The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-13

ing for notification the official records OF
the civil war was taken by congress In
a joint resolution approved May ~, 1904
directing the secretary of war 10 Iurnlsn
the superintendent of printing With copies
of all correspondence on the subject, Dy
telegraph or otherwise, reports of COM
manding officers ard documents of every
description from December, 1860. to pc
printed and published In chronological or
der. Begun under Col. E. D. Townsend.
afterward adjutant general, great
number of papers were prepared
for publication. Adopting sugges-
ton of Maj. Gen. Halleck after
his visit to Richmond in May,
1900, soon after its capture, and the secur-
ing of over ninety boxes of Confederate
archives, those papers were turned over
by Secretary Stanton to a division "for
the collection, safe keeping, and pubhca-
ton of the rebel archives" and DR.. Fran
els Lieber was placed in charge of the
work Another joint resolution of con-
gress in July, 1866, tended to make more
orderly the scheme for arranging and
completing the work, but not until 1874
did congress appropriate $1,000 to enable
the secretary of war to begin the publ
cation.
In March, 1875. $4,000 more was appro-
priated for the work. With newly Sc
lected force the preparation of papers
went on. $40, 0o0 more was appropriated in
1876. and in 1877. when S1e5 600 had been
appropriated, forty-seven volumes had
been compiled and put In type, and thirty
copies of each volume printed. No at
tempt had been made to collate the mat
ter so that the records relating to par
ticular actions and events should be as
sembled in consecutive order rms nrsl
compilation 'fas not regarded by those
most familiar with the recoIFs or by
tn 10
factory-the Union reports respecting any
battle being in one volume, the Confed-
crate reports in another, the Union cor
respondence, in letter form, In tnlrd,
that of telegraphic form in fourth, the
Confederate correspondence, In letter ara
Geographic form, in two more; so that IN
order to find all matter pertaining to any
event it was necessary to consuIt at
least six separate volumes.
The first person to give the Reoellon
Record organized and definite form was
Can't. Robert n. Scott, detailed IN Decem-
Der 1877 to take charge OF the WORK. ne
nlan submitted by him and adopted by
Secretary McCrary abandoned the books
| already printed, except for use as copy
and the methodical arrangement OF mat
ter recommended by Capt. Scott AFTER ne
had been three years in charge mas peen
adhered to from beginning to end of the
work of publication. The chief idea was
to present to the reader in one volume
a connected account of any mi ltary event
both from the Union and Confederate
records The first yoIqme Of the record
of Confederate records from the outset,
owing in part to the diStrust Of the South
led to the appointment of Marcus J.
Wright, who had been brigadie see genera foI
the collection of Confederate archives,
and the purchase Of collections OF GGnfed d.
purchasing was soon abandoned, but after
it's abandonment there We're many dona-
l tions of records from the South.
| Among the notable collections in the
possession of the war department may be DC
| mentioned the records of the commands
| of the Confederate Generals r. E. Lee
Joseph E. Johnston, G T. Beaureg ga I'd
| ling Price, Leonidas Polk, E. Kirb!
Smith, ]. E. Hood, James R; Chalmers
Samuel Jones. r. S. Ripley, A. P. Stew
| art and William Steele. The former
| president of the Confederate states. JEFF
/ ferson Davis. during his lifetime, anC
| his widow after his death. afforded tn
| government access to his papers relatlns