No more research for hire at USAHEC?

Author disclaimer: This is not a rant and should not be taken as one. I simply learned of this privately recently and wanted to get the information out there for others like me who might be affected by it. If anyone knows more on this topic, I would love to hear about it.

I received some rather disturbing news recently concerning researchers for hire at USAHEC in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (formerly known as USAMHI). I had used a researcher for work there in the past, but was informed that person no longer conducts research for hire there. At one time, there was a webpage as part of the USAMHI site that listed outside researchers for hire for those who couldn't visit to conduct their research in person. Much to my chagrin, I couldn't find the page. Since I periodically have similar issues, I assumed I had done something wrong and contacted my former researcher again.

I was informed that new people were in charge at the center, and had determined that the researcher for hire listing provided too much personal information. A lot of military websites have reached this determination, and a good bit of web content has been removed as a result. Lists are not permitted to be sent out by mail or email for the same reason. Understandable.

The new regime also changed the rules for accessing the collections for outside researchers, possibly as the result of someone violating the rules. The system is now one of "pay as you go" for researchers, even for copies, so if one could find a researcher, that person would have to pay all costs up front at the time they accessed the information. If someone violated previously authorized privileges, then it is certainly understandable that these restrictions be tightened.

The results of said tightening, however, are now somewhat problematic. Assuming one doesn't live within convenient travelling distance of Carlisle, how does one access the information? If you can't go yourself, and what you need isn't available online, and there is no way to find a researcher for hire, what options are left?

One can make a research query online, and it will be addressed as time permits by the staff, generally with a wait of several weeks. This can be very limiting if one is in search of a large amount of research, however, since such queries need to be both specific and brief to enable busy employees to answer them.

I fear I've raised a problem without posing a solution in this case, as the only options I see at the moment are dividing research into many specific pieces and spreading over a several months or flying to Carlisle. This would be extremely enjoyable and something I hope to do someday, but really don't have the time for right now.

Ah well, if research was too easy everyone would do it, right?

Researching Your Civil War Ancestor: The Regular Army

Although at first glance more genealogical than historical, this topic is one that I encounter often in my research. When researching a particular soldier, if one can find the state from which the soldier served, more than likely one can find the unit and then probably the county from which he served. A good deal of the time, state muster rolls, adjutant general reports or the appropriate county historical society can steer one the rest of the way home from there.

Not so when researching Regular Army soldiers. Resources are few and far between. Knowledge that an ancestor served in Company C, 6th US Infantry, for example, provides no clues as to where the ancestor was born, when he enlisted, if he survived, and if so where and under what conditions he left the army. At first blush there appear to be no clues, but there are paths to follow if one knows where to start looking for clues.

We’ll assume for the purposes of this article that you don’t want to spend $75-150 or more on a request for the person’s service records from the National Archives (NARA). While the NARA researchers do a very good job, it’s slow and expensive. They’re also limited to the starting information that you can provide them.

A good first step is the National Park Service’s Civil War Soldiers & Sailors database. This is an exhaustingly compiled list of everyone who served during the Civil War from either side, their unit, and their rank entering and leaving service. That’s about the limit of available information, but it’s a very good starting point. It’s also an exceptional resource for attempting to cross-reference those who served in both volunteer and regular units, since many volunteers joined regular units in the fall of 1862. Some unit history for both volunteer and regular units is also available on the site.

There are two cautions about the CWSS. First, officers of the regular army are not included in the database unless they were enlisted men during the war prior to receiving their commission. Thus, Lt Adna R. Chaffee is included, while Maj Gen George B. McClellan is not. This problem has been noted and NPS is working to fix this. Second, the entries for regular army personnel encompass the years 1861-1865 in their entirety and not specifically the dates of the war. For volunteer units this isn’t an issue, but there was tremendous turnover in regular army regiments during the summer and fall of 1865. When researching one company of the 6th US Cavalry, I found 54 soldiers who were listed in CWSS, but joined the regiment after the war had ended. With these two things in mind, however, I still think CWSS is the best place to start.

The next stop should be the Civil War Archive . It also has a comprehensive list of soldiers and units. There is a usage fee for the site, but they periodically provide free access to attract more subscribers. To my mind, it is well worth the price of registration. In my experience, this site has more information and lists the sources for the information on each soldier or unit. One note: if one of the sources listed for a soldier is not the Index of Consolidated Military Service records, or if the name that you’re looking for was in CWSS and is not there, that person probably enlisted in the summer or fall of 1865. This and the Regulars Archive provide the easiest and best unit historical data on the internet.

