One of the most valued sources of primary information for the Civil War historian, scenario designer, or serious researcher is The Official Records of the Civil War. However, as anyone who has tried to use them can tell you, they are not the easiest materials with which to work. This may be partly due to the immense size of the Official Records, as well as organizational limitations. The index alone is two volumes of over eight hundred pages. One can be easily overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of this work.
The book, A Users Guide to The Official Records of the Civil War, by Alan C. and Barbara Aimone, is available to assist researchers in their work. It gives valuable tips on using this source in other historical research. The book does not give suggestions per se on using the Of ficial Records for scenarios but the wargamer will use many of the same skills that the historian uses; for example, maps, objectives, general feeling, commanders, supply, etc. Besides offering constructive advice on the benefits of the official records, the user's guide also describes some of the shortcomings, such as the inadequacies of the incomplete index volume.
One of the most interesting chapters concerns the brief history of how the official records were compiled. This is an intriguing story in itself, since the Herculean effort in gathering, analyzing, and printing them is a fascinating glimpse into the interest concerning the war during Reconstruction.
The most helpful sections of the book are the appendices. One of them is a complete bibliographic source that can benefit other research. Another is a chronology of what is included in each volume. This serves as a sort of index; yet for some reason, the volumes dealing with Gettysburg are omitted from this list which is a glaring oversight. