The Museum is privileged to own 158 volumes of the War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Dating back to 1880 these books are invaluable to anyone researching the Civil War. Considered primary resources, these are the battlefield reports by both Northern and Southern officers in their own words. With these books we are fortunate to own the original correspondence between the set’s first owner and the War Department who published them. One of the letters in our collection is a letter from Robert Lincoln, Secretary of War and son of Abraham Lincoln, to the original purchaser. 

The books are available to qualified researchers for use within the Museum only.

No serious study of the American Civil War is complete without consulting the Official Records. Affectionately known as the “OR”, the 128 volumes of the Official Records provide the most comprehensive, authoritative, and voluminous reference on Civil War operations. The reports contained in the Official Records are those of the principal leaders who fought the battles and then wrote their assessments days, weeks, and sometimes months later. The Official Records are thus the eyewitness accounts of the veterans themselves. As such they are “often flawed sources – poorly written in some cases, lacking perspective in others, frequently contradictory and occasionally even self-serving.” Nevertheless, they were compiled before the publication of other literature on the subject that, in several cases, caused some veterans to alter their memory and perception of events later in life.

Impetus for publishing the Official Records came from Union General-in-Chief Henry Wager Halleck. Apparently overwhelmed by the task of writing his 1863 annual report to Congress, Halleck recommended to the Committee on Military Affairs the collection and publication of official documents and reports on all Civil War operations. Republican Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, introduced a Joint Resolution “to provide for the printing of the official reports of the armies of the United States.” Both the House and the Senate adopted Wilson’s resolution on May 19, 1864. President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill into law the next day.