were almost without exception in his own handwriting, his copy being remarkably neat and legible, with seldom an erasure or correction.

Record Group 107. -- The files of telegrams comprise those received and sent by the President, the Secretary of War, the General of the Army, the Adjutant General, the Provost Marshal General, and the commanders of divisions, departments, and armies. The arrangement in volumes is generally chronological; most volumes contain name indexes. These are grouped as follows:

Telegrams sent. These include telegrams sent by President Lincoln, Mar. 10, 1864- Apr. 12, 1865 (1 vol.), and President Johnson, Apr. 16, 1865-Jan. 15, 1868 (1 vol.). There are also volumes of telegrams sent by the Secretary of War, Apr. 27, 1861-July 30, 1881 (44 vols.); Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck (originals), July 29, 1862-Apr. 19, 1865 (8 vols.); Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck (copies), July 29, 1862-Apr. 26, 1865 (6 vols.); Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Mar. 23, 1864-Feb. 25, 1869 (5 vols.); Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, Nov. 9, 1862-Jan. 26, 1863 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, Jan. 27-June 28, 1863 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, June 28, 1863-Apr. 18, 1865 (2 vols.); Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, Jan. 1Nov. 12, 1862 (10 vols.); General McClellan and staff, Mar. 1-Sept. 16, 1862 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. John Pope, July 2, 1862-June 19, 1865 (2 vols.); Provost Marshal General James B. Fry, Mar. 23, 1863-May 28, 1868 (11 vols.), also Fry's telegrams concerning enrollment, Aug. 4, 1864May 28, 1866 (1 vol.); and Judge Advocate Levi C. Turner, Aug. 9, 1862Sept. 3, 1864 (1 vol.). There are also telegrams sent, Apr. 5-Nov. 7, 1862, that originated with the Army of the Potomac (8 vols.), and those of the General of the Army and the Adjutant General, Jan. 26, 1866-May 31, 1882 (25 vols.).

Telegrams received. These include telegrams received by the President, Mar. 17, 1863-Feb. 22, 1868 (6 vols.); the Secretary of War, Apr. 6, 1861-May 7, 1870 (51 vols.); Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, July 19, 1862-May 3, 1865 (23 vols.); Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Mar. 22, 1864-Feb. 27, 1869 (5 vols.); the War Department from General Grant, Mar. 10, 1864-Feb. 2, 1865 (2 vols.); General Grant from the War Department, Mar. 10, 1864-Nov. 16, 1868 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, Nov. 9, 1862-Jan. 24, 1863 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, Jan. 29

June 28, 1863 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, June 28, 1863-Mar. 28, 1865 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, June 27-Nov. 5, 1862 (1 vol.); Maj. Gen. John Pope, July 15, 1862-Aug. 4, 1865 (1 vol.); and Provost Marshal General James B. Fry, Apr. 2, 1863-May 28, 1868 (19 vols.), also telegrams to Fry concerning enrollment, Dec. 19, 1863-May 22, 1866 (4 vols.). There are also press copies of telegrams received by the President, Nov. 15, 1862-Mar. 4, 1869 (9 vols.), and Mar. 11, 1864July 31, 1867 (2 vols.); by the Secretary of War, Oct. 31, 1861-Sept. 20, 1875 (34 vols.), and Apr. 1, 1869-Feb. 16, 1876 (12 vols.); by General Halleck, July 30, 1862-Apr. 20, 1865 (8 vols.); by General Grant, May 24, 1867-Aug. 6, 1868 (1 vol.); and by the General in Chief (W. T. Sherman), Aug. 6, 1868-Oct. 8, 1869 (1 vol.).

Other telegrams sent and received. These comprise 2 volumes of telegrams sent and received by the Office of the Secretary of War and the War Department in 1861; telegrams sent from New Orleans, Nov. 12, 1864June 14, 1869 (1 vol. ); and press copies of "official telegrams received at, sent from, and passing through Fortress Monroe, Va.," Apr. 14-July 1, 1862.

Many telegrams were selected from these records for publication in Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Those sent and

received by Halleck were published by the War Department Printing Office in 1877 in 5 volumes of telegrams received and 4 of telegrams sent.

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE

An act of Mar. 3, 1813 (2 Stat. 819), established an Adjutant General's Department and an Inspector General's Department under one head, but separate heads for the two departments were provided by an act of Mar. 2, 1821 (3 Stat. 615). The strength of the Adjutant General's Department, established at 20 by an act of Aug. 3, 1861 (12 Stat. 287), remained constant during the Civil War, although grade promotions were authorized by an act of July 17, 1862 (12 Stat. 597). Neither the authorized strength--necessarily supplemented by Volunteer officers--nor the grades fully satisfied the Adjutant General. "According to the regulations of our Army," he informed the House Committee on Military Affairs on Apr. 29, 1862, "and to the theory and customs of our service, the assistant adjutant general of every army, army corps, division and brigade, is, by the very nature of his office, chief of the staff on which he serves." With respect to the work of his own office at the end of the first year of war the Adjutant General, in his fiscal year 1862 report, wrote as follows:

So much is the business pertaining to the Adjutant General's bureau made up of details that it is not easy to define what are its prominent branches. It is the source from which the regulations, orders, and much of the military correspondence of the Secretary of War and general-in-chief of the army issue. It is the place of deposit of the purely military records: such as muster-rolls, which contain the history of every soldier of the army; returns, which show the actual condition of each army corps, division, brigade and regiment, from month to month; files of enlistments and certificates of discharge of enlisted men. Here are made out the commissions of all military officers appointed by the President of the United States; and all commissions as well as resigna

