E 
 
 Che Cownsend Library 
 
 of 
 
 f^ational^ State, 
 and Individual Civil Star Records 
 
 at 
 
 Cotuinbta dniversity 
 
 New Xork City 
 
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 Book T7^^ 
 
THE 
 
 TOWNSEND LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 NATIONAL, STATE, 
 
 AND INDIVIDUAL CIVIL WAR 
 
 RECORDS 
 
 AT 
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
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 ^^ 
 
 lt>> 
 
 32322 
 
 f RESS OF STYLES 1 CASH, N. Y. 
 
THE TOWNSEND LIBRARY 
 
 ( The property of Columbia University) 
 
 JUDGED 
 3Y ITS CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 {For description of the work see page 12.) 
 
 The Journal of Commerce. — " It is a work without parallel in the 
 history of books, or in books of history." 
 
 Hon. Benjamin D. Silliman. — "Your genius in recording the 
 rebellion is equal to that of Grant in suppressing it." 
 
 New York Daily Tribune, October 10, 1897. -" The completion 
 of the ' Townsend Library,' as the great work known as ' National, 
 State and Individual Records' is popularly called, is an incident of 
 more than passing interest. It marks the culmination of nearly forty 
 years of labor, and of the compiling, digesting and indexing of the 
 greatest mass of historical narratives in existence pertaining to the 
 National life of America from the outbreak of the Rebellion to the 
 present day. That this monumental work has been secured for ever to 
 New York, in the library of one of its great universities, through the 
 munificence of one of its citizens, is cause for hearty public congrat- 
 ulation, while to the creator of the ' Library,' not only the city but the 
 whole Nation owes a debt of gratitude that can never be discharged nor 
 even adequately expressed." 
 
 New York Herald. — " When these memorable words were uttered 
 by Winthrop, ' Would that some competent person would keep a careful 
 record of events, for we are making history hand over hand'; he little 
 imagined how stupendous was to be the amount of labor involved in 
 keeping such a record. This has been so well done by Mr. Townsend 
 that all who in future years desire information concerning an individual 
 or an event in any way connected with or incidental to the Rebellion 
 will be enabled to find it as easily as a merchant can find an entry in his 
 accounts." 
 
6 The Townsend Library. 
 
 The Evening Post. — " Here are materials for writing a history of 
 the civil war more accurate and circumstantial than was ever written of 
 any war that was ever waged." 
 
 The Comte de Paris. — " It is a work of the greatest value, which 
 seems to be above the strength of a single man and the limits of a 
 single life." 
 
 General Grant. — " I heartily indorse the sentiments of the Comte 
 de Paris." 
 
 S. Irenaeus Prime, editor of the New York Observer.— " It is a 
 compilation that has no equal before or since the invention of the art 
 of printing, and future ages will prize it as one of the chief memorials 
 of the first century of American independence." 
 
 The New York World.—" It is a subject in which posterity as 
 well as the public of to-day is vitally interested." 
 
 William Cullen Bryant. — "The compiling of a lexicon in any 
 language is nothing to it. The forty academicians who compiled the 
 Dictionary of the French Language had a far less laborious task." 
 
 The New York Mail and Express. — " It is difficult to conceive 
 that any private citizen could be found bold enough to undertake the 
 task, and enthusiastic and brave enough to persevere amid extraordinary 
 difficulties in forming such a Record, far surpassing anything of the 
 kind that the British Museum, the Bibliotheque Imperial of Paris, or 
 any other library in the world can ever possess." 
 
 Governor Seymour of New York. — " It is a miracle of labor, 
 arrangement and execution. It is not only necessary to the historian, 
 but will be of great value in the event of war with other nations." 
 
 The New York Times. — " It was long since recognized that a collec- 
 tion so exhaustive in scope and so valuable to history should have a 
 permanent and public home, where students of history and writers of 
 books might freely consult it." 
 
 Dr. John Q. Cogswell, The first Superintendant of the Astor 
 Library. — " As a chronological and synchronous record of events, it is 
 more minute and more authentic than could be formed in any other 
 way." 
 
