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Selected Records of the War Department relating to Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1866.
Amount:
145.00 microfilm reel 35 mm.
Medium Included:
Organization/Arrangement:
Restrictions:
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
The Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners was responsible for the supervision of Confederate prisoners of war and political prisoners confined in Union prisons, for correspondence and other business relating to Federal prisoners of war confined in the South, for the maintenance of camps for paroled Federal prisoners of war and supervision of the parolees, and for matters relating to the exchange of Confederate and Federal prisoners of war.
The Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners, established as independent agency of the War Department on July 17, 1862, took over the functions previously carried on by an officer under the authority of the Quartermaster General from October 7, 1861, until July 17, 1862.
In August 1867, the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners was abolished and its remaining duties and records were transferred to the newly created Prisoner of War Division of the Adjutant General's Office. This division furnished data concerning prisoners of war to other Government offices, made reports and compilations, answered private inquiries, and investigated cases of former prisoners for correction of records.
The Confederate prisoner records were retained as holdings of the Prisoner of War Division, but were segregated from other records of the Division and bound volumes were numbered in a continuous series. The records remained in the Prisoner of War Division when the office was transferred to Record and Pension Division of the War Department in July 1889.
Summary:
These volumes document Confederate prisoners and prisons, providing a variety of information about individual prisoners, deaths, and releases. Many of the volumes comprising this microfilm publication originally were part of the records of the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners, with a small number created by individual Army commands and by the Surgeon's Office.
The volumes have no standard overall arrangement. Some volumes have page or folio numbers, but many have unnumbered pages. A few have name indexes. Appearing on the volumes are various numbers indicating several prior numbering schemes. Over the years some numbers have disappeared from volumes; other volumes may have more than one number; and some volumes have been renumbered. To prevent confusion in the citation of the volume numbers, the volumes have been renumbered by the National Archives in a continuous series from volume 1 to volume 427. This numeration has been stamped inside the front cover of each volume or on the first available page.
The various series of bound volumes reproduced in this microfilm publication have been arranged in two main sections: (1) records relating to Confederate prisoners of war and to political prisoners without regard to specific prison or place of confinement and (2) records of individual military prisons or stations. Those under the second heading have been further arranged by the name of the particular prison or station. A small third section contains a few records of several prisons.
For records relating to all prisoners: the Commissary General of Prisoners maintained in bound volumes a record of all Confederate prisoners giving name, rank, regiment and company, or residence of each prisoner, showing the date and place of capture or arrest. He also kept sets of compiled registers for recording the deaths of prisoners, registers of applications made for release, and registers of prisoners released. The remaining volumes in this section are registers of deceased Confederate prisoners compiled by the Surgeon General's Office from returns and reports submitted by medical officers at prisons, hospitals and other places of confinement.
The registers are generally arranged alphabetically by initial letter of surname of prisoner, but a few miscellaneous volumes are arranged chronologically. Each of the Commissary General's registers of prisoners confined cover the same time period, while the registers of applications continue in chronological order from volume to volume.
For records of individual prisons or stations: the volumes reproduced under this section are arranged alphabetically by name of military prison or other place of confinement. For each prison or station there are generally three main types of records: registers compiled by the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners, general registers, and auxiliary registers.
The general registers are the basic prison registers showing arrivals, confinements, and usually dispositions of prisoners. The auxiliary registers consists of registers of prisoners confined, registers of deaths, lists of prisoners ledgers, correspondence, morning reports, and various other records. In many of the Commissary General registers the entries are arranged alphabetically.
The arrangement of entries in both general and auxiliary registers is usually alphabetical by initial letter of surname of prisoner or chronological. There are name indexes in most of the ledgers and letterbooks and in a few of the other volumes. Some of the registers continue from volume to volume, while others are complete within a single volume.
Finding Aids:
Microfilm listing available.
Additional Physical Form:
Reproduction Note:
Location of Originals/Duplicates:
Originals held by the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D. C.
Associated Materials:
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Ownership/Custodial History:
Publication Note:
General Note:
This microfilm is located in the reference room at cabinet locations 17.15 through 17.17.
Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Civil War (U.S.) Military administration.
Registers (lists) aat
for detailed listing.