The War of the Rebellion; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

Joined
Jan 29, 2019
For those who are serious about researching the American Civil War, in my opinion, the "Official Records" will always be the best source material that you can use. I use these records all the time, and have done so for more than two decades, to discover new information and vet old information, as based on the facts drawn from the plethora of archived daily activity reports, correspondences and summaries of Campaigns and battles as written from all of the top Field Commanders of both armies during the entire war, available in the Library of Congress.

Follow the link below and you will access for free all of the War of the Rebellion volumes which you can either browse or download in PDF Format and save to your hard drive.

http://www.simmonsgames.com/research/authors/USWarDept/ORA/Volumes.html

Follow the link below to what I consider to be a gold mine of source material, the Library of Congress which also has these records digitized, but also offer numerous maps and views of the battle sights and population centers during the war.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701sm.gcw0099000/?st=gallery

Both of these links together will provide you with your best resource regarding your research, and it is all free and made available to the general public. Enjoy...
 
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For those who are serious about researching the American Civil War, in my opinion, the "Official Records" will always be the best source material that you can use. I use these records all the time, and have done so for more than two decades, to discover new information and vet old information, as based on the facts drawn from the plethora of archived daily activity reports, correspondences and summaries of Campaigns and battles as written from all of the top Field Commanders of both armies during the entire war, available in the Library of Congress.

Follow the link below and you will access for free all of the War of the Rebellion volumes which you can either browse or download in PDF Format and save to your hard drive.

http://www.simmonsgames.com/research/authors/USWarDept/ORA/Volumes.html

Follow the link below to what I consider to be a gold mine of source material, the Library of Congress which also has these records digitized, but also offer numerous maps and views of the battle sights and population centers during the war.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701sm.gcw0099000/?st=gallery

Both of these links together will provide you with your best resource regarding your research, and it is all free and made available to the general public. Enjoy...

Thank you for this ! Wasn't aware it was available. Search engines for online sites are terrible !
 
The Official Records General Index Volume is the very last file at the bottom of the page (of the first link). With that you can look up any name for which you are searching or any unit, regiment, brigade, division or corps and it will give you the series and volume that their information will be found with-in. Then go to that volume and again visit the index and then it will give you the pages on which that information is located. You can also look up any battle or campaign. If you are looking for a specific unit, look up the State. For example if I am looking up the 2nd Alabama Cavalry I would look up Alabama Troops in the General Index and then it will mention all of the troops for Alabama that are recorded. If you find nothing on the unit itself then check under the last and first name of the regiment or brigade commander, most times there will be something.

All of the links work, so depending on how fast your Internet service is will dictate how long it will take to upload each file / PDF. I have AT&T DSL and sometimes it may take a couple of minutes for each file to up load. If it does not load right away just give it a little time and it will load.

The files download to your hard drive as a PDF much faster than they upload.
 
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The complete OR are also online from Cornell University, and at the Hathi Trust.

The Cornell University was where I found the complete collection to begin with more than 20 years ago. I had saved and bookmarked hundreds of the more pertinent records, adding them to my favorites list and then a few years ago those links quit working. So I just figured that they had quit hosting the War of the Rebellion records on their site and it was then that I found the links that I posted in this OP. Its good to know that Cornell is still hosting the WOR. Now after using the new links I have become accustomed to them and everything that I find of interest I just download the PDF to my hard drive and I will always have them.
 
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The OR are THE primary source. No serious Civil War research can claim to be complete without having addressed the contents of the OR.

I have a complete set of the 128 volume books upstairs, but I also use the Cornell version extensively since it comes with .text files that can be copy/pasted from.
 
The OR are THE primary source. No serious Civil War research can claim to be complete without having addressed the contents of the OR.

I have a complete set of the 128 volume books upstairs, but I also use the Cornell version extensively since it comes with .text files that can be copy/pasted from.

I agree... I was well aware of the books but more than 20 years ago I found the complete set digitized online, hosted at Cornell so I would browse the files and records on their site. I had given them up when all of my bookmarked links on my favorites list quit working a few years ago. Which is when I found the links that I posted in this OP. Thanks to John Hartwell and his post above (#11) I now know that Cornell still hosts the War of the Rebellion.
 
For those who are serious about researching the American Civil War, in my opinion, the "Official Records" will always be the best source material that you can use. I use these records all the time, and have done so for more than two decades, to discover new information and vet old information, as based on the facts drawn from the plethora of archived daily activity reports, correspondences and summaries of Campaigns and battles as written from all of the top Field Commanders of both armies during the entire war, available in the Library of Congress.

Follow the link below and you will access for free all of the War of the Rebellion volumes which you can either browse or download in PDF Format and save to your hard drive.

http://www.simmonsgames.com/research/authors/USWarDept/ORA/Volumes.html

Follow the link below to what I consider to be a gold mine of source material, the Library of Congress which also has these records digitized, but also offer numerous maps and views of the battle sights and population centers during the war.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701sm.gcw0099000/?st=gallery

Both of these links together will provide you with your best resource regarding your research, and it is all free and made available to the general public. Enjoy...
just increased my knowledge by 300% thanks
 
just increased my knowledge by 300% thanks

I own hundreds of books on various aspects of the American Civil War, that I also go to regarding my research, which I find quite valuable. But the Official Records along with daily journal entries and letters home to me have proven to be beyond valuable, time and time again, in giving the first hand account at the time in which it occurred, by those directly involved. To make the best use of the Official Records, when researching a specific campaign, battle, skirmish, unit, brigade, division, corps, or soldier, I will always look at both the Union and Confederate accounts regarding those things as to get a more clear and precise view. From which I will make my summary of the event, from the perception of both sides involved.
 
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I know at least some of these are available on Google Books, and they are easy to search there. The first link (Simmons Games) is helpful as an overview of the entire series, but the index is a 1300-page PDF file. What makes me nervous are the pages of additions/corrections that didn't make it into the index.
 
I know at least some of these are available on Google Books, and they are easy to search there. The first link (Simmons Games) is helpful as an overview of the entire series, but the index is a 1300-page PDF file. What makes me nervous are the pages of additions/corrections that didn't make it into the index.

Everything that is archived in the Library of Congress regarding the War of the Rebellion is accessible through the two links that I provided (Simmons and the Library of Congress) as well as the two links that John Hartwell provided (Cornell University and Hathi Trust). The entire collection is there for you to enjoy.
 
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