adopted the policy of building only steam vessels, the Bureau's work in In 1920 the name of the Bureau was shortened to Bureau of Engineering, and in 1940 it was consolidated with the Bureau of Construction and Repair to form the Bureau of Ships. Commodore Benjamin F. Isherwood was Chief of the Bureau, 1862-69. Bennett, Steam Navy of the United States; Report of the Secre tary of the Navy, 1861-65. Record Group 19. --The correspondence of the Bureau is bound in volumes according to class of correspondent. Most of the volumes begin in July 1862; correspondence for 1861 and the first half of 1862 relating to steam machinery was transferred to the Bureau of Construction and Repair. The outgoing letters include letters to the Secretary of the Navy; to chiefs of bureaus; to engineers at navy yards and on ships concerning contracts, tests, specifications, and requisitions; to naval officers commanding squadrons, ships, and navy yards and to naval storekeepers concerning the construction and repair of steam machinery, procurement of materials, and changes in specifications and designs; to Navy agents, paymasters, and pay inspectors concerning requisitions for funds, procurement of materials, purchases, payments, and prices; to contractors (shipbuilders, foundries, and iron works) concerning contracts for engines, boilers, and steam machinery, specifications, and the procurement of materials; and to the commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard. Incoming letters, which treat the same subjects and personnel matters, are from officers, superintending engineers, and contractors. There are also reports on the progress of work on steam machinery from inspectors of machinery for ironclad steamers; these were transmitted through the General Inspector of Ironclads at New York. Other records of the Bureau for the Civil War period are not extensive. Surveys of the condition of machinery and reports on the performance of engines in wharf trials originated with engineer officers at navy yards and shipyards and in the office of the General Superintendent of Ironclads. Several items relating to supplies include lists of engineer stores on board vessels, 1861-64; bills for steam machinery and equipment and extra work done by contractors, 1863-66; monthly statements of contracts for supplies made by the Navy agent at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, 1862-65; and invoices of stores shipped by the naval storekeeper at Boston, 1863-64. Other items include releases from inventors and patent holders, giving the Navy Department free use of patents for steam machinery and accessories; specifications for a steam sloop of war designed and proposed by Alban C. Stimers; and a record of examinations taken by applicants for appointment as chief or as assistant engineer. 1 A file of plans contains tracings, drawings, blueprints, and vandykes of hulls, engines, boilers, auxiliary machinery, and equipment of naval vessels. Some of the plans are those taken over from the Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repairs; but most of the plans date from 1861. Steam logs, kept by engineer officers on ships and submitted daily to the commanding officers, record hourly data on the speed of the vessel, direction and force of the wind, course of the vessel, performance of engines, amount of fuel used, temperature in engineroom and on deck, and amount of concentration of water in the boiler; daily figures on fuel consumed and knots run; latitude and longitude; and remarks on the condition of the sea and any unusual occurrences. Lists of the logs are available. (A useful tool is the chronological list of steam vessels in an appendix in Bennett's Steam Navy.) Record Group 45.--A register of acting assistant engineers, May 1861July 1865, is in this record group. BUREAU OF YARDS AND DOCKS This Bureau was established in 1842 as the Bureau of Navy Yards and Docks, a designation shortened in 1862 to Bureau of Yards and Docks. Since its creation the Bureau has been responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of buildings, utilities, harbor structures, service structures, and storage facilities at navy yards and stations. During the Civil War, navy yards were in operation at Portsmouth (Kittery, Maine), Boston (Charlestown), New York (Brooklyn), Philadelphia, Norfolk (Gosport), Washington, Pensacola (Warrington), and San Francisco (Mare Island). Navy yards and naval stations are discussed in greater detail at the end of this section. Civil engineers were stationed at most of the yards. Rear Adm. Joseph Smith was the Chief of the Bureau, 1846-69. Record Group 45. --Records of the Bureau in this record group comprise copies of correspondence concerning ironclads, in subject file AD (the originals of these are described under Record Group 71, below) and some payrolls of navy yards. Record Group 71. --The records of the Bureau date from 1842 or even earlier and for most of the 19th century are in bound volumes. The largest series comprise letters sent and letters received, separately bound by class of correspondent. The letters sent are to commandants of yards and stations, to civil engineers, to Navy agents and paymasters, to the Secretary of the Navy and heads of bureaus, and to miscellaneous correspondents, including contractors and others. Letters received are