The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1888-08-23


THE NAVAL ARCHIVES.
In the legislative bill just passed Congress
there was an item appropriating for an addi-
tional force of one clerk and three copyists
upon the work of compiling the naval war
records of the rebellion. Heretofore there
have been employed in the collecting and
preparing for publication of these records by
the Government since July, 1884, till the
present time only one clerk and two copy
lists, force entirely inadequate to make
any progress worth mentioning, and with
the present increase it will be impossible to
carry on the work with that rapidity neces-
sary to collect, collate and properly arrange
all the official documents for publication.
Many of these papers are in the hands of
private individuals, and the longer their
compilation and publication ig put off the
harder it will be to obtain the documents
and the greater the danger of their being
lost or destroyed, which lessons the chances
of complete and authentic record of the
services Of the navy 1t is bad piece Of
economy on the part Of the Government to
string out work with inferior results when
a sufficient force could be employed to ac-
complish satisfactory ends and produce a
complete historical record that would COM
pete with the most valuable of its kind in
the world as has been the case in the army
war records. The naval war records are the
official reports and letters of civil and naval
officers relating to naval ornaments, opera
tons and equipments during the civil war.
Most of those of the Federal officers are on
file in the Navy Department, while many
papers Of importance are still in the posses
sion Of the survivors or the families Of the
deceased OF those of the Confederate Off
GERS some are on file in tho Navy Depart
ment, but the majority are still in the hands
of private individuals In order to have a
complete and impartial history of the war
it is necessary that the official reports OF
both sides should be compiled and published.
This is task too great for any private
enterprise, and in all standard histories so
published the navy has been comparatively
overlooked, owing to the inaccessibility OF
the records of the navy and the insurmount-
able amount of work and research incident
to reading through the voluminous files OF
the Navy Department in order to CLEAN that
which is useful and instructive. The Coy
eminent therefore should use its utmost en-
deavors to accomplish the work, not only as
an historical record, but as an instructive
document for the guidance of her naval
officers when called upon to do active serv-
ice in the future. The lesson alone of the
defense of New Orleans and the passage o.
the forts holding the key to that city i:
most beneficial TO the student of nava
warfare, and though the weapons and tactic:
for the army in the civil war was in most
respects the same as that used by Frederick
Charles more that decade gone by
the mode of warfare for the navy wa
entirely changed. Even the first year of tn
war saw the old wooden sailing frigates
/ which shed such luster over the annals o
the American navy in the war Of 1912, re
placed by ironclads and rams propelled b.
steam and mounted with powerful Eiled guns
instead of the small 18-pounders and lonl
thirty-twos. And it was not only the frs
war ia which steam ironclads and rifed gun
were used, but the first in which the de
strpctiye power of the torpedo was brough
into use and developed, thus revolution
izing naval tactics and mode of warfare, a
well as naval architecture.