Petersburg/Richmond Petersburg Confederate Unit Strengths over time

Hi Brett. So good to see you here posting at CWT! Thanks for sharing these links and for providing access to the Inspection reports. I'm pretty good at deciphering old handwriting. Is there a way to crowd source to help you with transcription? I'd be happy to help.
Best regards.
Laura

Laura,

I've thought about asking people to help in the past, but these things are insanely hard to transcribe. I'd welcome the help if you want to give it a go. Send me a private message and once u get my kids to bed tonight I can give you the details of what I'd be asking you to do.
 
Now I think I know what you are talking about. There was a site which transcribed some (all?) of the Confederate Inspection Reports. These Confederate Inspection Reports were mainly done in 1864-65 and did PFD strengths for each brigade (and even each regiment within each brigade). They also covered things like weapons, cleanliness, etc. I cannot find that site either. It may have gone away, as you say. Now for the interesting (for you) part. I have purchased many (about half) of these reels from the NARA web site in digitized format. I took those files and posted them at the Internet Archive for anyone to look at, as follows:




However, there are caveats. These are HARD to read, and even illegible in some cases. It will take tons of time to go through and compile this info. The Confederates used a ridiculous indexing system as well. And a bunch of inspection reports are still missing from Internet Archive because I haven't purchased the rest yet. And I haven't had time to go do indices for Reels 13-15.
Thank you.
Hopefully those transcriptions are available somewhere. I doubt whoever went through the trouble of doing such a service would allow that to disappear completely. Its possible the site is available on the wayback machine. I've never tried it though.
 
Thank you.
Hopefully those transcriptions are available somewhere. I doubt whoever went through the trouble of doing such a service would allow that to disappear completely. Its possible the site is available on the wayback machine. I've never tried it though.

You're welcome. I will try to find it some way. I usually copy and paste both the URL and contents of such useful sites into Word documents for this exact reason. Yes, I'm extremely paranoid. :smile:
 
Thanks, I must have missed it.

No worries. You are welcome. That was an amazing series. I recall another like it which John Hennessy sent me about the Donaldsonville LA Artillery that was in the postwar New Orleans Times-Picayune. These accounts are important because a lot of times it is hard to determine exactly where a brigade or battery was, especially in the down times away from battles. I always welcome any postwar accounts, especially since that is not a focus for me for the next few years.
 
It was definitely temporary. My name is Brett Schulte. I run the the www.beyondthecrater.com site. My goal is the same as yours. I want to get down to regimental strengths of EVERY unit at Petersburg for as many dates as possible. The Nafziger OOBs are posted to give people something to look at until I can get even more detailed. I have collected thousands of newspaper articles, letters, diaries, first person accounts, regimental histories, Confederate Inspection Reports, etc. trying to get at this kind of info. For right now, I've posted this kind of information on my unit pages. I have a page at my site for every regiment, battery, or battalion (and now ships as well) which participated in the Siege of Petersburg, if even for as little as a week. You can find all of them here: http://www.beyondthecrater.com/resources/units/

Any unit strength I've listed is properly cited, often with a link directly to the information on my site or elsewhere. I have tons of other mentions of unit strengths in my collected materials, but haven't had time to go through them. It's a lifelong project for me.
Brett,

I have created the same kind of site for the Confederate Railroads (csa-railroads.com). Yes, it is becomes a life-long project -- I have been at it for 19 years and still see no completion point (25,000 web pages at this point). Please check my site and use what you need for your project.
 
Brett,

I have created the same kind of site for the Confederate Railroads (csa-railroads.com). Yes, it is becomes a life-long project -- I have been at it for 19 years and still see no completion point (25,000 web pages at this point). Please check my site and use what you need for your project.

Dave, that is FANTASTIC! I see you dig into theses and dissertations and other rare or unknown sources just like me. I had envisioned at some point creating pages for every fort, city, railroad, hospital, signal tower, etc. that impacted the Siege. Your site just made it a certainty I will add pages for the major railroads leading into Petersburg and Richmond. I'll also be sure to link back to you from each of those pages. I had no idea your site existed until right now. Thank you for pointing it out. And I have to ask, do you have any interest in model railroading, and trying to recreate the Confederate rolling stock and engines? I'm fascinated by that mix of history and modeling. I am aware of a site on a model railroad version of the US Military Railriad at Petersburg.
 
Dave, that is FANTASTIC! I see you dig into theses and dissertations and other rare or unknown sources just like me. I had envisioned at some point creating pages for every fort, city, railroad, hospital, signal tower, etc. that impacted the Siege. Your site just made it a certainty I will add pages for the major railroads leading into Petersburg and Richmond. I'll also be sure to link back to you from each of those pages. I had no idea your site existed until right now. Thank you for pointing it out. And I have to ask, do you have any interest in model railroading, and trying to recreate the Confederate rolling stock and engines? I'm fascinated by that mix of history and modeling. I am aware of a site on a model railroad version of the US Military Railriad at Petersburg.
Brett,

Glad you like my site; let me know if I can help with the railroad and supply side of your story. No, I am not into model railroading, though I am a member of the CW Railroad Historical Society, which is 80% model railroading. If you have specific questions, I can ask the group.
 
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