E 464 
 .T766 
 Copy 1 
 
 
 TowNSEND's Library 
 
 NATIONAL, STATE/INDIVIDUAL RECORDS, 
 
 1860=1870. 
 
 INCLUDING ALL ATTAINABLE INFORMATION UP TO THE PRESENT 
 
 TIME (1888), CONCERNING INDIVIDUALS AND EVENTS 
 
 CONNECTED WITH THAT DECADE. 
 
 28 Years of Labor, and an Expenditure of $25,000, by a 
 Private Citizen, on a Work of National Importance. 
 
 50th Congress, 
 1st Session, 
 
 S. 1,700. 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 January 26, 1888, 
 
 Mr. Hawley introduced the following bill, which was read twice and referred to the 
 Committee on the Library : 
 
 A BILL 
 
 Authorizing the Librarian of Congress to purchase " Townsend's Library of National, 
 State, and Individual Records, comprising a collection of Historical Records 
 concerning the Origin, Progress, and Consequences of the late Civil War. 
 
 Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
 America, in Congress assetnbled : 
 
 That the Librarian of Congress be and he is hereby authorized and directed to 
 purchase " Townsend's Library of National, State, and Individual Records, compris- 
 ing a collection of Historical Records concerning the Origin, Progress, and Conse- 
 quences of the late Civil War," at a price not exceeding thousand dollars 
 which amount, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby 
 appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 "There is not an hour, during a Session of Congress, when some fact, to confirm 
 history or refute misrepresentation, is not found necessary, and the difficulty of 
 obtaining a place to which immediate and reliable reference can be had, is con- 
 stantly felt. Mr. Townsend has supplied this important desideratum." — Washington 
 Chronicle. 
 
Glass ^^ JA- 
 Book Tj< <>L 
 
; 
 
JOURNALISTIC RECORD COMPRISES ABOUT ONE HUNDRED VOLUMES, CONTAINING SIXTY THOUSAND HACEb, (iR IWll III MiKID AND FORTY 
 
 THOUSAND COLUMNS, EQUAL TO TWICE THAT NUMBER OF ORDINARY SIZE BOOK COLUMNS. 
 THE DIGEST, WHEN COMPLETED, WILL BE IN ABOUT THIRTY VOLUMES, CONTAINING THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND PAGES OF MANUSCRIPT, EACH 
 
 VOLUME THE SIZE OF THE LARGEST BANK LF.DGERS. 
 THE INDEX TO THE DIGEST, WHICH IS THE KEY TO THE WHOLE WORK, IS IN ONE VOLUME. 
 
3., ^ 
 
 TowNSEiND's Library 
 
 fyim^, State and Ipividu/l fJECoi^DS 
 
 1860=1870. 
 
 INCLUDING ALL ATTAINABLE INFORMATION UP TO THE 
 
 PRESENT TIME (1888), CONCERNING INDIVIDUALS AND 
 
 EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THAT DECADE. 
 
 28 Years of Labor, and an Expenditure of $25,000, 
 
 by a Private Citizen, on a Work of 
 
 National Importance. 
 
 Styles & Cash, Printers and Stationers, 77 Eighth Avenue. 
 
 1888. 
 
r^'o- 
 
TOWNSEND^S LIBRARY 
 
 National, State and Individual Records. 
 
 SOME OPINIONS. 
 
 The Comte de Paris. — " It is a work of the greatest value, 
 but seems beyond the strength of a single man in the limits of a 
 single life." 
 
 General Grant. — " 1 heartily endorse the sentiments ex- 
 pressed by the Comte de 'Paris, in his letter of July 27, 1883." 
 
 Governor Horatio Seymour. — "I look upon the work as a 
 miracle of labor, arrangement, and execution. It is not only 
 necessary to the historian, but will be of great value to our gov- 
 ernment in the event of war or hostile complications with other 
 nations." 
 
