XIII. MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIES In this section are discussed some governmental or quasigovernmental organizations of the executive branch, all well below the Cabinet level. Two of them--the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company and the Panama Railroad Company--began as private enterprises and were taken over by the Government; two--the U. S. Sanitary Commission and the U. S. Christian Commission--were Civil War organizations supported largely by private subscription but having close ties with the Government, especially with the War Department; one--the Commissioners of Emancipation in the District of Columbia--was an ad hoc commission set up during the war; two--the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of Sciences--are Government institutions partly supported by private funds (no records of the Civil War period have been transferred from either of these to the National Archives); and the last--the so-called Southern Claims Commission and various memorialization agencies--were postwar governmental bodies that created records related to the war. These agencies are discussed below in the chronological order of their establishment. CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL COMPANY The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, successor to the Potomac Company, was incorporated by an act of the Virginia legislature on Jan. 27, 1824. The State of Maryland confirmed the incorporation on Jan. 31, 1825, and the United States did so on Mar. 3, 1825 (4 Stat. 101). Under its charter the company sought "to establish a connected navigation between the Eastern and Western waters, so as to extend and multiply the means and facilities of internal commerce and personal intercourse between two great sections of the United States; and to interweave more closely all the mutual interests and affections, that are calculated to perfect the vital principle of Union." Construction of the canal was begun on July 4, 1828, and was completed to Cumberland in 1850. With the secession of Virginia, the canal, which ran along the northern bank of the Potomac River, was on the border between the Union and the Confederacy. In 1861 and 1862 it suffered from Southern attempts to halt its traffic. Lee's invasions of Sept. 1862 and June and July 1863 resulted in damage to some of the locks; and on occasion during the war the opposing Armies occupied some of the canal works. Moreover, the war itself reduced the coastal trade upon which canal operations depended, and the cumulative effect upon the canal's business was almost disastrous. Areas and structures belonging to the canal were occupied by the Federal Government for varying periods during the war--notably the Potomac Aqueduct (near the present Key Bridge), which was transformed into a bridge and thus cut off the canal from its only feasible access to tidewater. The Government seized canal boats at different times, as during the panic caused by the operations of the Merrimac. AGO General Order 44, Apr. 21, 1862, ordered that the property of the canal company on the side held by Union forces be given up and restored to the president of the company. In 1933 the Company's property was purchased by the United States and put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Walter S. Sanderlin, The Great National Project; a History of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (Balti more, 1946); wartime annual reports of the company's president and directors. Record Group 79. --The company's records in the National Archives are those that accumulated to 1889, before the company went into receivership. Series spanning the Civil War include stockholders' proceedings; proceedings of the president and directors; letters received by the president and letter books containing copies of letters sent; miscellaneous fiscal records; registers of boats and of articles transported on the canal; land, legal, and court records; and the annual reports of the president and directors. Only a detailed and laborious examination of these materials can reveal their significance to Civil War documentation, but Sanderlin's work, cited above, which uses the letters sent and received, 1861-64 and beyond, suggests their potential. Records in Other Custody. --The University of Virginia Library has approximately 300 letters, legal documents, broadsides, etc., concerning principally the presidency of Col. Alfred Spates during the 1860's and the direct control over the canal exercised during 1861-65 by Federal military authorities. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION The Smithsonian Institution was created by an act of Congress of Aug. 10, 1846 (9 Stat. 102), which directed that it be supported in perpetuity by the income from a bequest of over half a million dollars from an Englishman, James Smithson, whose will had stipulated that it was to be an "establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men." The board of regents provided for by the act met on Dec. 3, 1846, and selected Joseph Henry, then professor at Princeton, as Secretary of the Institution. The act of incorporation also provided for the construction of a building to house a museum, an art gallery, a chemical laboratory, and a library. As administered by Henry, who continued as Secretary until his death in 1878, the income from the Smithson bequest was devoted primarily to original scientific research and to