The

tions and casualties affecting such officers are here recorded. annual Army Register, containing the military history of all officers so commissioned, is also made up, printed, and distributed under supervision of this bureau. From here the various books of instruction, so liberally furnished by the government to its troops, and all blanks used by the army, except in the disbursing departments of the staff, are distributed. The forms of the several blanks are also contrived, and the printing of them is supervised here. The recruiting service for the regular army, and the muster in and out of the volunteer regiments, with the several details of organization, drawing of requisitions for funds, and auditing accounts for expenditures in both services, are here regulated and supervised. From this summary it is to be inferred that constant reference must be made to this bureau for information on points of military law; for interpretation of regulations, and the custom of service; for reports to enable the treasury and pension bureaus to settle claims in behalf of officers and enlisted men; for replies to relatives of soldiers residing in all parts of the civilized world; for reports on which to decide claims to commissions and pay on irregular musters; for examination of proceedings of boards, and reports involving the discharge, and restoration of volunteer officers; for reports on administration and discipline for the Secretary of War and general-in-chief; and for statements of the strength and stations of the several armies.

By May 1, 1863, when the recruiting service was turned over to the newly created Provost Marshal General's Bureau, the Adjutant General had recruited about two-thirds of the whole number of Civil War volunteers. He continued to have charge of the organization of volunteer troops, established and managed general depots for them, cared for recruits (including those enlisted by the Provost Marshal General), supervised their organization into regiments and companies intended for new commands, and controlled their movements as replacements.

The Adjutant General's responsibilities for recruiting for the Regular Army also continued during the war. By 1864 the management of all the recruiting service for the Regular Army had been put under the immediate superintendence of Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, who established his headquarters at New York City. Cooke was assisted by the commanding officers of the several regiments, who acted as superintendents. Principal depots for the general service were maintained at Fort Columbus, New York Harbor (for infantry), and at Carlisle, Pa. (for the mounted service). Subdepots, which also were the headquarters of the regiments, were maintained at Fort Trumbull, Conn. (3d Art. and 14th Inf.), Fort Richmond, New York Harbor (5th Art.), Newport Barracks, Ky. (2d Inf.), Fort Wood, New York Harbor (6th Inf.), Fort Columbus, New York Harbor (8th Inf.), Fort Independence, Boston Harbor (11th Inf.), Fort Hamilton, New York Harbor (12th Inf.), Newport Barracks, Ky. (13th Inf.), Fort Adams, R. I. (15th Inf.), Fort Ontario, N. Y. (16th Inf.), Fort Preble, Maine (17th Inf.), Camp Thomas, Ohio (18th Inf.), and Fort Wayne, Mich. (19th Inf.). Although with the termination of hostilities the regiments of the Regular Army were reduced to mere skeleton organizations, the recruiting service was again progressing favorably by October 1865, when the two principal depots for the general recruiting service were still at Fort Columbus and Carlisle Barracks.

A resolution of Congress, May 19, 1864 (13 Stat. 406), provided for the printing, in chronological order, of official reports of the operations of the

armies of the United States. In the same year the Adjutant General's Office began to copy the reports dating from Dec. 1, 1860, and officers of the Army from whom such reports were due were called upon to forward them. This compilation, the Adjutant General reported in 1864, "when properly arranged and indexed as required by the resolution, will be of great historical value, and should not be hurried to completion until it can be properly done." In the last year of the war and just after its conclusion the office expended "much attention and labor" upon the "preparation of the documents relating to the rebellion" required to be printed by this resolution. In point of fact, however, the project was abandoned, although it was later revived under the program of the War Records Office for the publication of the Official Records. The enormous task of compiling, for printing, the register of volunteer officers called for by a resolution approved June 30, 1864 (13 Stat. 412), was, however, completed.

In his role of archivist for the Army the Adjutant General began to acquire custody, as the war ended, of the records of discontinued military commands. The organization and servicing of these, in addition to his own records and those of certain War Department bureaus whose records were inherited with their functions, came to constitute a major function of his office. By 1866 a total of 3, 353 "boxes" containing the records of 2, 165 organizations had "been received, carefully examined, and arranged for easy reference." At this time and for some years afterward the individual military records of Civil War soldiers were kept in the Office of the Adjutant General, although their medical records were kept in the Surgeon General's Office. The work of arranging these papers for the purpose of record and pensions was so great that the two offices ultimately accumulated a backlog of thousands of cases. The establishment of the separate division of the War Department known as the Record and Pension Office as a solution to this problem is discussed elsewhere in the Guide.

The formal units of the Adjutant General's Office existing during the war included the Volunteer Service Division and the Recruiting, Enlisted, Commission, Colored Troops, and Drafted Division, Branches, or Bureaus, as they were variously called. The Enrollment and Disbursing Branches were added in 1866, to continue certain functions of the inactivated Office of the Provost Marshal General, and the Freedmen's Branch was created in 1872 to carry on unfinished business of the discontinued Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. The details of the functions of these several units are given below.

Col. (later Brig. Gen.) Lorenzo Thomas, who succeeded Col. Samuel Cooper on Mar. 7, 1861, served as Adjutant General until Feb. 22, 1869. During much of the year 1863 Thomas was employed under special directions from the Secretary of War "in a responsible sphere of duties in the southwest"--the organization of Negro regiments in the Mississippi Valley. In Thomas' absence Col. Edward D. Townsend was in charge of the Washington office.

Annual reports of the Adjutant General, 1861-68, appended to those of the Secretary of War; Maj. Livingston Watrous, A Brief History of the Adjutant General's Department From June 16th, 1775, to December 31st, 1925 (Governors Island, N. Y., 1927); War Depart

ment General Orders, Special Orders, and Circulars, 1861-70; National Archives, Preliminary Inventory [No. 17] of the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, comp. by Lucille H. Pendell and Elizabeth Bethel (Washington, 1949).