American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)
http://www.wargame.ch/board/acwgc/

Union Ordnance Returns & Confederate Inspection Reports
http://www.wargame.ch/board/acwgc/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17301		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  bschulte [ Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Union Ordnance Returns & Confederate Inspection Reports
Hi all,

I am not a frequent poster here anymore but I was a club member for years and I have some information which might be interesting to you guys as wargamers..

I have been transcribing Union Ordnance Returns (http://www.beyondthecrater.com/products-page/union-ordnance-returns) and Confederate Inspection Reports (http://www.beyondthecrater.com/products-page/confederate-inspection-reports) for the Siege of Petersburg from National Archives microfilm rolls. I'm making these transcriptions available at low cost at the links provided as a way to recoup some of my investment ($125 per roll) and allow people who are interested in them (like wargamers and researchers) to have a cost effective way to get them.

The Union Ordnance returns list the weapons used by Union regiments and battalions by company as of June 30, 1864 and September 30, 1864.

The Confederate Inspection Reports go into great detail on specific Confederate Brigades and Divisions, giving Present for Duty numbers at the regimental level and inspector notes on how each regiment in a brigade was doing at the time of the review (mostly Aug-Sept 1864 for the ones I've done so far).

If anyone is working on Siege of Petersburg scenarios or you're just curious about these like I was feel free to check it out.

Brett Schulte
The Siege of Petersburg Online
Author:  mihalik [ Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Union Ordnance Returns & Confederate Inspection Reports
Hi, Brett,

Those look like a very valuable sources of information. Do they have anything like it for other periods of the war? Can't afford it just yet, but my SSN will begin later this year.
Author:  Ernie Sands [ Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Union Ordnance Returns & Confederate Inspection Reports
Brett: Glad to see you continue your research. I am sure it is a very tedious business.
Author:  bschulte [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Union Ordnance Returns & Confederate Inspection Reports
Ernie Sands wrote:
Brett: Glad to see you continue your research. I am sure it is a very tedious business.


Ernie.

Definitely tedious, but once I knew I could find specific Confederate regimental strengths for the Siege of Petersburg on many dates I knew I wanted to get all of the rolls of NARA Microfilm 935 covering the Army of Northern Virginia (Rolls 10-15). That's over $700, and on my budget I knew I'd need to sell some of these transcriptions to help me pay for even more. Throw in the 8 ordnance rolls for the Union Army for the Civil War and that's another $1000. It's sad that the National Archives can't make this information more freely available to people at a reasonable price. So until they do I have no problem buying stuff myself, transcribing it, and turning it around for research on my site as well as making it available to whoever wants it.
Author:  bschulte [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Union Ordnance Returns & Confederate Inspection Reports
mihalik wrote:
Hi, Brett,

Those look like a very valuable sources of information. Do they have anything like it for other periods of the war? Can't afford it just yet, but my SSN will begin later this year.


mihalik,

Absolutely. Go to this site to sign up and see what's available: https://eservices.archives.gov/orderonline/start.swe?SWECmd=Start&SWEHo=eservices.archives.gov

Once there, you can search the microfilm by number. Two that I can give you which everyone here might be interested in are:

1. M1281, which is the Union Ordnance returns for the entire war. There are 8 rolls ($125 each), one covering artillery for the entire war, two covering cavalry, and the other 5 infantry, including some postwar stuff.

2. M935, which is the Confederate Inspection Reports, only first started in 1864 and continued to near the end of the war. There are I think something like 20 rolls. The ANV is fully covered in rolls 10-15. Each roll is again $125.

Make sure you choose the CD/DVD option, which just takes each slide and makes it an image on the CD. WAY easier to deal with. You can go through the National Archives catalog to find other microfilm series (they usually start with an M like above or a T). All of these are available for purchase at $125 per microfilm roll or CD/DVD.

There are amazing numbers of interesting Civil War items buried in the archives for wargamers, and unless someone buys them and transcribes them, I don't know if they will ever see the light of day.
Author:  mihalik [ Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Union Ordnance Returns & Confederate Inspection Reports
Thanks, Brett!
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC - 5 hours
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
https://www.phpbb.com/