Chronological History of the American Civil War

P a g e | 310

Official Military Records A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. The idea began with General- in-Chief Henry Halleck, when he had to complete his 1863 report to the U. S. Senate. Republican Senator Henry Wilson, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs proposed legislation calling for the creation of the “Official Records.” It was quickly passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln on May 20, 1864. Compiling the records took almost 40 years. Such a record of a war had never been done before. Included in the records are orders, reports, and summaries of actions. At first no special attention was paid to Confederate records, until just after the capture of Richmond, Virginia, in 1865; when with the help of Confederate General Samuel Cooper, Union Army Chief of Staff Major General Henry W. Halleck began the task of collecting and preserving the archives of the Confederacy. In 1866, a joint resolution of Congress authorized the compilation and publication under guidance of the War Department. Eventually, seventeen Secretaries of War were involved in the process. In 1877, Army Captain Robert N. Scott was appointed by the Secretary of War as director of the Publications Office, War Records. (Scott’s name appears in each volume as the preparer, listed with the rank of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, 3rd U.S. Artillery.) Once the records were accumulated, printing and binding was approved by Congress on June 16, 1880 under direction of the Secretary of War, 10,000 copies were printed. While these still maybe not be totally accurate; they are as close as we will ever be to having a complete record of what happen on each side. These volumes have been studied by scholars and military men for over 100 years and will for many years to come. Hoping to learn not to make the same mistakes again. Casualties of the Civil War A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. The Generals versus Enlisted: When the war broke out almost one third of the U.S. Army officers resigned to serve the Confederacy. The South had the great advantage in the beginning in the character of the higher officers who resigned their commissions in the United States Army to accept commands in the army established by the Confederacy. The chief of these were Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Albert Sidney Johnston and Pierre G. T. Beauregard; all leaders of great ability and long experience in actual warfare. 146 Confederate generals were graduates of West Point. Memos showed 425 actual, substantive generals of various grades or levels were duly appointed by the President of the Confederate States Jefferson Davis and confirmed by the Confederate Senate for the Confederate Army and 583 actual, substantive generals of various grades or levels were appointed by President of the United States Abraham Lincoln and confirmed by the United States Senate for the Union Army during the course of the American Civil War. Unlike the wars today, battle was up close and personal even for generals. Not only were they there on the field of battle, but often lead the charges, driving their men to victory or defeat. Generals were 50 percent more likely to die in combat than privates. Sixty-seven Union Generals were killed or died because of wounds received in battle during the Civil War while seventy-two Confederate Generals were killed or died because of wounds received in battle during this War of Northern Aggression. Of the 2,213,363 men who served in the Union Army during the war, 364,511 died in combat, or from injuries sustained in combat, disease, or other causes, and 281,881 were wounded. This was more than one out of every four Union soldiers killed or wounded. For the South; however, it was even worse with one in three Southern soldiers were killed or wounded. In total, 620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War, or about two percent of American population, then. Today that 2% would be about 7,870,000. Think about it. That would be a lot now, 2% was a lot then, too. The Man Who Could Not Escape the War A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. “The war began in my front yard and ended in my parlor.” This statement about the start and the end of the U.S. Civil War was spoken by Wilmer McLean and is surprisingly almost perfectly true. McLean welcomed General P.G.T. Beauregard (CSA) to stay at his house and use it as his headquarters. On July 18, 1861, General