 Dr. Cogswell, the Organizer and First Superintendent of the 
 Astor Library. — "As a chronological and synchronous record of 
 the events, it is mo're minute, and more authentic than could be 
 formed in any other way ; and as documentary material for the 
 historian of those events, it is absolutely indispensable. Its 
 voluminousness might render it inconvenient in use, but for its 
 perfectly systematic arrangement, which, with its minute aiid com- 
 plete index, obviate all objections on that score, and render 
 THE WORK as easy to be consulted as if it were comprised in a single 
 volume. The manifest labor, time and cost, which must have 
 been bestowed upon this great work," says Dr. Cogswell, in con- 
 clusion, " warrants the inference that it will not be duplicated ; 
 and hence it is to be hoped it will belong to the Nation, and 
 be deposited where it will be most convenient of access." 
 
Williain Cu/len Bryant. — " The age has given birth to few- 
 literary undertakings that will bear comparison with this work. 
 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." 
 
 Rev. Henry W. Bellows., Presidefit of the United States Sani- 
 tary Commission. — " I do not believe that another man could be 
 found in the country who would have devoted his life, almost 
 entirely, to an undertaking of like importance and magnitude." 
 Adding: "It seems almost a providential felicity that such a 
 curious and unique record exists." 
 
 Col. Duncan K. McRae, of the late Confederate Artny and for 
 some time Agent for the Confederate Government in Europe. — " I 
 regard Mr. Townsend's work as one of wonderful val-ue. It 
 really contains a better source of supply for a history of the war 
 than simply the official records, for he has many (the minutest 
 often of those), and in addition his cotemporaneous journalistic 
 narrative, data and statistics, worked up with such elaborate and 
 systematic method and detail, affords every facility for accurate 
 history. Its fairness, impartiality and completeness cannot be 
 too highly extolled." 
 
 Hon. John A. Dix. — " I have watched it in its progress with 
 great interest, and a high appreciation of its great value. Fifty 
 years from this time it will, undoubtedly, have a value which can- 
 not be estimated — as indeed it has now." 
 
 Rev. S. Irenaeus Prime, Editor of the New York Observer. — 
 " It is, beyond all dispute, the most remarkable compilation of 
 ancient or modern times — having 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." 
 
 General P. G. Beauregard. — " After an examination of the 
 work, General Beauregard expressed the decided opinion that it 
 should be the property of tiie nation." 
 
 Quartermaster ■ General M. C. Meigs said : "It will be impos- 
 sible to duplicate Mr. Townsend's work, and it must remain the 
 most complete and minute journal of the events of the Great 
 Struggle." 
 
 The Boston Transcript. — '' It is a wonderful work, and of 
 great interest to all." 
 
The Boston Post. — " There is one gentleman in the United 
 States, Mr. Thomas S. Townsend, of New York, who had the 
 foresight to arrange a systematic plan for making a record of the 
 successive events of the war." 
 
 The Northern Whi^, of Belfast, Ireland. — " The most singu- 
 lar and interesting record of the war has been compiled by Mr. 
 Townsend, of New York, and the value of his compilation to a 
 future historian is inestimable." 
 
 The New York Evening Post. — " No work has been compiled 
 which will convey to posterity a more truthful and perfect his- 
 tory of the late conflict." And the editors, themselves well known 
 in the field of historical research, emphatically said, on another 
 occasion, that '"it is a work of peculiar interest, in that it is the 
 first attempt ever made to collect and arrange for the convenient 
 use of future historians the record of great events as given from 
 day to day, during their occurrence, in the newspaper press." 
 
 The New York World. — No such mass of material for the 
 future historian has ever been gathered by any one of whom we 
 know or have heard. It is the richest store of current history 
 that was ever collected, and no historian ever yet had so copious 
 a store of material to draw upon." 
 
 The New York Herald. — " It has been a labor of love with 
 the author, for otherwise he could never have toiled on for years, 
 as he has done, without any encouragement, except the knowl- 
 edge of the benefit he was conferring on mankind. Such a work 
 as this 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." 
 
 Resolution of the New York Historical Society. — " Resolved, 
 that the New York Historical Society acknowledges the services 
 rendered to the cause of history by Mr. Thomas S. Townsend, of 
 this city, in the foresight, skill, and perseverance displayed in 
 the preparation of his work." 
 
 Resolution of the Union League Club of Nezv York. — " It 
 will, in the opinion of this Club, be invaluable, if not indispens- 
 able, to the future historian, of the sublime struggle through 
 which our country has just passed." 
 
f 
 
 6 
 
 The following constitute the GRAND DIVISIONS 
 of the Compendium, and all of which have their SUB- 
 DIVISIONS : 
 
 BuchanarL s Administration {Latter Days of ). — 400 statements. 
 
