Green Bay, Wis. The first grants of lands for penitentiaries were made in the enabling acts of 1864 for Nevada and Nebraska. To aid in building a canal from Lake Superior to Portage Lake across the northern tip of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, 400, 000 acres of land were granted to that State in 1865-66. Grants of swamp and overflowed lands were made to several States under acts of 1849 and 1850 to enable them to reclaim those lands. During the war grants of land were still being certified to States under acts of the 1850's to aid in the construction of railroads, and legislation was passed for additional grants. Towns located on surveyed public land were allowed to acquire their sites at the minimum price and dispose of them in lots under State or Territorial legislation (act of May 23, 1844; 5 Stat. 657). Mail contractors on routes west of the Mississippi River were allowed preemption rights up to 640 acres on land occupied as mail stations (act of Mar. 3, 1855; 10 Stat. 684). But this act was modified by one of June 21, 1860 (12 Stat. 70), which reserved land for use as mail stations only while it was so used and provided for its sale when the stations were abandoned. During the war the Republican-controlled Congress adopted other measures that in previous years had been opposed by Southern Members. Under the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862 (12 Stat. 392), a settler could obtain up to 160 acres of land without payment except for a small filing fee, on condition that he occupied and cultivated the land for 5 years. A later act of Mar. 21, 1864 (13 Stat. 35), required of soldiers only a single year's residence. After the Pacific Railroad Act of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat. 490), authorized huge grants of land to corporations to aid in the construction of railroads, the General Land Office became responsible for the withdrawal of such lands from public sale. The passage of the Agricultural College Act (the Morrill Act) of July 2, 1862 (12 Stat. 503), culminated a long agitation for granting land to aid in founding agricultural and mechanical colleges. Not only States with public lands benefited from this act, but also Eastern States with no public lands were allowed to apply for land scrip, to be located on the public lands elsewhere. An act of Mar 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 754), authorized the President to reserve townsites in strategic locations and directed the Secretary of the Interior to have them surveyed into lots and sold. The mining boom in the Rocky Mountains during the war resulted in the enactment of a more favorable townsites act on July 1, 1864 (13 Stat. 343). This act repealed the act of May 3, 1844, enlarged the preemption allowed to municipalities from 320 to 640 acres, authorized the survey and sale of lots, and allowed preemptions to actual settlers on lots. The States "in rebellion," where in 1861 there were nearly 48, 000, 000 acres of public land, were denied the benefits of the land bounties provided by Congress during the war. Proposals for the confiscation of land in the South that were presented to Congress were not enacted, however, and in 1866 the Homestead Act was extended to that region. An act of June 21, 1866 (14 Stat. 66), limited the disposal of land in the South to entries under the Homestead Act and restricted the entries to 80 acres each. By an act of July 23, 1866 (14 Stat. 208), the time allowed to States to accept land grants under the Agricultural College Act was extended to July 23, 1869; and the time within which the States must establish their colleges was extended to 5 years from the date of their filing acceptance of land grants. Under all this legislation and other enactments the General Land Office at the time of the Civil War had many duties. It directed the survey of public lands by the surveyors general and the subsequent sale of land by the local land offices. It attempted to protect timber on public lands, and it supervised withdrawals of public land for use as military posts, Indian reservations, and lighthouse sites. The Secretary of the Interior transferred from his immediate office in 1861 to the Commissioner of the General Land Office the supervision of the running and marking of boundaries between Territories of the United States and States; and in 1864 (act of Apr. 8; 13 Stat. 39) the Office became responsible for surveying Indian reservations. The Office also handled the repayments that sometimes had to be made to individuals who had purchased land, and it issued patents for public lands disposed of. To execute acts of Congress regarding the public lands the Commissioner had to issue many rules and regulations for the guidance of surveyors general, their deputies, and registers and receivers who were in charge of the land offices. A troublesome and laborious task was that of settling private land claims originating in grants made by Spain and Mexico in the region of the Southwest acquired by treaty from Mexico. With so many different enactments controlling the disposal of lands, it was inevitable that disputes should arise over claims to land; and the adjustment of these legal questions was a heavy burden for the General Land Office. Decisions of the Commissioner in regard to suspended preemption land claims were subject to the approval of the Board of Equitable Adjudication, consisting of the Seccretary of the Interior, the Attorney General, and the Commissioner of the General Land Office (act of Aug. 3, 1846; 9 Stat. 51). The