Copies of letters (and endorsements) sent are in a general series, 1818-89 (90 vols., with index), and in the following additional series for the war period: letters to the Secretary of War, 1837-66 (6 vols. and 5 index vols.); letters to officials of War Department bureaus, 1862-89 (25 vols. and 31 index vols.); and "military letters" to Medical Department officers, 1862-72 (18 vols.). Other volumes contain copies of reports on administrative matters made to the Secretary of War and of endorsements relating to supplies and accounts (from 1864) and the mustering out of troops (from Mar. 1865).

Letters received during the war are in a series extending from 1818 to 1889 (530 ft.), arranged alphabetically by writers' surnames and thereunder by year; there are registers (63 vols.) and indexes (40 vols.) of letters received, 1822-89. Other records include a volume of copies of letters received from the Secretary of War, the Adjutant General, and other War Department officials, Oct. 1860-Mar. 1861, and a register of requests received for discharges and transfers, 1864-65.

Among personnel records in this record group are registers of Regular and volunteer medical officers and hospital stewards; a station book showing service of medical officers at particular posts, 1857-91; a set of pamphlets (one for each corps) listing medical officers serving with the 25 Civil War Army Corps; service data and an index relating to wartime contract surgeons; a register of medical officers serving with Regular Army regiments, 1861-76; a "Necrology of Medical Officers," 1861-96; service data on medical cadets, 1862-65 (4 in.); and registers of arrivals in the Surgeon General's Office of volunteer medical officers, 1862-67, and of Regular Army medical officers, 1862-89.

Among records of medical supplies and property those of Civil War interest include abstracts of the property returns of medical officers in the field, 1858-66 (1 vol.), and schedules of medical and hospital property returns examined and sent to the Second Auditor, 1863-67 (2 vols.). Wartime fiscal records include records of requisitions for funds; many volumes of disbursing officers' accounts, daybooks, ledgers, abstracts of disbursements, and related books; records of the settlement of medical officers', surgeons', and contract surgeons' accounts; and a few records of claims for payment of medical services and supplies.

Practically all records of the Surgeon General's Office relating to Civil War hospitals are in Record Group 94 (see below), but in Record Group 112 there are several volumes giving names, locations, dates of opening and closing, and other details of general and other Army hospitals of the war period. Also available are monthly reports of sick and wounded, from 1861.

Most records of the Surgeon General's Office concerning the issuance of artificial limbs, trusses, and other prosthetic appliances are now in Record Group 15 (see below).

In Record Group 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records) is a register, 1862-65 (5 vols.), apparently compiled by the Surgeon General's Office, of the deaths of Confederates in Union prisons.

Meteorological records of the Civil War period, originally belonging to the Surgeon General's Office, are now in Record Group 27 (see below). Records Transferred to the Record and Pension Office

Record Group 94. --The Civil War records of the Surgeon General's Office allocated to this group comprise those transferred, principally for

purposes of "carding," to the Record and Pension Office. Although not created by that Office, they remained associated with the carded medical records for use by the Adjutant General's Office in preparing official certifications of military service. Such of these records as relate to military service, with the exception of duplicates, were carded. They consist of administrative records, medical and surgical reports, records of casualties, and hospital records.

The records of the administration of the medical service, particularly with respect to the personnel employed, comprise several series of monthly and miscellaneous returns of medical officers, maintained for the most part separately by military departments and Civil War armies and Army corps (ca. 30 ft.); station cards, station books, service record cards, correspondence, orders, property account records, and assignment records of surgeons, assistant surgeons, and acting assistant surgeons, 1861-65 and later (ca. 4 ft.); contract books and pay accounts of contract surgeons, 1861-65 and later (ca. 3 ft.); card records of draft surgeons, 1861-65 (3 in.); returns of, and other papers relating to, hospital stewards (over 5 ft.); monthly returns of contract nurses in hospitals, including hospitals afloat, 1861-65 (10 ft.), and a register of colored contract nurses during the war; correspondence concerning the appointment, discharge, and Civil War service of medical cadets (4 ft.); and monthly reports of medical officers at recruiting stations, from 1864. There are also a 1-volume list of medical officers serving at permanent posts, 186093; several registers of other medical personnel; a 1-volume record of medical officers serving with the artillery, 1861-65; a volume of "Accounts of Physicians Serving With Freedmen, Refugees, etc., Who Have Been Paid From the Medical and Hospital Appropriation, " 1862-64; and a record of payment for medical services, 1863-64 (2 vols.). Other war-related records created for administrative or informational purposes include reports of chaplains stationed at hospitals (3 1/2 ft.); reports on searches for information on contract surgeons (6 in.); a volume including a record of inquiries for pension purposes, 1865-68, and a list of applicants for artificial limbs, Aug. 1870; a chronological list of battles with data on the disposition of the wounded (2 vols.); an "Alphabetical Index to Casualties, Battles, Skirmishes, Naval Engagements, Railroad Accidents, Explosions, Indian Fights, etc., " 1861-81 (1 vol.); and a volume containing organizational data on armies and Army corps compiled from published and unpublished sources. The "personal papers" of medical officers and physicians (360 ft.), alphabetically arranged by name, include papers of the Civil War period.

