Official Reports & Correspondence

Excerpts from The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

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."

Excerpts from the Preface, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, by Robert N. Scott, Major, Third Art., and Bvt. Lieut. Col.. War Department, August 23, 1880.