 Mr. Schroeder, Superintendent of the Astor Library. — "As an evi- 
 dence of ingenious conception and most laborious and praisworthy de- 
 
The Townsend Library. 7 
 
 votion to a great undertaking, it commanded the loudest and most cor- 
 dial approbation of all present." 
 
 The New York Tribune. — "It would be exceedingly unfortunate 
 and discreditable if Mr. Townsend's infinite labor should fail to be pre- 
 served where it would be permanently accessible to scholars and writers." 
 
 Horace Greeley. — "Had I been acquainted with the nature and 
 scope of the work before preparing my ' History of the Rebellion,' it 
 m.ight have saved me much time, labor and research." 
 
 Hon. John A. Dix. — "Its value cannot be estimated in money. 
 
 Rev. Henry W. Bellows, President of the U. S. Sanitary Com- 
 mission. — "I do not believe that another man competent to this task 
 could have been found in the country who would have given so many 
 years of his life to this undertaking. It seems to be almost a providen- 
 tial felicity that such a curious and unique record exists." 
 
 Hon. John Sherman. (On receipt from the author of a transcript 
 of Gen. Sherman's record). — "It is in itself a compendium of his military 
 career. I feel that you will merit the grateful thanks of the family and 
 kindred of General Sherman, which I sincerely tender you." 
 
 The Press. — "Its immense value and importance have been tes- 
 tified to by every prominent citizen to whose attention it has been 
 brought. The press of the city and country have universally commended 
 it as a work of national importance." 
 
 The Commercial Advertiser. — "It is a monument of perserving 
 industry and of literary labor." 
 
 The Christian at Work.— "Mr. Townsend certainly deserves well 
 at the hands of the Republic for having prepared at his own cost a his- 
 tory of the war." 
 
 Chief Justice Chase. — "I can add nothing in commendation of 
 your work to what has been already said by others. It will be of the 
 greatest value to the future historian." 
 
 The Examiner. — "It would be a reproach to New York if it should 
 be allowed to leave the city." 
 
 The Citizen. — "There is nothing in the country that will compare 
 with it as a general compendium of history relating to the decade from 
 i860 to 1870." 
 
8 The Townsend Library. 
 
 Qen. J. Watts de Peyster. — " A personal examination enables 
 me more fully to realize the magnitude and importance of your great 
 work, embracing the history of the civil war in all its aspects and vast 
 amplitude." 
 
 The Evening Mail. — "It is a collection of historical records such 
 as has never been made by the industrj^ of any other man." 
 
 Qen. Fitz John Porter. — "Its unique charactei and the impossi- 
 bility of its having a rival in the world of literature, lend to it an histori- 
 cal value which the historian and student of history will appreciate. 
 Mayor Low is entitled to great credit for his foresight in taking steps to 
 secure for Columbia College this vast collection of historical material." 
 
 The Evangelist. — "Certainly there would be general satisfaction 
 among educated citizens of New York if the work should remain in 
 Columbia College Library." 
 
 Mr. J. C. Warner. — " The work concerns not only the State of 
 New York but all the States, supplying a mass of well digested infor- 
 mation concerning all sections of the Union that cannot be obtained in 
 any other place." 
 
 Geo. M. C. Meigs. — " It will be impossible to duplicate it, and it 
 must remain the most complete and accurate journal of the events of 
 the great struggle." 
 
 The Home Journal.—" It is a marvel of labor and ingenuity and 
 can never be duplicated."' 
 
 Qen. Scofield. — " It maj^ well be considered of national importance." 
 
 Qen. Nelson A. Hiles. — "I congratulate you upon your magnificent 
 work which will be of incalculable interest and value." 
 
 Qen. O. O. Howard.—" I thank you heartily for the wonderful 
 compendium you have sent me " (a transcript of his record). "It contains 
 statements and knowledge which I supposed had passed into oblivion."' 
 
 The Cambridge (Mass.) Tribune. — " The acquisition of this re- 
 markably and utterly unique work by the Harvard Library would add 
 a treasure to our University that would be priceless in the future." 
 
