Kathy wrote:
>I would try the National Archives http://www.archives.gov/ -- they have
some Confederate records.
Kathy's suggestion (research at the National Archives) is appropriate.
However, this material is not at NARA's website. To find material like this
at NARA, one has to have a game plan, which starts with using NARA's
findings aids--most of which are not yet online.
NARA holds the War Department Collection of Confederate Records in its
Record Group 109. This is a collection of materials that the Union Army
captured in the wake of Richmond's fall, plus other materials that the U.S.
War Department gathered from elsewhere.
Most record groups at NARA have a guide called a *Preliminary Inventory,*
which detail the various series and collections within that record
group--the original records, not microfilm (microfilm has a different set of
guides). Some PIs are still in print at NARA and are free. (At the website,
we can determine which ones are still available for order from NARA.) If
they are not currently in print at NARA, they can usually be found at
Heritage Books. Very, very few of the PIs themselves have been put online by
NARA.
For the War Department Collection of Confederate Records, an enhanced
version of the the preliminary inventory was prepared by Craig Scott, CG
(owner of Heritage Books and a military records expert), with an index and a
cross-reference to the materials from this record group that had been
microfilmed at the time Scott's revision was prepared. What you would seek
is this:
Elizabeth Bethel, _Preliminary Inventory of the War Department Collection of
Confederate Records (Record Group 109),_ rev. ed., with Craig R. Scott
(Athens, Ga.: Iberian publishing Co.), 1994.
This volume informs us of several record collections that deal with
Confederate court-martials, including this one:
"RECORD OF COURTS-MARTIAL. 1861-65. 6 vols. (ch. I, vols. 194-199) and 4
index vols. 1 ft.
"Shows date and number, name, rank, and organization of person tried,
whether acquitted or found guilty, and sentences. Entries in volumes 194 and
188 are arranged alphabetically by initial letter of name of person tried
and thereunder numerically; entries in the other volumes are arranged
numerically. Some entries on [sic] volumes 197 and 198 also give the date
the court was held, the date the sentence was approved, and the name of the
general approving the sentence; and volume 199 contains some correspondence
and endorsements. The dates of the entries in some of the volumes overlap,
but the entries are not duplicated. There are separate name index volumes
for all of the volumes except 194 and 197."
Scott's version of Bethel's guide also indicates that these records were not
filmed at the time his guide was prepared. A check of the NARA microfilm
catalog online indicates that these records still aren't available on film.
That means that either we will have to go to the National Archives to
consult these records or else we will have to engage someone to make the
search for us. In either case, knowing (from the PI) exactly what it is we'd
be looking for and the organization of the records is a tremendous time
saver.
Incidentally, if those of us who live outside the Beltway were simply to go
to NARA and explain our problem to a consultant, he would typically hand us
a copy of the PI and ask us to search through it for what we need. That's
when we kick ourselves for our lack of preparation, realizing that we're
paying $150 or whatever a night for accommodations, in addition to the cost
of the trip, when we could have read the PI at home and planned our work.
(Alternately, hiring someone in DC to inquire of a consultant, who then
hands them a PI to read, means we are paying someone a goodly rate to read
what we could have done ourselves before hiring the help. And in that
process of reading the PI ourselves, we would have learned of the existence
of all sorts of other records we never knew about.)
If we approach this problem online, a search of the NARA website would turn
up principally two things: (1) an identification of the Bethel and Scott
version of the PI; and (2) the RG 109 section of the general guide to the
National Archives, which tells us this:
"109.7.1 Records of the Adjutant and Inspector General's Department
"Textual Records: Letters and telegrams sent, 1861-65. Letters received,
1861-65, with registers and index. Telegrams received and drafts of
telegrams sent, 1861-65. Record of telegrams received, 1862-65. Account book
relating to telegrams sent, 1862- 64. Inspection reports, 1863-65, with
indexes, n.d. *****Records relating to courts-martial, 1861-65.***** General
and special orders, 1861-65. Muster and pay rolls of Confederate military
units, 1861-65 (510 ft.). Casualty lists, 1861-65. Records relating to
appointments of military officers, 1861-65, with registers, rosters of
officers, and lists of quartermasters. Records relating to army
organization, n.d., with register. Records relating to conscription,
exemption, and details, 1862-65. Register of slaves impressed, 1864-65.
Miscellaneous records, 1861-76, including powers of attorney, 1861-65;
records of boards of surveys, 1861-65; and Troops Tendered to the
Confederate War Department, 1876.
"Microfilm Publications: M410, M474, M627, M836, M935."
As you can see, this only tells us that the records exist, but nothing
more--except a notation that 5 sets of microfilm have been made from some of
the widely varying materials described in this whole paragraph. If we use
the online microfilm catalog to determine what those 5 sets of microfilm
cover, we find that none of them treat the court-martial collections.
Bottom line: We love the fact that NARA is putting some of its materials
online. But for finding records at NARA, old-fashioned stuff like those
preliminary inventories are still indispensable!
Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG
Track 4, Advanced Research Methodology & Evidence Analysis
Samford University Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research
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