civil war manuscripts - American Memory from the Library of Congress

established as a branch of the Army's Department of Topographical
Engineers, are all possible subjects of Civil War
research in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
collection in the Manuscript Division of the Library of
Congress. Interesting as such studies may seem, however, they
constitute only a fraction of the research opportunities on the
Civil War in 1,064 separately identifiable collections in the
Manuscript Division's holdings. For example, the collections
provide an abundance of information on the basic motivations
and political attitudes of early volunteer soldiers on both sides
of the war, Union and Confederate military and political organization
and reorganizations, war finance, inflation, and
diplomacy. Civil War scholars can also study the organization
and service of philanthropic societies such as the United States
Christian Commission, the United States Sanitary Commission,
and the National Freedmen's Relief Association; follow hundreds
of soldiers to their respective enlistment centers, training
camps, bivouacs, battlefields, and graves; examine the performance
and service records of companies, regiments, brigades,
and divisions; trace the changing attitudes of Union soldiers
toward noncombatants and "contrabands" in the South; assess
the ability and contributions of individual political and military
leaders; investigate the relationship between Union and
Confederate soldiers both as prisoners of war and during their
occasional peaceful encounters in the field; cringe at 19thcentury
medical practices; inquire into the role of women in
the war; and refight a seemingly endless array of battles and
skirmishes.
Also represented in the collections are the often baleful
effects of Federal, State, and local bounty systems. Sometimes
devoted family men such as Corp. John C. Arnold sought to
avoid financial ruin by obtaining a bounty for joining the U.S.
Army. Corporal Arnold, a laborer from Snyder County, Pa.,
enlisted in the 49th Pennsylvania Regiment for the support of
his wife Mary and their three children. Arnold demonstrated
his love for his family in regular letters of encouragement and
instruction, which he occasionally closed with a careful drawing
of his and Mary's joined hands. But Arnold's dreams of a
better future ended at the Battle of Sayler's Creek, the last
major engagement of the war. Less conspicuous in the competition
for enlistment bounties were the bounty agents who pocketed
thousands of dollars intended for soldiers, presumably for
worthwhile services, and enterprising clerks like Orra Bailey,
who was able to forward a considerable amount of money home
to his wife in Hartford, Conn., through his association with the
office of the provost marshal and the Board of Enrollment in
the District of Columbia.
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