The Civil War medical and surgical records proper consist principally of File A and bound manuscripts (16 ft.), comprising surgeons' reports on medical matters, surgical cases in hospitals, casualties, the organization and duties of the medical departments of various commands, and medical and surgical work in various campaigns; File B, extending into the 1870's (1 ft.), containing reports on methods of treatment and transportation of the wounded, and on wagons, litters, ambulances, trusses, and other medical apparatus and inventions; File D, extending into the 1880's, containing reports on medical and surgical cases (22 ft.); File F, 1861-89 (2 ft.), including lists of casualties in various engagements and correspondence with Confederate authorities concerning the wounded; and the "SSD File" (about 1 ft.), including correspondence concerning applications for artificial limbs, the transfer of wounded soldiers from one hospital to another, and medical

reports on individual cases. Also available are papers, 1861-65, of John H. Brinton, surgeon of volunteers (10 vols.); and some special reports, extending into the 1880's (2 ft.), on diseases, wounds, deaths, medical equipment, and medical inventions.

Records of Civil War deaths and other casualties consist of the following. registers of deaths, volunteers (63 vols.); a register of deaths, U. S. Colored Troops; regimental casualty lists (17 ft.); army corps, army, and departmental casualty lists (19 ft.); casualty lists of commissioned officers; a list of casualties during the Shenandoah Campaign (1 vol.); and a list of deaths in the U. S. Naval Service. There are indexes to the above casualty lists (10 ft.); indexes to casualties reported by surgeons (13 vols.); a regimental index to casualties at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and "Wilderness to Cold Harbor"; a chronological index to the casualty lists; and certain casualty sheets of wounded that appear to relate to a hospital register of the New England Soldiers Relief Association.

The field records of hospitals, 1821-1912, include, for the Civil War period, subseries of the following headings: States and Territories; Army Corps; Departments; and U. S. Army Regimental. The first (arranged alphabetically by State or Territory) includes, under H, "Hospitals Afloat." The army corps books (76 ft.) are devoted exclusively to the 25 Civil War corps; the regimental books include hospital records for the Regular Army and the U. S. Colored Troops. Various lists facilitate the finding and use of these volumes, which consist in general of registers of sick and wounded, order and letter books, clothing and descriptive books, account books, rosters, and prescription and case books. These are the original records of military hospitals of all classes. Army regulations of 1863 required the senior medical officer of each hospital, post, regiment, or detachment to keep and deliver to his successor "a register of patients (Form 9); a prescription book (Form 10); a diet book (Form 10); a case book; a meteorological register (Form 11); copies of his requisitions, annual returns, and quarterly reports of sick and wounded; and an order and letter book, in which will be transcribed all orders and letters relating to his duties." Other records of or pertaining to hospitals include a "Record of General Hospitals," 1862-66 (1 vol. ); a register of surgical operations at the Christian Street General Hospital, Philadelphia; fragmentary papers (3 in.) concerning hospital trains and steamers; some of the socalled "B Books" or registers of patients in hospitals (indexed); hospital registers of deaths, 1860-89 (18 vols.), and of discharges, 1861-68 (8 vols.); a record of transfers from one hospital to another, 1861-65 (4 vols.); and other hospital records in the series of so-called "E Books" and "F Books." Useful as finding aids for these records are an index to Civil War hospitals, an "Index to Army Corps Organization--Hospitals--Civil War Period," and an index to organizations by State with reference to hospital records available. There are also a list of post and general hospitals having no records on file and a list of Civil War organizations of which there were (ca. 1883) no treatment records on file.

National Archives, Preliminary

Inventory [No. 17] of the Records of the Adjutant General's Office,

comp. by Lucille H. Pendell and Elizabeth Bethel, p. 107-132 (Washington, 1949).

Records Transferred to the Veterans Administration

Record Group 15. --From 1862 until 1930 the Surgeon General's Office adjudicated claims for artificial limbs and appliances for veterans (except World War I veterans) and for all retired personnel of the Regular Army. Although only the current case files were transferred by the Surgeon General's Office to the Veterans Administration in 1930, the then inactive files (which include most of the materials of Civil War interest) are now also part of the records of the Veterans Administration. In this record group the records pertaining to the furnishing of prosthetic devices to Civil War veterans are included in more general series. The artificial limb case files, 1861-1930 (200 ft.), are arranged alphabetically by name of veteran regardless of war; each case usually contains, in support of the veteran's application, a pension certification, a transcript of medical and hospital records, depositions of the veteran's officers or comrades, and related papers. Registers and indexes related to the case files include the general registers of approved claims, 1870-1911 (2 ft.); a general index to claims, 1870-85 (3 vols.); and a register of soldiers supplied with artificial legs at Chicago, Mar. 1863-Nov. 1864 (this includes copies of the "Instructions to Soldiers Entitled to the Patent Wilcox Leg" and gives for each case a complete history of the veteran's service and disability). Records concerning the procurement of artificial limbs include a volume recording orders issued in the Northern Department and the Departments of Ohio and the Lakes, 1862-70; and procurement orders issued at New York, 1862-70 (2 vols.).