 Port Sumter. — 175 statements. 
 
 The Trent Affair. — 200 statements. 
 
 The Federal Government. — Executive, State, Treasury De- 
 partments, and records of all officers connected therewith. 
 
 Congress. — Daily Proceedings, Speeches, Documents con- 
 nected with the proceedings. 
 
 The Confederate Government. — Executive, State, Treasury 
 Departments, and Records of their officers. 
 
 Confederate Congress. — Proceedings, Speeches, and Docu- 
 ments emanating therefrom. 
 
 The Federal Army. — Rules and Regulations, Foreign Officers, 
 Deserters, Pensions, Prisoners of War, Strength of the Army at 
 different periods. Military Departments, The Draft, the Army as 
 compared with those of other nations, Records of Secretary Cam- 
 eron and Secretary Stanton, West Point, the Sanitary, Christian, 
 and Allotment Commissions, Colored Troops, Losses in the 
 War, etc. 
 
 The Confederate Army. — An arrangement similar to that of 
 the " Federal Army." 
 
 The Federal Navy. 
 
 The Confederate Navy. 
 
 Foreign Relations. — See " State Department," " Federal 
 Government," also " State Department," " Confederate Gov- 
 ernment." 
 
 Union Generals. — Their Records. 
 
 Confederate Generals.— T\)<i\x Records. 
 
 The Blockade. 
 
 Privateering. 
 
 Law and Decisions. — International Questions, etc. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Documents. — Action of the Churches, North 
 and South ; Sermons, etc. 
 
Political Prisoners. — Alphabetical Lists, and all statements 
 concerning each individual. 
 
 Heroes. — Dead and Living. 
 
 Historical References. 
 
 Regimental Records. — Every Regiment, Union and Confed- 
 erate ; also, Indian Regiments. (The records of Confederate 
 regiments include the names of all privates as well as officers who 
 may have been captured or died while prisoners of war). 
 
 Battles, Sieges and Skirmishes. — The Virginia Campaign 
 between Generals Grant and Lee occupies alone 2500 pages of 
 " The Compendium or Digest." 
 
 Speeches. — Speeches delivered throughout the world, in 
 alphabetical order. 
 
 Letters. — Reports, Messages, Correspondence, Proclama- 
 tions, Poems, Portraits, Maps. 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 Records of States, Cities, Towns, etc. 
 
 Maine. Minnesota. 
 
 New Hampshire. Kansas. 
 
 Vermont. California. 
 
 Massachusetts. Kentucky. 
 
 Connecticut. Missouri. 
 
 Rhode Island. Oregon. 
 
 New York. Nevada. 
 
 New Jersey. Colorado. 
 
 Pennsylvania. Virginia. 
 
 Maryland. North Carolina. 
 
 Delaware. South Carolina. 
 
 District of Columbia. Georgia. 
 
 Western Virginia. Louisiana. 
 
 Ohio. Alabama. 
 
 Michigan. Arkansas. 
 
 Indiana. Mississippi. 
 
 Illinois. Tennessee. 
 
 Iowa. Florida. 
 
 Wisconsin. Texas. 
 
 The Territories and Indians. 
 
 The Invasion of Mexico. 
 
 Canada. — The St. Albans Raid, etc. 
 
Editorials of the Press are classified, and succeed the various 
 subjects, /. €., editorials on the State of Virginia. 
 
 The following list of the Subdivisions of the State of New 
 York will indicate the scope, plan and arrangement of the 
 Divisions of all other States and subjects. 
 
 THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The State Government — The Common Council of the City 
 of New York — Military Documents — The Legislatures — State 
 Conventions — Political Campaigns — Records of Public Men of 
 New York — Public and Individual Acts of Patriotism — The 
 Union Defence Committee — National War Committees — The 
 Chamber of Commerce — State and Harbor Defences — The Banks, 
 Financial Matters and the Stock Exchange — The Draft and 
 the Riots — Plot to Burn the City of New York— General Dix 
 and the Military Department of New York — The Union League 
 Club — Historical Documents — The City of Brooklyn, Albany 
 and other Cities — Editorials on the State of New York. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK. 
 