After using the first two sites to confirm or deny your starting information, I recommend that you go to ancestry.com. If one selects the appropriate membership, one can search the “Descriptive and Historical Register of Enlisted Soldiers of the Army” for an individual’s enlistment information. This is actually a scan of the registers used in Washington to track all of the soldiers enlisted in the regular army by date and then alphabetically. The search on Ancestry will lead you to a scan of the page where the individual’s information is listed, along with 30-40 others. These pages are a tremendous resource. Information includes last name, first name, place of birth, enlistment date and location, presiding officer, hair color, eye color, complexion, company, regiment, and remarks including date and manner of separation from the army. This one oversized sheet will usually tell you if the person in question was killed in action, deserted, or discharged at the expiration of their term of service. One can usually find the location where they left the service and their rank. There are also two cautions for this site. First, prepare yourself for the joys of interpreting 19th Century handwriting and the ensuing headache associated with it. Second, some scans are better than others, and occasionally entries are illegible. This is the most comprehensive information that I’ve been able to find on individual soldiers anywhere. While there is a cost associated with access, it’s for a year of unlimited access, as opposed to a search of one individual’s service records at NARA.

For unit data, I recommend the Regulars Archive or Civil War Archive, both mentioned previously. The first is a free, privately maintained site, which includes unit history information as well as contemporary reference works on tactics, curriculum from West Point, etc. The Civil War Archives’ unit histories are comprehensive, and usually include one or more official reports from the unit on a particular action.

The regular army expanded by several regiments over the course of the war, particularly in 1861. If one checks where the unit was raised, this might also help determine where the individual was living when they enlisted. It is important to check both the locations where the regiment itself and its companies were raised, as the regiments were seldom raised entirely in one city or even state. The 6th US Cavalry, for example, was raised in at least four states. This particularly helpful for researching immigrants who had been in the country only a short time before the war.

Research Note

I've meant to mention this for a week now, so it's high time that it hits the blog. Alexander Street Press has announced free access to its The American Civil War Research Database (found here) until June 30, 2008. While I don't know what their normal subscription rates are, I highly encourage anyone who hasn't already done so to visit the site. There's a wealth of information there for anyone interested in virtually any aspect of the Civil War. Click here for username and password information during the offer. Thanks to Brett Schulte for mentioning this on TOCWOC in his Odds & Ends: May 10, 2008 column, or I would have missed out on this great opportunity.

6th Cavalry Database Update

After a good bit of fiddling, tweaking, adjusting, reformatting and several other -ings, the 6th US Cavalry database is functional. There is a great deal more information to be added to it, but it's finally in a format that I'm content with (for now) that is searchable. Of the 2800+ names currently in the database, most have at least a little information with them other than name and regiment. The search of volunteer regiments for more names continues. This week it's Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

I discovered that Excel worked well as a format for the enlisted soldiers, but am going with Word for the officers for now. There are two reasons for this. One is that the numbers are much smaller, so it's manageable as a Word document. The second is that there is a LOT more text for each entry with the officers. There's simply more information available on them.

I'd like to take the search to the genealogy forums next, but won't have time to do so for a little while yet.

6th Cavalry Information

I received a couple of comments over the last couple of weeks from a reader that I didn't notice until this evening. Moving and babies are somewhat plausible excuses, but I completely missed them.

Rich, if you'll email me (dccaughey AT aol DOT com), I'd be happy to steer you in the right direction for the muster rolls. I'd also love to hear more about your ancestor, as his book is one of my favorite accounts of the war.

A Visit to the VA Historical Society

I took a trip to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond on Saturday afternoon. It was a short trip, but one I'd put off for months for one reason or another. I'd learned that the manuscripts of Philip St George Cooke were housed in the reference library there, and hoped to find some good information for an upcoming Fiddler's Green entry.

I had no problems finding the place, as the directions listed on the website (and on Mapquest) were very clear and specific. A minor ($5) fee permits access to those who aren't VHS members. Within minutes of entering the library, I was briefed on the rules of the library and was seated at a table while one of the research librarians retrieved the manuscripts. The rules of the library are reasonable, and firmly oriented around preventing theft or damage to library materials. I found the staff extremely patient and helpful, particularly since they have to make all photocopies of manuscripts.

One tip for researchers: look through the library's excellent online catalog before your visit so that you know what you're looking for. I had printed off the call numbers and brief descriptions of the selections that I was looking for, which made things much easier for the staff and I. Consequently, the vast majority of my time was spent with the material instead of waiting for it. It is a closed circulation library, so no materials may be checked out.

The manuscripts were all that I'd hoped for and more. Much of the information will be featured here in future posts. I was surprised to learn that Cooke and Sherman exchanged several letters after the war, and that Cooke had closely followed Merritt's post-war career. It was particularly special as a former member of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment to see and touch the commission appointing Cooke Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of Dragoons, signed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and President James Buchanan. I was surprised to note that the presidential signatures on all of the commissions looked as though they were signed in pencil.

With my usual luck, last night as I was paging through my notes I found a notation on another set of manuscripts held in the same library that will be potentially be far more valuable to my research. Fortunately, there's still time for another visit later in the week. Given this last experience, I'm looking forward to it.

Army Registers for 1862 and 1863?

