WotR:Army Official Records (Serial 002)

== Preface ==
This preface included in each edition explains how the Official Records series came to be. 
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By an act approved June 23, 1874, Congress made an appropriation "to enable the Secretary of War to begin the publication of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, both of the Union and Confederate Armies," and directed him "to have copied for the Public Printer all reports, letters, telegrams, and general orders not heretofore copied or printed, and properly arranged in chronological order."
Appropriations for continuing such preparation have been made from time to time, and the act approved June 16, 1880, has provided "for the printing and binding, under direction of the Secretary of War, of 10,000 copies of a compilation of the Official Records (Union and Confederate) of the War of the Rebellion, so far as the same may be ready for publication, during the fiscal year"; and that "of said number, 7,000 copies shall be for the use of the House of Representatives, 2,000 copies for the use of the Senate, and 1,000 copies for the use of the Executive Departments."
This compilation will be the first general publication of the military records of the war, and will embrace all official documents that can be obtained by the compiler, and that appear to be of any historical value.
The publication will present the records in the following order of arrangement:
The 1st Series will embrace the formal reports, both Union and Confederate, of the first seizures of United States property in the Southern States, and of all military operations in the field, with the correspondence, orders, and returns relating specially thereto, and, as proposed, is to be accompanied by an Atlas.
In this series the reports will be arranged according to the campaigns and several theaters of operations (in the chronological order of the events), and the Union reports of any event will, as a rule, be immediately followed by the Confederate accounts. The correspondence, not embraced in the "reports" proper will follow (first Union and next Confederate) in chronological order.
The 2d Series will contain the correspondence, orders, reports, and returns, Union and Confederate, relating to prisoners of war, and (so far as the military authorities were concerned) to State or political, prisoners. 
The 3d Series will contain the correspondence, orders, reports, and returns of the Union authorities (embracing their correspondence with the Confederate officials) not relating specially to the subjects of the first and second series. It will set forth the annual and special reports of the Secretary of War, of the General-in-Chief, and of the chiefs of the several staff corps and departments; the calls for troops, and the correspondence between the National and the several State authorities.
The 4th Series will exhibit the correspondence, orders, reports, and returns of the Confederate authorities, similar to that indicated for the Union officials, as of the third series, but excluding the correspondence between the Union and Confederate authorities given in that series.
ROBERT N. SCOTT, 
Major, Third Art., and Bvt. Lieut. Col.
WAR DEPARTMENT, August 23, 1880.
Approved:
ALEX. RAMSEY,
Secretary of War.
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== Summary of the Principal Events ==
Date 	Event
December 20, 1860	Ordinance of secession adopted by the South Carolina Convention
April 17, 1861. - Ordinance of secession adopted by Virginia Convention.
18, 1861. - Major General William B. Taliaferro assigned to command of Virginia forces at Norfolk, Va.
United States Armory at Harper's Ferry, W. Va., abandoned and burned by its garrison.
19, 1861. - Conflict between United States troops and mob in Baltimore, Md. Major General Robert Patterson, Pennsylvania Militia, assigned to command over the States of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
20, 1861. - General Butler's command arrives at Annapolis, Md. Expedition to destroy the dry-dock at Norfolk, Va.
23, 1861. - Major General Robert E. Lee assigned to command of the military and naval forces of Virginia.
26, 1861. - Major General Joseph E. Johnston, Virginia Volunteers, assigned to command of the State forces in and about Richmond, Va.
Major General Walter Gwynn, Virginia Volunteers, assigned to command of State forces in and about Norfolk, va.
27, 1861. - Major-General Patterson, Pennsylvania Militia, assigned to command of the Department of Pennsylvania.
Brigadier General B. F. Butler, Massachusetts Militia, assigned to command of the Department of Washington.
Colonel T. J. Jackson, Virginia Volunteers, assigned to command of State troops at and about Harper's Ferry, W. Va.
May 1, 1861. - Volunteer forces called out in Virginia.
3, 1861. - Governor of Virginia issues call for additional forces.
4, 1861. - Colonel G. A. Porterfield assigned to command of State forces in North-western Virginia (W. Va.)	
== Volume Contents ==
The second volume of the Army Official Records Series contains only a single chapter of interconnected events in this region.
== Notes ==