the publication and distribution of the results of such research. A part of the Institution's Annual Report regularly recounted the progress of science throughout the world, and memoirs on scientific subjects were published in the Smithsonian's Contributions to Knowledge and its Miscellaneous Collections. A program for the international exchange of publications resulted in the accumulation of a large collection of journals and transactions of scientific and learned societies. The collecting of specimens of natural history and the examination and classification of minerals went on throughout the Civil War period. The Smithsonian's Gerstle Mack, The Land Divided; a History of the Panama Canal and Other Isthmian Canal Projects (New York, 1944); Darrell H. Smith, The Panama Canal; Its History, Activities, and Organization (Institute for Government Research, Service Mono- Record Group 185.--In the Federal Records Center, New York City, is the company's correspondence during the Civil War with such U. S. officials as the Secretary of State and several consuls, with bankers and agents of steamship companies, and with representatives of Latin American governments. In addition to normal company business, the correspondence concerns Confederate plans to interfere with U. S. shipping on the Pacific Coast. Other records of the period in the Center comprise the company's annual reports, 1860-76 (2 ft.); contract files, 1861-65 (1 ft. ); journals documenting fiscal operations, 1860-80 (1 ft. ); and canceled stock certificates and bond coupons, 1859-70 (5 ft. ). U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION Early in 1861 sanitarians who had been promoting the public health movement and physicians who knew of the work of the British Sanitary Commission during the Crimean War turned their attention to protecting the health of the soldiers. On the recommendation of a delegation of relief organizations in New York City, Secretary of War Stanton issued an order on June 9, 1861 (approved by Lincoln on June 13), establishing the U. S. Sanitary Commission. The original members of the commission were Henry W. Bellows (a prominent Unitarian minister of New York), Alexander Dallas Bache (Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey), Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, Dr. William H. Van Buren, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Col. Robert C. Wood (Acting Surgeon General), Lt. Col. George W. Cullum, and Maj. Alexander E. Shiras. At a meeting of the commission on June 12 Bellows was elected president, and a plan of organization was adopted. The commission was to inquire into the recruiting practices, the sanitary condition of troops, and the means of preserving their health; and it was to advise the War Department on these matters. George Templeton Strong, a New York lawyer, became treasurer. As general secretary Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect, directed the work of the commission from 1861 to 1863. He was succeeded in that position by Dr. J. F. Jenkins in Sept. 1863, and by J. S. Blatchford in Apr. 1865. The central office of the commission was set up in Washington in quarters supplied by the Government, which also furnished transportation for its agents in the field. The commission developed a large organization that carried on varied activities. State branches maintained depots into which were fed supplies collected by many affiliated local aid societies. The Western Sanitary Commission was organized at St. Louis by William G. Eliot, a Congregational minister; and other commissions in the Mississippi Valley operated under the presidency of James E. Yeatman. In the same area Dr. J. S. Newberry, a member of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, organized its Western Department. Agents of the commission in the field included clerks, depot keepers, wagon drivers, relief agents, and inspectors. Their labors supplemented on a large scale the operations of the Army Medical Department in caring for soldiers. The commission's inspections of hospitals and prison camps and specimens, reports on subjects referred to the Institution, records of experiments performed for the Government, and some papers of Joseph Henry, including his diaries, memorandum books, and account books (S. Rept. 129, 38 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 1211). Surviving records are still in the Smithsonian archives. Press copybooks of letters sent, from Jan. 1865, relate to meteorology and other sciences, publications, orders for materials, comments on manuscripts presented for publication, and invitations to attend meetings. Letters received that were saved from the fire include 9 volumes for the period Apr. 1863-Dec. 1865. These letters concern scientific and meteorological subjects and include offers to forward meteorological data or to serve as observers, offers of specimens for purchase or exchange, offers to deliver lectures or requests for permission to use the Smithsonian hall for public meetings, requests for information and advice on scientific subjects and inventions, and information on the preparation of publications. Letters from the Secretary of Agriculture concern weather reports, supplying observers with instruments, etc., and the examination of applicants for appointments. The correspondence of Samuel F. Baird (assistant secretary in charge of printing, exchanges of publications, and the collections of natural