in separate volumes--from commandants, from governors of the Naval Asylum, from other persons at the Naval Asylum, from Navy agents and paymasters, from officers, from the Secretary of the Navy and bureaus, and from miscellaneous writers. Separate registers are available for letters sent and letters received. A series of circulars to commandants includes a small quantity for 1861-65. The correspondence for 1861-63 includes letters to and from C. S. Bushnell, John Ericsson, Merrick and Son, A. C. Stimers, and C. W. Whitney, relating to the construction of the first American ironclads. Several other types of records, small in quantity, cover the period of the Civil War. Those relating to personnel include monthly reports of officers and others at stations, Jan. 1861-Dec. 1864; semiannual returns of 472 apprentices employed at navy yards; payrolls for yards at Mound City, 1862-65, New Orleans, 1861-65, New York, 1861-65, Pensacola, 1861-65, Philadelphia, 1861-65, Port Royal, 1864-65, Portsmouth, 1861-65, and Washington, 1861-65; and schedules of hours and wages for various occupations at navy yards, Oct. 1864-Dec. 1865. Contracts and bonds, with specifications and plans, fill several volumes. There are also ledgers showing payments made on contracts, including a small volume on contracts for ironclads, 1861-64. A record of bids received includes one list of bids on Mississippi River gunboats, 1862. Bundles of bids accepted and rejected by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 1861-64, are samples of such documents. Other financial records include a file of Navy agents' exhibits and vouchers, with supporting documents, showing payments made under appropriations. Inventories of stores are available for most of the yards. The Bureau's annual reports of expenditures and estimates, 1861-65, fill more than 3 volumes. Besides annual reports of the Chief of the Bureau, in narrative form, and annual reports from civil engineers, with statistics, these volumes contain many drawings and blueprints; and they constitute a good starting point for tracing the history of yards and stations. Further information on these establishments is in some monthly reports of expenditures on improvements and in a series of ledgers recording expenditures for buildings, improvements, repairs, and equipment. Buildings and works at yards are depicted in a large series of plans, drawings, and blueprints; a list of plans fills several volumes. (Another file of plans is in the Federal Records Center at Alexandria, Va.) An extensive pictorial file, relating principally to construction at navy yards and other shore establishments, contains some pictures of buildings, dwellings, gatehouses, and marine railways in existence at the yards during the war. Records relating to the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia include muster rolls of pensioners and inmates; a register of inmates; quarterly reports of the receipt and issuance of clothing, tobacco, and pocket money; weekly reports on subsistence; a manuscript history with a collection of notes compiled in 1877-78 by Edward Hooker; and a journal. Still other records include plans and specifications for an armored steam corvette submitted by John W. Nystrom of Philadelphia in 1861; journals of daily events at yards, including the yard at New York, Jan. Dec. 1863 (2 vols.), and the yard at Norfolk, Sept. 1862-Nov. 1863 (1 vol.); a copy of John Ericsson's specification for a floating battery, 1862; a muster roll of "contrabands" at Port Royal, 1863; and a manuscript history of the Gosport (Va.) Navy Yard. One pertinent item in a small collection of records of naval site boards is the journal of the board appointed in 1862 to select a site for a navy yard at League Island, New London, or Narragansett Bay (see Naval Boards and Commissions, below). National Archives, Preliminary Inventory [No. 10] of the Records of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Naval Home comp. by Richard G. Wood (Wash- Opened in 1833 at Philadelphia as an asylum for disabled officers, seamen, and marines, the Naval Home was under the commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard until 1838, when it became an independent agency. It was under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Yards and Docks from 1849 to 1898 and then was transferred to the Bureau of Navigation. Albert Gleaves, "The U. S. Nav. Inst., Proceedings, 57:473Naval Home, Philadelphia," U. S. 476 (Apr. 1931). Record Group 24. --A long run of letters sent by the Naval Home to the Navy Department and other correspondents is incomplete for the war period; it covers only Mar. 1861-Oct. 1862. Information on the weather, occurrences, personnel actions, the receipt of supplies and provisions, and chapel services is entered in a logbook. U. S. MARINE CORPS The Marine Corps was established by an act of Congress of July 11, 1798 (1 Stat. 594). Besides providing for raising and organizing "a corps of marines," this act authorized the Commandant of the corps to appoint an Adjutant, a Paymaster, and a Quartermaster. The corps was at first subject to the regulations of both the Army and the Navy, but an act of June 30, 1834 (4 Stat. 712), put it under the laws and regulations of the Navy. A depot of supplies was established at Philadelphia about 1857. The corps lost about