cartographic operations of the Office included the preparation not only of plats, but also of State maps, maps of the United States, and special maps. Wartime brought some special regulations. Early in the war it was provided that preemption entries of men who entered military service would be held in abeyance until their return and that in case of death the claims would be confirmed to their heirs or legal representatives. By direction of the Secretary of the Interior, the Commissioner of the General Land Office instructed registers and receivers on Jan. 6, 1862, to require persons claiming preemptions or donations of land to take the oath of allegiance before receiving certificates and evidence of the claims. Surveyors general were instructed by the same circular to require deputy surveyors to take the oath. A divisional organization initiated in the General Land Office in 1836 continued without much change until a few years after the Civil War. But there were in subsequent years so many changes of function from one division to another that it is not possible in a brief description to take up the records according to the divisional organization. Instead, they are described below by type of record of the function they document. It should be noted that records described just below are those of the General Land Office in Washington; field records of surveyors general and district land offices are discussed later in this section. Successive Commissioners of the General Land Office during the war: Milton Conover, The General Land Office; Its History, Activities and Organization (Baltimore, 1923); Thomas Donaldson, The Public Domain; Its History, With Statistics (H. Misc. Doc. 45, pt. 4, 47 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 2158, Washington, 1884); Paul W. Gates, "The Homestead Act in an Incongruous Land System," American Historical Review, 41:652-681 (July 1936); Benjamin H. Hibbard, A History of Public Land Policies (New York, ment of Agriculture, Land; the Year- Correspondence and General Files Record Group 49. --The outgoing letters for the war period are recorded in chronological order in letter books. There are separate volumes of letters to surveyors general, registers and receivers, the executive departments, and the First Comptroller of the Treasury, relating not only to the survey and disposal of land but also to administrative and personnel matters. Other volumes contain letters on administrative matters, abandoned military reservations, agricultural college land scrip, Indian lands, military bounty land warrants and scrip, mineral entries and claims, preemption matters, private land claims, railroad grants, repayments to purchasers of land, school selections, State selections, swamp and overflowed lands, and timber trespassing. Some miscellaneous letters sent (available on microfilm,M 25) include letters to Members of Congress, recorders of land titles, Governors, and other State officials, attorneys, agents, and private individuals relating to land sales and other matters. Most of the volumes of letters are indexed, and for some classes of correspondents there are special index volumes. Unlike the letters sent, which were copied into separate volumes by clerks and maintained by different divisions of the Office, most of the letters received were kept in one large chronological file. This series contains letters from registers and receivers, Government departments and officers, lawyers, agents, business firms, State officials, foreign governments, and private individuals. These letters relate to land entries, claims, patents, copies of records, appeals, charges, protests, payment of fees, deeds, accounts, legislation, surveys of Indian reservations, township plats, military warrants and locations, caveats, donation land claims, maps, charts, diagrams, appointments and dismissals of agents and officers, confirmation and rejections of claims, and other matters concerning the administration of the public domain. In a separate file, arranged by States and Territories, are letters from surveyors general relating to the survey of the public land. Letters received from registers and receivers and other correspondents relating to surveys and surveying matters are in another file. The use of these large files is facilitated by several registers--of letters received from land registers and receivers, from surveyors general, from Members of Congress, from the Pension Office, and other correspondents, relating to Indian lands, preemption claims, private land claims, Virginia military warrants and scrip, and miscellaneous subjects. Other Washington office records (beyond those discussed at length below) consist of series covering long periods of time. A file of Executive orders concerns lighthouse sites and military and naval reservations and other public land matters. Presidential proclamations--issued to announce public land sales, postpone sales, open and close land offices, and remove land areas from sale--are available in both original and record copy form. Few orders and proclamations were issued during the war, but the files include many for wartime military sites. Bylaws for mining districts in Colorado, 1860-64, are in one volume. Some special files concern Indians, Indian allotments, and treaty and trust lands. Orders to publishers of newspapers, 1860-65, fill another volume. Lists are available of Agricultural College Act selections, railroad land grant selections and adjustments, wagon road selections, and Des Moines River lands and their purchasers. Lists of