 Captain Doyle, Author of " Sherman's March to the Sea" — "Your 
 work should win for you the thanks and admiration not only of the 
 
The TovvNSENi) Library. q 
 
 soldiers, but of every patriotic American. It is a stupendous under- 
 taking." 
 
 Fernando Wood. — " No one can doubt the utility of your great 
 work." 
 
 Qen. Egbert L. Viele. — "I cannot but be struck witti the vast 
 amount of information and data that your annals must contain, if my 
 comparatively unimportant services are so fully set forth." 
 
 The Christian Advocate. — " It is, of course, in the Department of 
 
 Ecclesiastic Information that clergymen will be most interested, and it 
 is precisely here that the Library is particularly rich, enabling the 
 reader to trace the relations of the Churches to those engaged on both 
 sides in the contest, and the way in which the several denominations af- 
 fected and were affected by the great struggle." 
 
 rir. Fisher A. Baker. — " I have received a synopsis of the Eigh- 
 teenth Massachusetts Regiment. No one intending to prepare a history 
 of any regiment can aiford to neglect the vast body of information you 
 have in your possession." 
 
 Gen. N. P. Banks, (1870). — "The outline you send me of the Rich- 
 mond letter is sufficient to anwer my purpose. I am glad you have been 
 able to find so clear a trace of it, for I began to think, so little was it 
 known, that I might have been mistaken myself in regard to its 
 contents." 
 
 Senator Flanderson, in the L^nited States Senate. — "A case in 
 point, showing the value of this work occurred in this very Session of 
 Congress (1S90), where it was deemed important in a matter that was in 
 the Committee on Military Affairs to find a certain paper — a letter sup- 
 posed to have been written during the years of the war by a prominent 
 officer. It was a matter so important that search was made for it every- 
 where in public libraries, the Library of Congress, and the libraries of 
 the great cities, and nowhere could a copy of the letter be found until 
 it was fi.nally furnished from the Townsend Library." 
 
 The New York Herald, April i, 1887— "A retired army officer, of 
 high rank, who had just been making some researches through the 
 Townsend Library was seen by one of our reporters. He had endeav- 
 ored to establish some important point of record which he had been 
 unable to verify elsewhere. 'Whv,' said he, 'people have no idea what 
 a marvelous fund of information there is in that work. All my interests 
 are in the West, and I came East mainly to hunt through that work for 
 
lo The Townsend Library. 
 
 the fact I needed, and I found it. If I could only get it out West it 
 would never come back, I can assure you.' " 
 
 The New York Herald. — " Such a work will lengthen the lives of 
 the great men of the future by rendering unnecessary the immense 
 waste of time which the want of ready and reliable information has 
 hitherto imposed on historical writers." 
 
 "It ought never to be allowed to go out of New York, and yet, 
 strange to say, it is a well known and public-spirited citizen of Brooklyn 
 (Seth Low) who has been wise, earnest, and energetic in the endeavor 
 to keep it here." 
 
 The New York Historical Society. — ''Resolved, That the New 
 York Historical Society acknowledge the services rendered to the cause 
 of history by Mr. Thomas S. Townsend, in the foresight, skill and per- 
 severance displayed by him in the preparation of his work." 
 
 The Long Island Historical Society. — " It is a monument of 
 intelligence and patient industry, and its range and extent are won- 
 derful." 
 
 The Union League Club. — ''Resolved, That m our judgment it is 
 a work of national importance and should be the nation's property." 
 
 General Wade Hampton. — " If your data about most of our public 
 men are nearl}^ as full as you have made mine, you have indeed col- 
 lected a vast quantity of material." 
 
 General Beauregard. — " I desire to express my high estimation of 
 the purpose, industry and perseverance with which, during so many 
 years, you have carried on this extensive work." 
 
 Colonel Duncan K. McRae of the Confederate Army. — " Its faii-- 
 ness, impartiality and completeness cannot be too highly extolled." 
 