If anyone out there has a copy or knows where to find a copy of the 1862 and 1863 Army Registers, I'd dearly love to hear from them. Or ideas on where to look, for that matter. I have 1861, 1864 and 1865, but haven't been able to locate the other two.

The regular cavalry officer database project rolls along, albeit slowly. Using the above listed registers, I've accumulated 300 names. These, of course, will have to be fleshed out, but I'm still missing a few. Possibly a West Pointer or two, but more likely soldiers promoted from the ranks and killed before the 1864 register, like Lieutenant Balder of the 6th Cavalry, for example. More on the database once it's more then a list of names. As I said before, I'll start with the 6th and go from there.

An Odd Gap in the CWSS

I've made an odd discovery over the last few days doing some online research and muster roll verification. It seems that regular army officers are not included in the National Park Service's CWSS database site.

For those who aren't familiar with it, the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database containing very basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of the CWSS was the Names Index Project, a project to enter names and other basic information from 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives. It is a truly massive undertaking which has made an enormous amount of data available to researchers on the web. In my case, they have made available each and every name listed on muster rolls of the six regular army cavalry regiments during the war. There are multiple entries for those who changed companies, reenlisted, had their names misspelled, etc, but those are pretty easy to sift through. The amount of information there is pretty amazing.

What aren't there are the names of regular army officers. I'm not sure why this is, but will email the site later today and ask. Officers for volunteer units are there, so it's not just "an officer thing." No Rodenbough, Starr, Custer or Merritt. No John Buford. Gamble and Devin are both there as colonels and lieutenant colonels of their regiments.

This is not for a moment to say that the CWSS isn't a very valuable and amazing resource, but I found it curious.

More on muster rolls

My apologies for the lack of entries over the weekend. The long-awaited muster rolls have arrived, which has proved a mixed blessing. Several hours and a good bit of eyestrain later, I at least have a good idea what’s on one of the rolls.

First of all, let it be said that microfilm is not a user-friendly medium. I’m not for a second saying that I don’t appreciate the efforts of those who went to the trouble to save countless original documents that have probably rotted away by now. But it will be a very happy day when/ if these things are digitized. I spoke with a representative at NARA before I ordered them, and this is the only medium through which they’ll be available for the foreseeable future. They’re not yet on the digitization schedule for the archives.

The biggest part of the problem is finding a microfilm reader that works. Several of the local libraries that I visited didn’t. Not entirely their fault --- library budgets are limited, and one librarian politely pointed out no one had asked about theirs in a couple of years. Two of those I did find operated too poorly to make legible prints.

Additionally, the machines, or at least those that I’ve located so far, print letter size paper. The rolls are on two pieces of 18x24” paper, and often need to be blown up to be legible. The smallest so far has been 5 copies, the largest (6th Cavalry in July 1863) is 18.

This very far from a tale of woe, however. There is great info on these rolls. Quality, primary source information that provide great snapshots of the units as well as running totals of nearly every category in a regiment.

On the first sheet are all of the following totals for each month by company and for the regiment:

Present (commissioned and enlisted, by category, for duty, extra duty, sick, in
arrest, etc)
Absent (commissioned and enlisted, detached, with leave, without leave, sick, in
arrest, etc)
* no idea why there are columns for sick and in arrest in both present and absent
Present and Absent (numbers by rank by company of who's assigned to the
regiment)
Gains (enlisted categories by company include: recruits thru depot, enlisted in
regiment, re-enlisted, from missing in action, from desertion, by transfer)
Losses (expiration of service, died in action, died of disease, missing in action,
deserted, transferred, discharged by court martial)
Memoranda (columns by company for wounded in action, recruits requested,
serviceable and unserviceable horses and horses lost in action)

Then there are two large narrative entries. The first is for enlisted men on 'extra' duty, which are all the folks assigned as teamsters, blacksmiths, orderlies, hospital stewards, etc by name and company. The second is absent enlisted men, accounted for by name, rank and company. (the June and July 1863 muster rolls have continuation pages that list every trooper missing and wounded in the Gettysburg campaign, it's very sobering to look at). Below this on many months is a Remarks section where the adjutant makes comments about the regiment's service during that month. Thankfully, penmanship was still a virtue at this time, but the comments are still often difficult to make out.

On a separate page, the commissioned officers of the regiment are accounted for by name, rank and company. These get interesting. One can see, for example, that only 13 officers were present with the regiment on June 5th (four days before Brandy Station) and where the rest of them were (the majority on a general's staff, commanding a volunteer regiment, or serving as a general of volunteers). On the other half of this page are the entries for alterations since the previous return among enlisted men, which becomes one of the continuation sheets for casualties during months of heavy fighting.

All in all, lots of neat info in there, it's just hard to access (I now know where every inoperative microfilm reader is in a 20 mile radius), hard to print, and hard to read the handwriting. But it’s definitely worth the effort.