U. S. land patents for entries in Southern States issued during the war but held for later dispatch to the registers are indexed by land office. Records relating to the valuation of Sioux Indian lands, 186466, are in 2 volumes. On hand also are many worn-out tract books, of which transcripts are now in the Bureau of Land Management. Records relating to surveys include surveying contracts, bonds, and related papers. A collection of painted portraits of Commissioners of the General Land Office includes likenesses of both Wilson and Edmunds. The records of most discontinued land offices have been turned over to the appropriate States (and are discussed below), but some not wanted by the States are in the National Archives. These include a large collection of tract books for land offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. There are also other records for some district land offices, including a register of cash certificates for Springfield, Ill.; a record of homestead locations for Indianapolis, Ind. ; and records of homestead applications, cash sales, or locations for Council Bluffs, Fort Dodge, Kanesville, and Sioux City, Iowa. Military Reservation Files Many military posts, arsenals, navy yards, and naval stations used during the Civil War had been established on public land, by Executive order or act of Congress. When such reservations were ordered, the General Land Office notified the district land offices of the withdrawal of the reserved land from entry and, if the land was unsurveyed, directed that surveys be closed at the boundaries of the reservations. When the reservations were no longer needed, they were restored to the public domain by act of Congress or Executive order and again put under the General Land Office for survey and disposal. Such restorations were made by separate acts of Congress until a general act of July 5, 1884 (23 Stat. 103), provided for the disposal of abandoned and surplus military reservations. The abandoned reservations disposed of in the years soon after the Civil War included some that had been in Federal possession during the war and others that had been taken over by the Confederacy in 1861. Information on military reservations can be found in various publications. The dates of Executive orders for Army reservations are in Clifford L. Lord, ed., Presidential Executive Orders, 2:443447, 532-542, and for Navy reser vations ibid., 448-450, 593-596, and in Historical Records Survey, New Jersey, List and Index of Presidential Executive Orders, p. 320-353, 361381 (Army) and p. 387 (Navy). The publication of the U. S. Judge Advocate General's Department entitled wise disposed of, 1850-1915, as well as data about individual reservations. Other lists are in Donaldson, The Public Domain, p. 250-254, 748, 12581259. Relinquishments under the general act of 1884 are listed in S. Ex. Doc. United States Military Reservations, National Cemeteries, and Military Parks; Title, Jurisdiction, etc., p. 476-490 (Washington, 1916), contains a list of military reservations turned over by the War Department to the Interior Department, or other- 73, 51 Cong., 1 sess., p.2-4, Serial 2686. Record Group 49.--The abandoned military reservation files consist of dossiers relating to particular reservations, with no systematic arrangement. The dossiers usually contain Executive orders; correspondence between the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretaries of War and the Navy; correspondence between the General Land Office and its divisions; land title papers; and plats, maps, blueprints, and tracings showing the extent and boundaries of reservations and the improvements, buildings, and facilities on them. In turning over reservations for disposal, the War Department transferred also the pertinent title papers, correspondence, and other documents; consequently the file contains full information on the creation, restoration, appraisal, and disposal of reservations. It is an important file for the history of forts, though not for any military engagements of which they may have been the scene. A register facilitates finding reservations within particular States and briefs individual documents. The files cover military reservations acquired by purchase from private owners as well as those created from the public lands. National Archives, Index to General Land Office Abandoned Military Reservations Files, 18221937, comp. by Arthur Hecht and Lester W. Smith ([Washington] 1945). Related records are available in the National Archives. Outgoing letters about the reservations are in the correspondence and general files of the Land Office, discussed above. In the general records of the Department of the Interior (Record Group 48) are correspondence relating to the appointment of appraisers of abandoned military reservations and their oaths of office and commissions. Maps and documents Nonmilitary Reservation File Reservations were also set aside from the public land for the use of Indian tribes and as lighthouse sites. Before the Civil War the Indian title to most of the land east of the Mississippi River (except for a few reservations) had been extinguished by treaties, and most of the Indians had been removed to reservations west of the river. The policy of purchasing the rights to lands claimed by the Indians and of concentrating the tribes on small reservations was continued during the war. The lands were held by the tribes as a whole; allotments in severalty were made only by treaty or act of Congress until the adoption of an allotment act of Feb. 8, 1887 (24 |