history) is available from 1850. His letters sent, 1861-65, are in 12 volumes, and his letters received for the same period are in 13 volumes. Other "meteorological letters received," May 1852June 1861 and Jan. -June 1868 (11 vols.), are also in the Smithsonian archives. Considerable quantities of private correspondence of Joseph Henry, 1825-78, and Samuel F. Baird, 1850-87, are available. Henry's papers include correspondence with Alexander D. Bache, 1834-67, and other correspondence on matters concerning the Light-House Board and the Coast Survey. An account book of expenditures for meteorological apparatus, 1851-70, contains accounts for individual observers. The Smithsonian's published Annual Reports, 1861-65, contain some correspondence, reports of the executive committee, proceedings of the board of regents, and lists of publications, lectures, specimens received, and meteorological stations and observers. See also The Smithsonian Institution; Journals of the Board of Regents, Reports of Committees, Statistics, etc. [184676], ed. by William J. Rhees (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 18, Washington, 1879). Correspond ama ence and reports by Henry are in the files of other Government departments and bureaus. See the records of the Board to Examine the Stevens Battery, the Permanent Commission, and the National Academy of Sciences, described elsewhere in this Guide. Other correspondence of Henry is in numerous depositories; for this, see Philip M. Hamer, ed., A Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States (New Haven, Conn., 1961). PANAMA RAILROAD COMPANY The Panama Railroad Company, incorporated under the laws of New York in Apr. 1849, built and operated a railroad across the Isthmus of PanDuring the first 10 years of its operation (1855-65) the railroad carried over $700, 000, 000 in specie and 300, 000 bags of mail. Under the treaty signed by representatives of the United States and Panama on Nov. 18, 1903, it was acquired by the U. S. Government. Gerstle Mack, The Land Divided; a History of the Panama Canal and Other Isthmian Canal Projects (New York, 1944); Darrell H. Smith, The Panama Canal; Its History, Activities, and Organization (Institute for Government Research, Service Mono- Record Group 185.--In the Federal Records Center, New York City, is the company's correspondence during the Civil War with such U. S. officials as the Secretary of State and several consuls, with bankers and agents of steamship companies, and with representatives of Latin American governments. In addition to normal company business, the correspondence concerns Confederate plans to interfere with U. S. shipping on the Pacific Coast. Other records of the period in the Center comprise the company's annual reports, 1860-76 (2 ft. ); contract files, 1861-65 (1 ft. ); journals documenting fiscal operations, 1860-80 (1 ft. ); and canceled stock certificates and bond coupons, 1859–70 (5 ft. ). U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION Early in 1861 sanitarians who had been promoting the public health movement and physicians who knew of the work of the British Sanitary Commission during the Crimean War turned their attention to protecting the health of the soldiers. On the recommendation of a delegation of relief organizations in New York City, Secretary of War Stanton issued an order on June 9, 1861 (approved by Lincoln on June 13), establishing the U. S. Sanitary Commission. The original members of the commission were Henry W. Bellows (a prominent Unitarian minister of New York), Alexander Dallas Bache (Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey), Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, Dr. William H. Van Buren, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Col. Robert C. Wood (Acting Surgeon General), Lt. Col. George W. Cullum, and Maj. Alexander E. Shiras. At a meeting of the commission on June 12 Bellows was elected president, and a plan of organization was adopted. The commission was to inquire into the recruiting practices, the sanitary condition of troops, and the means of preserving their health; and it was to advise the War Department on these matters. George Templeton Strong, a New York lawyer, became treasurer. As general secretary Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect, directed the work of the commission from 1861 to 1863. He was succeeded in that position by Dr. J. F. Jenkins in Sept. 1863, and by J. S. Blatchford in Apr. 1865. The central office of the commission was set up in Washington in quarters supplied by the Government, which also furnished transportation for its agents in the field. The commission developed a large organization that carried on varied activities. State branches maintained depots into which were fed supplies collected by many affiliated local aid societies. The Western Sanitary Commission was organized at St. Louis by William G. Eliot, a Congregational minister; and other commissions in the Mississippi Valley operated under the presidency of James E. Yeatman. In the same area Dr. J. S. Newberry, a member of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, organized its Western Department. Agents of the commission in the field included clerks, depot keepers, wagon drivers, relief agents, and inspectors. Their labors supplemented on a large scale the operations of the Army Medical Department in caring for soldiers. The commission's inspections of hospitals and prison camps |