 Mr. Brock, Secretary of the Southern Historical Society. — " Not 
 many men would have undertaken a work so provident as yours volun- 
 tarily and without stipulation of reward. In all that I have represented 
 and by every evidence that I have given of a desire to be useful, would 
 I express my commendation of your work." 
 
 C. T. Allen of the 20th Virginia Regiment (Confederate). — In 
 answer to a letter from Mr. Allen, published in a Washington paper, 
 soliciting information of the whereabouts of a sword— a valuable heir- 
 loom — captured at the battle of Rich Mountain, Mr. Townsend gave him 
 the information desired, and the name of the soldier who captured it. 
 
The Townsend Lihkaky. ii 
 
 Mr. Allen says, in his letter of December 17, 1884: " Please accept my 
 most grateful acknowledgments for the service you have rendered me." 
 
 Improvement in Recording the Transactions of the City Qov= 
 ernment. — Meeting held at the Society Library to consider the pro- 
 priety of advocating the adoption of a similar method of preserving and 
 concentrating the substance of the City Records so as to promote public 
 convenience and aid in preventing abuses, by enabling the citizens at 
 any time to learn all essential facts about the operations of public 
 officers and the condition of municipal affairs in each branch of the City 
 Government. After remarks by General Dix and others, the following 
 resolution was unanimously adopted: 
 
 Resolved, " That in connection with the new city charter for the 
 City of New York, it be, and is.hereby respectfully submitted for public 
 consideration, whether it would not be advisable to provide for the crea- 
 tion of a Recording Bureau where any fact connected with the opera- 
 tions cf any branch of the City Government could be promptly ascer- 
 tained — which Bureau should daily collect and concentrate faithful 
 accounts of transactions in the various branches of the corporation 
 business, rendering the City Records plain and intelligible as any mer- 
 chant's well-kept account books, and thus preventing the possibility of 
 such frauds (engendered in secrecy) as have lately disgraced this 
 metropolis and plundered its treasury of millions of dollars." 
 
A HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY. 
 
 BY J. HENRY HAGER. 
 
 An event of national importance occurred in November, i860, 
 when Thomas S. Townsend, the son of John R. Townsend, a promin- 
 ent member of the New York bar and an honored graduate of Columbia 
 College, began the compilation of the work known subsequently as 
 " National, State and Individual Records of the Civil War." It was 
 nearly six months before the firing on Fort Sumter that was " heard 
 round the world ", but Mr. Townsend proved his title to accurate ob- 
 servation and his keen insight into current events, by foreseeing the 
 national calamity that was about to befall us— the storm soon to burst 
 from the clouds already gathering. Thus was born, amid the dis- 
 couragement of friends, the thinly-veiled sarcasm of acquaintances 
 and the limitations of a very moderate income, what was to grow into 
 the monumental historical work of the century. 
 
 Mr. Townsend, through a defect in hearing, was unsuited to face 
 the activities of a professional, or commercial career, and thus found in 
 his new employment an occupation congenial to him. When, later, he 
 became impressed with its magnitude and its absorbing character, he 
 accepted a position in the New York Custom House, which he held for 
 a number of years, and which enabled him to devote his abundant 
 leisure to his " niagiuim opus." Also was he cheered on by the words 
 of the heroic Winthrop, who fell at the battle of Big Bethel, and whose 
 dying aspiration for his country was that some competent person 
 might keep careful record of passing events for the instraction of 
 the ages to come. 
 
 Gradually the world became interested in the labors of this quiet 
 worker. Such men as the Rev. S. Irenaeus Prime, Rev. Dr. Bellows, 
 Gov. John A. Dix, William M. Evarts, and Generals Slocum, Fitz-John 
 Porter, and others equally prominent, began to investigate and, as a 
 result of their investigation, to wonder and admire. In 1S67 the 
 work was taken to Washington where, for a time, the prospect seemed 
 bright for its purchase for the Congressional Library. The impeach- 
 ment of President Johnson, however, intervened and put a stop to 
 negotiations. As a result the then completed volumes were brought 
 back to New York, and e.xhibited at the Union League Club and in the 
 rooms of the Historical Society, the work, meantime, growing steadily 
 in bulk and in value as the result of Mr. Townsend's patient industry 
 and intelligent discrimination. 
 
