Treasurer of the United States, as the disbursing officer of the Government, was authorized to pay the awards, from approximately $900, 000 advanced for the purpose, and the account was settled finally by the First Auditor in 1867 (Misc. Treas. Account 158299). Record Group 217. --Minutes of the Commissioners, Apr. 28, 1862Jan. 14, 1863 (1 vol.), indexed; docket of petitions filed, Apr. 29-July 15, 1862 (1 vol. ), indexed; the original of the Commissioners' final report; the original petitions presented, some with evidentiary documents such as wills or tax receipts (2 ft.), and a few powers of attorney. Some related records are in the files of the U. S. circuit court of the District of Columbia. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES The National Academy of Sciences was founded through the efforts of a number of Government and academic scientists. Alexander D. Bache (Superintendent of the Coast Survey), Rear Adm. Charles H. Davis (Chief of the Bureau of Navigation of the Navy Department), Benjamin A. Gould (astronomer with the Coast Survey), Louis Agassiz (the noted naturalist), and Benjamin Peirce (Harvard mathematician) met in Washington in Feb. 1863 with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts to plan the establishment of the Academy. A bill introduced by Wilson and enacted into law on Mar. 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 806), named 50 incorporators of the Academy and stipulated that it was to organize itself; to fill vacancies in membership as they occurred; to hold an annual meeting; and, when called upon by the Government, to investigate, examine, and report upon any subject of science or art without compensation. At the organization meeting in New York in Apr. 1863, Bache was chosen as the first president, and thereafter semiannual meetings (in January and August) were held in Washington. Several projects of minor importance were referred to the Academy for investigation by the Departments of the Navy and the Treasury in 1863 and 1864, but no requests were received in 1865. On the whole, the advisory role of the Academy during the war was not important. A. Hunter Dupree, Science in the Federal Government; a History of Policies and Activities to 1940 (Cambridge, Mass., 1957); Frederick W. True, ed., A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences, 1863-1913 (Washington, 1913). National Academy of Sciences, Annual Reports 1863/641866 (Cambridge, 1865-67), contain lists of officers, members of the Records in Other Custody. --Although the Academy has transferred its records of later years to the National Archives, it still retains its early records. For the Civil War period these are few. One thick volume contains chiefly committee reports, 1863-64, relating to investigations made by the Academy on behalf of the Navy and Treasury Departments. Besides reports, other papers (grouped by committee) consist of correspondence between Bache and Government officials and members of the committees, journals, minutes, telegrams, memoranda, drawings, extracts of addresses, and records of publications. These committees were concerned with uniform weights and measures and coinage, protecting ship bottoms from salt water, the magnetic deviation of the compass in iron ships, Maury's wind and current charts and sailing directions, tests for the purity of whisky, experiments on the expansion of steam, materials for the manufacture of pennies, and the explosion on the U. S. S. Chenango. The minutes of council, Aug. 1864, Jan. 1865, and Aug. 1865, record the proceedings of the officers of the Academy, who met just before its semiannual meetings to decide what matters should be recommended to its attention. The first volume of the Academy's minutes records the proceedings of the organization meeting at New York and subsequent semiannual meetings of the Academy. The minutes record actions of the Academy on revision and amendment of its constitution; election of officers, council members and academy members, and foreign associates; appointments of committees; consideration of the reports of the investigating committees; the subjects of scientific papers presented to the Academy; relations with other societies; appointment of men to prepare eulogies of deceased members; announcement of social events connected with the meetings; and administration of oaths to members. These records throw light on the Government's scientific activities, provide biographical data for members, and give information on the activities of the Academy, but they can be supplemented by records of Government agencies and the personal papers of Academy members. The activities of the National Academy of Sciences can be further documented by the papers of its president and other members. Sizable collections of the papers of Alexander D. Bache are in the Library of Congress and the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. In the latter institution and in Houghton Library of Harvard University are papers of Louis Agassiz. Extensive groups of papers of Benjamin Peirce are in the Houghton Library and in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, Mass. Reports by the president of the Academy on its activities from 1863 to 1865, together with the reports of the committees on the subjects mentioned above, are published in H. Misc. Doc. 81, 38 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1200; H. Ex. Doc. 66, 38 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 1229; and H. Ex. Doc. 72, 39 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1256. The printed committee reports, however, do not contain most of the accompanying papers in the manuscript committee reports. COMMISSIONERS OF CLAIMS Although many types of Civil War claims had been taken care of (see especially Court of Claims), the claims of Unionists in the Southern States for stores, supplies, and vessels taken or used by the U. S. Army were not provided for until adoption of an act of Mar. 3, 1871 (16 Stat. 524). This legislation authorized the appointment of three Commissioners of Claims (popularly called the Southern Claims Commission) to consider such claims and report on them to Congress. On Mar. 10 the Senate approved as Commissioners Asa Owen Aldis, a former judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont; James B. Howell, a former U. S. Senator from Iowa; and Orange Ferriss, a former U. S. Representative from New York. Aldis was chosen president of the Commission, and its meetings began in Washington in March. In conducting their business the Commissioners followed the