 In 1860, when the first mutterings of the impending storm 
 gave evidence of startling events in the near future, Mr. Towns- 
 end grasped the idea of making timely notes of every occurrence 
 in connection with the crisis. It was in anticipation of the im- 
 pressive words of Major Theodore Winthrop, who, with an ex- 
 piring breath, early in the contest, urged that a careful record of 
 the occurring events of the historical epoch be preserved, that in 
 the latter days of Buchanan's administration, and six months 
 before the war, this stupendous work was begun. Of course, 
 Mr. Townsend, at that early stage of the disturbances, vaguely 
 foresaw the far-reaching possibilities of the impending conflict, 
 else his massive collection would never have existed, for no man 
 would have deemed it practicable or expedient to attempt the 
 work of faithfully and unremittingly pursuing such an under- 
 taking. From moderate beginnings it, in time, increased with 
 the profuse material which continued to flow into the compiler's 
 hands from all quarters, until, to do the subject ample justice 
 and diligently follow up the compilation, the assistance of com- 
 
petent clerks became imperative. Seizing upon every published 
 statement as contributing to the literature of the subject at the 
 time of publication, the compiler has devoted to the work not 
 only the years covered by hostilities, but those which have since 
 followed, until his labors have extended through more than a 
 quarter of a century, with the result of having brought together 
 the most extensive collection of data under one head ever 
 attempted. 
 
 THE JOURNALISTIC RECORD. 
 
 The work is in three parts — " The Journalistic Record," 
 "The Compendium, or Digest," and the Index to the Depart- 
 ments of the Compendium. 
 
 The Record contains everything of National importance 
 concerning the great conflict — not merely down to the end of 
 battle-fields, but to the close of the equally important strife con- 
 nected with the re-organization of the Union by the re-admission 
 of the seceded States. And in this connection it is essential to 
 remember that an immense mass of valuable information con- 
 cerning men and things on all sides, North as well as South, has 
 been attainable only since the close of the war, as it has been 
 elicited by the discussions in congress, in legislatures, in histori- 
 cal societies, in obituary notices, magazine articles — such as 
 " The Century " and '' The Southern Bivouac " — and in con- 
 troversies of persons engaged on both sides since the close of 
 armed strife. No party bias has been allowed to interfere with 
 the thorough compilation of the descriptive narratives, comments 
 and reviews of correspondents, journalists, and public men of 
 every political creed, whether of the North or South. 
 
 " The Journalistic Record " comprises 87 volumes, containing 
 as much printed matter as could be placed in 1200 volumes of 
 ordinary octavo size. As the arrangement is in four columns 
 on each page, a curious statistician "calculated" that if the 
 columns were arranged in a column line, they would measure 
 nearly one hundred miles. 
 
 The preparation of these volumes of " The Record " has 
 been, however, the least laborious portion of the work, only one- 
 tenth of the time of the compiler having been occupied upon it, 
 while nine-tenths have been devoted to the Compendium or Di- 
 gest, which is not an index, but an analysis of, and guide to, the 
 contents of this immense collection. 
 
10 
 THE COMPENDIUM OR DIGEST. 
 
 The Compendium or Digest will compHse nearly Thirty 
 Volumes^ or 40,000 of the largest size pages of manuscript. All 
 elegantly bound in Russia leather. 
 
