SOUTHERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PAPERS
A COMPILATION OF THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF
THE CONFEDERATE ARMIES
52 Volumes
on DVD
This DVD contains all 52
volumes.
You can search individual volumes for keywords
and phrases using your current browser.
These volumes are an invaluable reference work
for Civil War historians, teachers, students, American history buffs, for
home schooling and for anyone doing genalogy research during research on
family members during the Civil War.
It would take many years to read and digest
all this information'
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"The largest gateway into the ranks of a Confederate
army is a relatively unknown set of books entitled the Southern Historical
Society Papers.
These fifty-two volumes lack the official stamp
associated with the War of the Rebellion records, and they contain some
inacicuracies as well as expected bias; yet no other single source contains
more good material on life in the fighting forces of the South.
Preservation of such material began in 1869,
when a group ofexConfederates desiring to collect scattered manuscript sources
pertinent to the wartime South met in New Orleans and organized the Southern
Historical Society.
The first president was Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer,
an eminent Presbyterian minister. Even more illustrious figures were appointed
state vice presidents, such as Robert E. Lee for Virginia, Alexander H. Stephens
for Georgia, and Wade Hampton for South Carolina. In spite of such auspicious
beginnings, the Southern Historical Society quickly floundered. Stronger
organization, and ends more rewarding than the mere collecting of sources,
were badly needed. In August, 1873, a number of changes occurred.
Headquarters of the Society Richmond, Virginia;
its officers announced a plan to publish the better material at hand; the
popular General Jubal A. Early became president; and for the highly important
post of secretary-treasurer, the Society chose Dr. J. William Jones, frontier
chaplain of the 13th Virginia and author of the bestseller. Personal
Reminiscences of General Lee. The promise of publication was fulfilled. In
January 1876, the first monthly issue of the SHSP appeared. Thereafter, numbers
came forth monthly and were bound and indexed into yearly volumes.
The first article of note was Jones's "Treatment
of Prisoners, North and South," which was an initial and successful refutation
of Northern charge that Confederates had mistreated prisoners of war. Another
early contribution of excellence (and one of such length that it was published
serially) was R. E. Parks's reminiscences of life in the 12th Alabama.
The SHSP became overnight a reservoir for any
type of wartime memoir. Personal recollections of veterans ranging from generals
to privates, unit rosters, correspondence, commentaries on men and events,
book reviews and other literary donations made each volume a gold mine for
almost any type of historical research.
Two of the best-known installments are Volume
XV ("The Appomattox Roster"), which contains a listing by units of the men
who surrendered with Lee; and Volume XLIII, which consists of two extremely
valuable articles on the 1862 Valley Campaign and "Stonewall" Jackson.
The last nine volumes of the SHSP, edited
successively by Douglas S. Freeman and Frank E. Vandiver, contain the proceedings
of the Confederate Congress. Gleaned from the Richmond Examiner and other
wartime newspapers, these minutes reveal much of what transpired inside the
cantankerous Southern legislature.
Freeman was the Society's last president. After
his death in June 1953, the Society's only surviving member, J. Ambler Johnston,
donated all records and assets to the Virginia Historical Society for
safekeeping.
Yet Mr. Johnston's connection with the SHSP was
by no means Finished. In 1962, as chairman of the Richmond Civil War Centennial
Committee, he spearheaded the start of a full index of the fifty-two volumes."
(Reprinted from CWTI with permission)
A few of the topics
covered:
Origin of the Late War, by Honorable R. M. T. Hunter;
The Botetourt Resolutions of Judge John J. Allen; Inaugural Address of President
Davis, February, 1861; Address of Congress to the people of the Confederate
States; Editorial Department; Maury's Vindication of the South; Alexander's
Sketch of Longstreet's Corps; Camp Fires of the Boys in Gray; Letter from
General J. E. Johnston; A Correction, by Capt. Catesby Jones; Capture of
the Indianola, by General J. L. Brent, General Fitz. Lee's Eulogy on Stuart;
Seacoast Defences of South Carolina and Georgia by General A. L. Long, ;
Mr. Blaine's arraignment.
Letter from President Davis; Testimony of General
R. E. Lee; Vice-President Stephens' Statement; Judge Ould's Vindication of
the Confederate Government; Confederate Laws; Treatment of Privateers;
Confederate Soldiers and their Prisoners; Andersonville Statement of one
of the Guards; Paper of Dr. Jos. Jones on causes of mortality; Testimony
of Federal Prisoners; Blaine's description of Northern Prisons; Prison Life
of Rev. Geo. W. Nelson; Rock Island Prison, by Chas. W. Wright; Prison Rules
at Fort Delaware; Efforts of a Northern gentleman to relieve our prisoners;
Letter from a U. S. Medical Officer; The Exchange Question.
Letter from General Lee; Commissioner Ould's Report;
Federal Orders Revoking Paroles'; How the Federals Refused to Exchange; The
Negro Question; Efforts of the Confederacy to effect an Exchange; Reminiscences
of the Confederate Navy; Capt. Ritter's Account of the Death of Sergt. Langley;
Gen'l Wilcox on Seven Pines; Review of Bates' Gettysburg, by Colonel Wm.
Allan; Diary of Capt. R. E. Park, of 12th Ala. Regiment, Correction of Incident
in Reference to Gen'l Pickett; Address of Gen'l D. H. Hill before the
Mecklenburg; Seacoast Defences - Letter from General Thos. Jordan' Strength
of Lee's Army in the Seven Days' Battles , Army of the Cumberland.",
Diary of Capt. R. E. Park; Attack on Fort Gilmer; Colonel John B. Baldwin's
Interview with Lincoln.
Electrical Torpedoes as System of Defence; Relative
Strength of the Armies of Lee and Grant; Official Memoranda of Battles,
&c., in the year 1864; Diary of Captain R. E. Park; Correspondence between
Colonel Bassett French and General Wade Hampton; General Lee's Final Report
of the Pennsylvania Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg; Patriotic Letters
of Confederate Leaders; Resources of Confederacy in February, 1865; General
J. E. R. Stuart's Report of Operations after Gettysburg; Diary of Captain
R. F. Park, Twelfth Alabama Regiment; General George H. Stuart's Brigade
at the Battle of Gettysburg; Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Fife in the Army
of Northern Virginia, by Carlton McCarthy of the Richmond Howitzers; General
R. E. Rode's Report of the Battle of Gettysburg; General R. E. Rodes' Report
of the Battle of Chancellorsville.
AND THESE ARE JUST WHAT'S IN VOLUME 1 AND
2! |