procedures that had been developed by the Court of Claims. It held hearings to get oral testimony from claimants and witnesses, and it studied this testimony together with evidence drawn from Government records. A supplementary act of May 11, 1872 (17 Stat. 97), authorized the appointment of special commissioners to take testimony and of agents to investigate claims, and extended the jurisdiction of the Commission to cover claims for stores and supplies taken or used during the war by the U. S. Navy. The life of the Commission was renewed for four years by an act of Mar. 3, 1873 (17 Stat. 577), and in 1877 President Hayes reappointed the Commissioners named above. The Commission was dissolved on Mar. 12, 1880. By the last date for filing the claims (Mar. 3, 1873), 22, 298 had been presented to the Commissioners, for an aggregate amount of $60, 258, 150. Of the total number of cases 16, 991 were reported by the Commission to Congress, 5, 250 were barred because substantiating evidence was not presented before Mar. 10, 1879 (act of June 15, 1878; 20 Stat. 566), and 57 were withdrawn. The whole amount allowed was $4, 636, 920. Frank W. Klingberg, The Southern Claims Commission (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1955). The an nual "general" reports of the Commission were published as follows: Serial 1617. Serial 1653. 1871. H. Misc. Doc. 16, 42 Cong,, 2 sess., Serial 1524. Serial 1698. Record Group 56. --The records of the Commission are more important for its activities than for the claims that it reviewed. A journal, Mar. 1871Oct. 1872, Jan. 1878-Mar. 1880, and record books kept by the president of the Commission, Mar. 1871-Dec. 1877, contain a daily record of its activities. Bound in these large volumes are data on the cases handled, acknowledgments of the receipt of letters and reports, and petitions of claimants. They contain also entries regarding personnel matters; requisitions on the Treasury; and printed material such as rules and regulations, instructions for special commissioners, lists of questions to be asked claimants, and annual reports. Registers of claims, Mar. 22, 1871-Mar. 3, 1873 (40 vols.), record the 22, 298 claims in the order of their receipt and give information as to each claim, the claimant, and the disposition of the claim. An alphabetical index by name of claimant fills 8 volumes, and there is also a geographical list of claims arranged alphabetically by State, thereunder by county, and thereunder by name of claimant. A chronological file of miscellaneous letters received, Mar. 1871-June 30, 1880, contains letters from claimants, attorneys, informers, and Federal officials; letters of recommendation; applications for positions; lists of "disloyal" individuals and fraudulent claims; copies of letters from Confederate archives; and complaints. A file of reports and letters from special agents, Mar. 1871-Feb. 1880, arranged alphabetically by name of agent, supplies information about each agent's appointment, activities, and expenses. A small file of 57 summary reports on printed forms constitutes a sample of the reports prepared by the Commissioners for submission to Congress. The journal, the several files of letters received, the geographical list of claims, and the consolidated index cited below are all on microfilm (M 87). U. S. Commissioners of Claims, Consolidated Index of Claims Reported by the Commissioners of Claims to the House of Representatives From 1871 to 1880, comp. under the supervision of J. B. Holloway and Walter H. French (Washington, 1892), presents all the claims in a single alphabet, with information on their disposition. The Commission's general reports, published as House documents (see above), contain lists of claims alphabetically by State and thereunder alphabetically by name of claimant. The last report (in Serial 1929) contains a complete list of all claims barred, withdrawn, or dismissed. Not actually a part of the Commissioners' extant files are the case files they built up and sent to Congress with summary reports. The case files of disallowed claims were retained by the House Committee on War Claims and are described in this Guide under Congress. The MEMORIALIZATION AGENCIES Since the Civil War the Federal Government from time to time has engaged in extensive programs for setting aside historic sites, preserving or restoring battlefields, and erecting monuments, many of which memorialize the war. The planning of such activities has often required considerable research and has resulted in many records that should not be overlooked by the investigator. Record Groups, 42, 66.--Most of the records concerning the erection of memorials to persons of prominence in the Civil War are in the records of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital (Record Group 42) and the Commission of Fine Arts (Record Group 66). In the former record group, among the records of numerous commissions that supervised the construction of memorials to individuals or to particular groups or causes, are records of commissions responsible for erecting Red Cross buildings as memorials to women of the Civil War (and World War I), 1913-30. The records of the Lincoln Memorial Commission, also in Record Group 42, happen to include a file of letters written by Isaac S. Struble, a Union soldier, to his sister, 1863-67, deposited with the commission ca. 1916 by E. Wyks of Phoenix, Ariz., with the request that they be placed "in a fire proof v[ ault] untill [sic] I call for these. Since the Commission of Fine Arts also was involved in the design and construction of the Lincoln Memorial, other papers about the memorial (and about the "Oldroyd collection of Lincolniana") are in Record Group 66; and in the same record group are records relating to other projects related to the Civil War: the Farragut Memorial Window (Annapolis), the Appomattox Courthouse Memorial, some of the memorials at Gettysburg, the battlefield at Manassas, many memorials in Arlington Cemetery, and the Grant and Meade Memorials in the District of Columbia. Record Group 79.--In the records of the National Park Service are papers dating from 1890, most of which were created in the Offices of the Quartermaster General and the Chief of Engineers of the War Department, relating to plans for the establishment of military parks and monuments, the purchase of land for sites, the development of the areas, and the administration of completed projects. Much of this material concerns Civil War battle sites and some of it includes detailed studies of the battles in relation to topography and buildings. |