Records relating to the issuing of trusses include registers of trusses issued, 1872-95 (4 vols.), and 1882-1923 (3 vols.); an account book, 187275, itemizing expenditures for truss issuance; and copies of correspondence with veterans, examining surgeons, and manufacturers of trusses, 1875-84 (1 vol.). These records in general reveal the kinds of ruptures and the kinds of trusses specified and issued to applicants.

National Archives, unpublished Preliminary Checklist of Records of the Veterans Administration Pertaining to the Issuance of Artificial

Meteorological Records

Limbs, Trusses, and Other Prosthetic Appliances, 1862-1935, comp. by Evangeline Thurber.

Record Group 27. --Meteorological registers maintained by regimental surgeons or post physicians from 1819, together with other meteorological records of the Surgeon General's Office, have become a part of the records of the Weather Bureau. For the Civil War period they often contain illuminating data; there are, for example, a volume kept by the post physician containing weather data for Fort Sumter, Dec. 1860-Apr. 1861, and additional volumes kept by the Charleston Board of Health (with entries for April 12, 1861). The registers in principal use during the Civil War are small volumes labeled "U. S. A. Hospital Department Meteorological Register." A completed register contains observations for about 6 years and gives thermometer, hygrometer, wind, weather, and precipitation readings.

National Archives, List of Climatological Records in the National Archives (Special List No. 1. Wash

ington, 1942), comp. by Lewis J. Darter, Jr.

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSARY GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE

The Subsistence Department during the Civil War continued --under acts of Apr. 14, 1818 (3 Stat. 426), and Mar. 2, 1821 (3 Stat. 615)--to be responsible for purchasing and issuing all subsistence for the Army. The Department was responsible also for the subsistence of all prisoners of war and political prisoners, of a great many contrabands, and of suffering Union families in invaded areas of the Confederacy.

During the summer of 1861 the Commissary General of Subsistence was occupied in supplying the large army collected at Washington and with overseeing procurement of subsistence stores for the Department of the West, the troops at Cairo and in its vicinity, the Department of Western Virginia, and the troops in Kentucky. At the outbreak of war the Subsistence Department had only 12 officers of all grades; but an act of Aug. 3, 1861 (12 Stat. 287), added 12 commissaries, and one of Feb. 9, 1863 (12 Stat. 648), added 5, bringing the total to 29 officers of all grades. These were supplemented by many more commissaries of volunteer troops, so that on Apr. 30, 1865, there were in service in the Subsistence Department 29 officers of the permanent establishment and 535 commissaries of volunteers, a total of 564. By AGO Special Order 366, Oct. 26, 1864, eight boards for the examination of "officers of the Commissary Department" were established.

Under an act of July 4, 1864 (13 Stat. 381), loyal citizens of States "not in rebellion" submitted to the Commissary General of Subsistence claims for subsistence they had furnished the Army, with proofs. The Commissary General then examined the claims and, if payment was recommended, reported them to the Third Auditor. The Department's disbursements from July 1, 1861, to June 30, 1865, amounted to $361, 786, 991. 83. The excess supply of subsistence stores on hand at the close of the war was reduced by sale.

Successive Commissaries General of Subsistence during the war:
Col. George Gibson, in office from Apr. 18, 1818.
Col. Joseph P. Taylor, Sept. 29, 1861.
Brig. Gen. Amos B. Eaton, June 29, 1864.

Annual Reports of the Commissary General of Subsistence, 186265, appended to those of the Secretary of War; John W. Barriger, Legislative History of the Subsistence Department of the United States

Army From June 16, 1775, to August 15, 1876 (2d ed.; Washington, 1877); War Department], Regulations for the Subsistence Department of the Army of the United States (Washington, 1863).

Record Group 192. --The correspondence of the Commissary General of Subsistence for the war period is in a series of copies of letters sent, 181889 (132 vols.); in a separate series of letters sent to the Secretary of War, 1840-89 (10 vols.); and in a series of letters received, 1828-87 (500 ft.). There is an index to the letters sent to the Secretary of War, 1854-66; and the letters received are abstracted in registers. This correspondence relates in general to administrative matters; to money accounts and officers' returns of subsistence property and stores; to claims for the commutation of rations; to proposals and contracts to furnish, and purchases of, subsistence supplies and services; and to personnel matters. A special file of letters received, 1865-70 (48 ft.), of which there are abstracts in registers