"Official Records" Sets:
Armies | Navies

For a detailed description of the sources listed below, see Musick, Michael P. " Honorable Reports Battles, Campaigns, and Skirmishes Civil War Records and Research," Prologue: the Journal of the National Archives (Fall 1995, vol. 27, no. 3) MAIN E172 .P7 .

ARMIES
Print

War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, D.C.: Secretary of War, Government Printing Office, 1881-1901, 129 vols. MAIN &. REMOTE E464 .U61
Online versions:

• Making of America

Its three volume atlas is at SPECIAL Oversize E464 .U61 suppl. A one-volume reprint edition is at MAP Supersize Altas G1201.S5 U6 1958.

A general index was published in 1901 and is generally regarded as inadequate. Use the Guides listed below.

Guides

A User's Guide to the Official Records of the American Civil War. Aimone, Alan C. and Barbara A. Aimone. Shippensburg, PA: White Mane, 1993.MAIN E 464 .A35 1993
This work is essential to understanding the organization and limitations of the "Official Records " Contains extensive bibliography of supplemental sources.

Military Operations of the Civil War: A Guide-Index to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861-1865. Washington, D.C. : U.S. National Archives and Records Service, 1966-1980. 5 vols. MAIN E464 .U612
Prepared by trained archivists, this is a vastly superior index to the "Official Records". A copy of the1536 page original typescript (which has more detail than the 5 volume set) is also available at MICROFORMS Microfilm 20465.

CD-ROMs
(Located in the Software Collection, 4^th Floor, West Wing)

Army Official Records. Wilmington, NC : Broadfoot Pub. Co., c1995. DIGITAL/MEDIA CD-ROM E464 .A7 1995.
" with maps, tables, illustrations and general index) with enhanced searching capabilities: hyperlinks/hypertext, table of contents, keyword, field, proximity, text and images, relevance ranking.

Civil War CD-ROM: The War of the Rebellion. Carmel, Ind.: Guild Press of Indiana, c1997. DIGITAL/MEDIA CD-ROM E464 .C5 1997 Includes the following:

1. The War of The Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
2. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Frederick H. Dyer.
3. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War (1861-1865), William F. Fox
4. A User's Guide to the Official Records of the American Civil War, Alan And Barbara Almone
5. Military Operations of the Civil War: A Guide Index to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, National Archives.

For a 1996 review of the advanced prototypes of the above CD-ROMs, click here (note that it appears on the Broadfoot web site). 

NAVIES
Print

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Washington, D.C.: Naval War Records Office, Government Printing Office, 1894-1922.MAIN E591 .U58 Online version

CD-ROM
(Located in the Software Collection, 4^th Floor, West Wing)

Civil War CD-ROM II : Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Carmel, Ind. : Guild Press of Indiana, 1999. DIGITAL/MEDIA CD-ROM E591 .U565 1999