Civil War News
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Accessing the Official Records Online Circling back to March 2016, and the focus of the first installment of this column, this month we update readers on an additional online tool for searching the Official Records. The 128-volume set contains a wealth of information, and searching via keyword at The Ohio State University’s website can expedite the research process. Please visit https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/ official-records. Selecting this link will take users to a page for entering search keywords, as shown in the screenshot below. Using a real example from a recent project this writer embarked upon, will hopefully assist readers in quickly getting up to speed on using this website. While preparing to discuss a Civil War site in Cobb County, Ga., this researcher used the Ohio State website to find what the Official Records might hold in-store. During the war, folks generally referred to the site as
‘The Widow Green property,’ or the ‘Green Plantation.’ Using this information as a starting point, a keyword search for “Widow Green’s” quickly produced a hit, and took this researcher to page 779 of Serial Number 075. See image above. As a reminder, the O.R. volumes each carried a serial number in addition to a volume number. This same website offers a handy cross-reference chart. Please visit https://ehistory.osu. edu/books/official-records/index, and see the above result references Series I, Volume XXXVIII, part IV, page 779. Clicking on the keyword yielded the following correspondence. HDQRS. ROSS’ BRIGADE, JACKSON’S CAVALRY DIVISION, Widow Green’s House, Ga., June 17, 1864-9.30 a.m. Captain SYKES, Assistant Adjutant-General:
Screenshot of ehistory page at The Ohio State University’s website.
CAPTAIN: I still occupy the position in which you left me. The enemy appear to be moving to my left, as if to get between me and Lost Mountain. Two pieces of artillery, in position on the bald hill we were looking at this morning, are shelling us, but without damage. I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, L. S. ROSS, Brigadier-General. While the above information appears in text format, researchers, if they wish to do so, can view the original page image, shown below, at the HathiTrust website: https://catalog.hathitrust. org/Record/000625514. Users will obtain quicker search results at The Ohio State University website. Next month, we will explore methods to use the Atlas to Accompany the Official Records via this same website. Until then, good luck in researching the Civil War! Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, instructor, and a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, the Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, the Georgia Association of Historians, and the Georgia Writers Association. Readers may contact him at mkscdr11@ gmail.com, or to request speaking engagements, via his website www.civilwarhistorian.net. Follow Michael on Facebook www.facebook.com/michael.k.shaffer and Twitter @michaelkshaffer.
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September 2019