 In i8go another effort was made to secure the purchase of the col- 
 lection by the nation, an effort warmly supported not only by Northern 
 men of note in military and civil life, but by such e.x-Confederiites 
 
Thk Townsenu Library. 13 
 
 as Gen. Joseph Wheeler and Gen. Wade Hampton. A bill authoriz- 
 ing its purchase was passed by the United States Senate, but was not 
 called up in the House, at the last practicable moment, because 
 the chairman of the Library Committee was piqued by a refusal 
 of the Speaker to recognize him for any other purpose. In 1892 a 
 similar bill failed of final passage, though also strongly advocated. Its 
 acquirement for the Congressional Library was always strenuously 
 urged by the Librarian, Mr. Spofford, but there was a chronic diffi- 
 culty in getting certain legislators to understand the true nature and 
 value of the work. In 1893 William M. Evarts, Senator Sherman, and 
 Gens. Hawley, Slocum, and Fitz-John Porter headed a movement for 
 the purchase of the collection by a popular subscription of $50,000, the 
 work to go to the American university receiving the largest number 
 of votes. This undertaking was also abortive. Finally, the work 
 having been placed in the library of Columbia College at the request 
 of the trustees, with a view to its ultimate purchase, it was bought 
 privately in May, 1896, by F. Augustus Schermerhorn, Esq., one of 
 the trustees, and an arrangement made for the completion of the 
 concluding volumes, and the preparation of the indexes, four in num- 
 ber, with a guide to the same. This work was finished in the Spring of 
 189S, and the creator of The Townsend Library had the pleasure of 
 presentmg the University with another volume in addition to those pur- 
 chased by Mr. Schermerhorn. 
 
 At present the work is comprised in 90 volumes, larger in size than 
 the ordinary bank ledger, containing 600 pages each, or 54,000 pages in 
 all, which, with four columns of printed matter on a page, gives a 
 grand total of 216,000 columns — these columns being as long as, and 
 in some cases longer than, those of an ordinar}'- newspaper. But the 
 compilation of this immense amount of information regarding our 
 Civil war, and other subjects connected with our national history, was 
 only the beginning of Mr. Townsend's heroic labors. This crude mass 
 of fact had to be carefully collated and epitomized in order to be of 
 the slightest value to the historical student, or to the general reader. 
 In order to meet this want, Mr. Townsend prepared a second work, 
 which he called "The Encyclopedia," comprised of 30 volumes of 
 1,300 pages each, or 39,000 pages in all, in which reference is made 
 to volume and page where every item mentioned in the main com- 
 pilation is to be found. The toil involved in the carrying out of this 
 second undertaking, it is difficult for one to realize who has not gone 
 through it. In order to facilitate his labors, Mr. Townsend invented 
 an original plan, something like the "journalizing" of accounts in 
 double-entry bookkeeping. The result has been most satisfactory, 
 and, with the aid of the indexes, this great work is as easy of reference 
 as a school history. 
 
 At the beginning of the first index are found references to the his- 
 tory of this country for a century up to i860, covering Colonial and 
 
14 The Townsend Library. 
 
 Revolutionary times, the Declaration of Independence, the founders of 
 the Union, the Monroe Doctrine, etc. Two pages and a half of refer- 
 ences in the Encyclopedia are devoted to James Buchanan as individual 
 and as President. Next come five pages and a half of references to the 
 individual record of Abraham Lincoln, followed by eleven pages of 
 references to him as Chief Magistrate. The latter installment is divided 
 under headings as follows : The inauguration ; his address ; the 
 inauguration ball ; Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin ; the cabinet ; Mr. 
 Lincoln and the executive department of the government ; President 
 Lincoln and military affairs ; Gettysburg speech ; the Emancipation 
 Proclamation, and Mr. Lincoln's views on slavery ; presidential cam- 
 paign of 1864 : peace and reconstruction. Seven pages of references 
 follow, concerning the assassination of the President, the records of the 
 conspirators, and their trial, making no less than twenty-three pages 
 and a half of references to Lincoln alone. Fourteen pages of the index 
 are given to Andrew Johnson. There are copious references to the 
 departments of the government, including the War Department, its 
 Secretaries, and the army from i860 to 1870, and "all attainable in- 
 formation up to 1897." By consulting the indexes, and the guide to 
 them, one can readily turn to the Encyclopedia and then to the work 
 itself for such matters as regimental records, Union or Confederate; 
 the various anny corps, general officers, and naval officers on each side 
 of the contending forces ; all the States, the regimental and company 
 officers, Northern and Southern, under the heading of their regiments, 
 and those enrolled in a list of " Our Honored Dead, from military, 
 naval, and civil life, April, 1861, to May, 1897." 
 
