War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

by U.S. Department of War

The republication [of the 1899 edition], in its entirety, of the War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, is a service project undertaken by the National Historical Society in the interest of libraries and scholars who have long needed a reissue of this indispensable work. Each of the 128 volumes is published in full, including the Index, and all are heavily bound in buckram for long and continued use. (This 1985 edition was reprinted by Historical Times, Inc.)

Printed on acid-free paper.

Genres: History, Civil War, Nonfiction, American History

1164 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1885

About the author

The U.S. Department of War was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, also bearing responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798, and for most land-based air forces until the creation of the Department of the Air Force on September 18, 1947.

Reviews

[George Sr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously I haven't read every word of a set of books consisting of 128 volumes, some of them over 1,000 pages long. Anyone committed to going serious research on the Civil War needs access to this set of books. I have found it indispensable for my research efforts.

[Eric Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating set, written by the actual generals in the war.

[J.J. Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing like taking a look at the Civil War by reading the actual reports from the battlefield by the officers after the battles. There is a lifetime of reading here.

[Phillip Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource for after action reports, correspondence, and a day by day history of the war's progress divided into naval, land, and daily reports by theater of war. The records take some getting used to for navigation and having an electronic copy that is OCR scanned is a must. All historic research that is based on the war utilizes these records for establishing a baseline of progress and noting the communications between the Department of War and Army commanders and army, corps, and division commanders and their subordinates.

[John Ervin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you can find copies of this set,, the copies were even becoming rare. You might want to add Foxe's reports to this set as well. for it covers the medical aspects from wounded to dead for the Union and Confederate armies>>land and naval.

[Hugh T. Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nowhere else can one find such a vast collection of letters, reports, orders etc. from the participants. It is a huge resource that must be explored to be appreciated. As a primary source it is second to none.

[Evan]

Commissioned by an act of Congress, this was a herculean project to collect all official records, dispatches, reports, etc., that survived the war to piece it all together for posterity. It has been the primary contemporaneous source for Civil War historians for nearly a century and a half. It is in 128 huge volumes, so obviously I'll never read it, but reading bits of it is very interesting and kind of thrilling. I accessed it via Cornell University's link to the Babel website records:
http://collections.library.cornell.ed...