half its officers by resignation and dismissal during the months before the Civil War. Early in Lincoln's administration steps were taken to replace them and to build up the enlisted strength of the corps, but at no time during the war did its numbers exceed 3,900. In 1861 Marine detachments garrisoned military posts threatened by Confederates, including Fort Washington on the Potomac, Fort McHenry at Baltimore, and Fort Pickens near Pensacola. Marine guards were continued at the navy yards, and late in 1862 guard detachments were also supplied for new stations at Mare Island in San Francisco Bay and at Cairo, Ill., the base of the flotilla on the Mississippi River. A detachment was also assigned to the navy yard at Pensacola after its recapture. Other detachments served aboard ships of the blockading squadrons and on receiving ships. Successive Commandants of the Marine Corps during the war period: Col. John Harris, Jan. 7, 1859. Col. Jacob Zeilin, June 9, 1864. Clyde H. Metcalf, A History of the United States Marine Corps (New York, 1939); Navy Register, 1861-65. Record Group 127. --Records of the Commandant's Office consist mainly of correspondence. Letters sent relate to assignments, discharges, desertions, orders, courts-martial, policy decisions, movements of Marine detachments, and the administration of the corps. Name and subject indexes to the letters sent are in separate volumes. Letters received are part of a file for 1816-1903, arranged chronologically under the first letter of the subject or name of correspondent. In a separate series are incoming and outgoing orders concerning matters of discipline, general orders, promotion orders, orders from the Secretary of the Navy, some detail-to-duty orders, and copies of court-martial proceedings. Records concerning personnel are among the records of the Marine Corps Adjutant and Inspector. Two parts of a file of letters received cover the Civil War; one is arranged alphabetically within each year, and the other is a chronological file. Information on the duty of officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates is in a chronological file of muster rolls, indexed by ship or station. For 1865 only there are reports on the monthly detail of officers. Detailed information regarding enlisted personnel, including vital statistics and physical descriptions, is in some compiled records called "size rolls." Still more information for enlisted men is in a voluminous file of service records, containing forms and correspondence relating to enlistment, medical records, and termination of service. Parts of single volumes covering longer periods of time contain registers of desertions and discharges, rosters of officers, and statistical returns of Marine Corps personnel on ships and stations. The extant records of the Quartermaster, who was concerned with the procurement and distribution of supplies, the construction of buildings, matters of transportation, etc., are incomplete. Fair copies of outgoing letters extend only to Jan. 8, 1863; but letters sent, 1863-65, are available in press copy books. An incomplete file of letters received, 1823-1906, includes some letters of the Civil War period. In this century the Historical Section of Marine Corps Headquarters built up a file of material of especial historical interest, which is composed of official letters and reports removed or copied from the regular files. The order of Sept. 8, 1919, establishing the Section directed the collection of material for a history of the corps, and the records were eventually used by Col. C. H. Metcalf for his book cited above. As the file is chronologically arranged, the records for the Civil War (1 ft.) are segregable. The file is covered in part by a subject card index. In a file of casualty cards, 1798-1941, there is for the Civil War a separate drawer containing two sets of cards, one in chronological and the other in alphabetical order. For marine barracks at Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington there are files of letters, muster rolls, and officer-of-the-day reports and morning reports, which were retained as samples of such records. The only extant records of the Depot of Supplies at Philadelphia appear to be officer-of-the-day reports, 1859-1911. National Archives, Preliminary Checklist of the Records of the 1944, comp. by Fred G. Halley NAVAL BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS During the Civil War various naval boards and commissions were set up for special tasks. Some were established by Secretary Welles to execute acts of Congress, others to help him in performing the duties of the Navy Department. To carry out their functions, these boards had to keep journals or records of proceedings and collect information and evidence. Records of some of the boards and commissions are extant, but those of others have disappeared. Naval and Marine Corps Examining Boards An act of July 16, 1862 (12 Stat. 583), divided the active list of line officers of the Navy into nine grades--rear admirals, commodores, captains, commanders, lieutenant commanders, lieutenants, masters, ensigns, and midshipmen. Previously there had been only three grades of commissioned officers--captains, commanders, and lieutenants. The act also required the Secretary of the Navy to appoint a board of not fewer than three |