 In the preparation of this work, Mr. Townsend's aim was to catch the 
 very " form and pressure" of the stirring times of which he treated, to 
 photograph the wordy strife of the political discussions that preceded 
 the war, the din of battle, the cheers of the victorious, the despair of 
 the defeated, and amid all, the record of the daily life of the people 
 both North and South during the struggle. But how was this done 
 will be asked by the reader unacquainted with the method employed? 
 There was only one way in which it could be done, and that was by the 
 preservation of everything that was printed by the journals and maga- 
 zines of the country during these four years. This collection was 
 formed from day to day, as the events occurred, and not postponed 
 until a subsequent period, when the valuable material might have been 
 partially destroyed, or been unwittingly overlooked by the compiler. 
 The originator of this novel method of recording history, did not, how- 
 ever, cease from his invaluable labors with the surrender of Lee, and 
 the military close of the conflict ; he continued his daily routine until 
 1870, recording with the same faithful persistence, everything printed on 
 all subjects growing out of the war, so that the Library to-day furnishes 
 historical students a complete account of the important five years of 
 the reconstruction period. But this is not all ;— during the past twenty- 
 
The Townsend Likrary. 15 
 
 nine years since 1870, a close watch has been kept upon the issues of 
 the daily and periodical press, and no item even remotely relating to 
 the topics discussed in the main body of the work, has been allowed to 
 escape attention. Thus the Library has been growing steadily from 
 year to year, and annually becoming more and more a priceless national 
 inheritance ! " Fifty years hence," said the late Hon. John A. Dix, 
 " the work will have a value which cannot be estimated in money, as 
 indeed it has now." 
 
 As to the historical treasures contained in The Townsend Library, 
 they cannot, perhaps, be better summarized than in the words of a 
 distinguished Senator on the floor of the Senate. He said : " Mr. 
 President : This is a collection of all that is most valuable in the 
 literature of the war, including every description of composition that 
 related to the subject, commencing with the opening of the war and 
 the causes which led up to it, all the way through— here is the great 
 literary production of the war itself, it is what the American people 
 wrote ; It is the battle, the literary battle of the war itself, the great 
 controversy embodied in the literature of the period. Now, it seems to 
 me that what was produced of a literary nature, historical, novelistic if 
 you please, the newspaper comments, the work of statesmen, the work 
 of editors, and the entire mental activities of the American people upon 
 both sides, as they were exhibited and were personified and crystallized 
 in the period of the war itself, must be of exceeding value as long as we 
 exist as a people and as long as history is of any consequence in this 
 world. Now, here is the battle of Gettysburg, for instance," continued 
 the Senator, "upon the exposition of which locality, we have expended 
 already hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we are proposing in a 
 bill which comes up a little later to make a large appropriation to 
 depict upon that historic field the action of the Confederate army, the 
 Confederate forces, during the three days of that tremendous and 
 decisive conflict ; and yet that was but one battle. Really what, after 
 all, is the physical delineation of what can be reproduced of that great 
 battle, compared with this picture, this truthful exhibition of all the 
 mental collision that occurred during the war, and the literature in 
 which it is embalmed, when we consider its real value as compared 
 with what I have alluded to as being delineated for years upon the 
 battlefield of Gettysburg alone ; when we consider its real value, there 
 is no comparison between them." 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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