 To study the history of any particular subject by means of 
 " The Record " alone would be impossible ; therefore, in order 
 to make this great mass of information available, the compiler 
 decided that the mercantile principle of keeping accounts wa:. "•'' 
 true one — to regard " The Journalistic Record," in the lig^ 
 a merchant's day-book, then to journalize the contents of " le 
 Record," and from the journals to redistribute the entries to 
 their appropriate departments, in what a merchant would term 
 his ledger, but which the compiler calls "The Compendium or 
 Digest." Each fact or statement in a report, or a letter, or in 
 an editorial, is separately entered in the journal. This portion 
 of the work requires a journal of 1,200 pages to comprise an 
 epitome of each of the eighty-seven volumes of "The Record." 
 These journals or waste books are removed when their entries 
 are systematically transferred to the various departments of 
 "The Compendium or Digest." The student or investigator has 
 now before him in "The Digest " a statement of each subject, so 
 that the manifold and intricate episodes of the war, its origin, 
 progress, and consequences, can be developed instantaneously, 
 whether the suljject relates to military matters or finance, foreign 
 relations, or State fidelity. Every general, regiment, State, and 
 battle has its department. As a specimen of the many in- 
 quiries for information received by the compiler, it may be men- 
 tioned that, after long and unavailing efforts to obtain certain 
 facts and documents, General N. P. Banks, in 1870, wrote from 
 the Capitol to Mr. Townsend, in New York, to obtain (if pos- 
 sible) a copy of a certain letter. In acknowledging the receipt 
 of the information he wanted, General Banks wrote that he had 
 " never before been able to find any person who had seen " the 
 letter. " 1 am very glad that 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," add- 
 ing, that this letter is '" one of the most important publications 
 of the war," and that " the ])reservation of such matters is a 
 good evidence of the value of your collection." 
 
 A solitary example may ilfustrate the manifold ways in which 
 the Toivnsend Records are referred to concerning the interests 
 
11 
 
 and feelings of those who were privates in the ranks, as well as 
 by prominent officers like Gen. Banks, and others. In a recent 
 letter, Mr. R. R. Knapp says to Mr. Townsend : " I have to 
 thank you for the valuable information received through your 
 ' Compendium ' regarding B. Beach Kennedy, formerly of Com- 
 pany E, in the Sixth U. S. Cavalry. He is suffering from a 
 wound received in 1862, and is refused a pension because he is 
 unable to prove that he was wounded at Slatersville. I myself, 
 aember of his company, was away on detached duty at the 
 /, and can only testify to my knowledge and belief — others of 
 ti command are scattered, no one knows where. The officer 
 in command of the company at the time is out of service, and all 
 letters fail to reach him. And, but for your valuable information 
 — even to day and date, this man, who well deserves the pension of 
 his government, might die for the need of it." 
 
 THE INDEX. 
 
 The Index is in one volume. To study, for instance, the 
 record of a general officer, the Index refers to the volumes and 
 pages of "The Compendium " where the records of Union or 
 Confederate Generals may be found, and in that department will 
 be found every item of information concerning the individual, 
 presented in the eighty-seven volumes of " The Journalistic 
 Record," with reference in connection with each statement, to 
 the volume and page of the same for the authority upon which 
 the entry is recorded. 
 
 NEWSPAPER LITERATURE. 
 
 ' ' Turn to the press, its teeming sheets survey, 
 Big with the wonders of each passing day." 
 
 " The newspapers," said Carlyle, "constitute the essence of 
 all history. They are the mirrors in which events show them- 
 selves in their very form and pressure." Turn over the files of 
 the American journals cotemporary with the Revolution of 1776, 
 and you will see the value of the living records of the times. 
 The Hon. John C. Hamilton, in a letter to a friend commendatory 
 of Mr. Townsend's work, said : " In preparing my ' History of 
 the Republic of the United States,' I was, excepting the few 
 papers of my father's, during the period which elapsed between 
 
7^ 
 
 12 
 
 1783 and '88, chiefly indebted to the newspapers for the materials 
 of the work. Unless you have been engaged in a similar labor, 
 you could not imagine the difficulty of preparing a valuable nar- 
 rative from merely documentary material." 
 
 So, in after generations, the records of the transactions of 
 our times will be equally marvellous ; and it is not too much to 
 say that the newspapers of the present age have necessitated a 
 new style of history. 
 
 Daniel Webster said : '" If you want to find genuine history* 
 you must look for it in the newspapers and in private letters." 
 
 " Where can we find greater accuracy than in the leading 
 newspapers?" said Edward Everett. " The errors which one 
 paper makes is very speedily corrected by the others, and in 
 this age of inquiry and debate, if Truth every emerges from the 
 well in which she is said to abide, it is to clothe herself in print. 
 The Press is the mouthpiece of the people. Their aspirations 
 their purposes, their antipathies, are the staple of its argument 
 day by day. There is not a wave, not a ripple in the minds of 
 the community that it does not reflect. It occupies the position 
 of a perpetual Congress, and the measures upon which it agrees 
 are invariably adopted before any considerable lapse of time." 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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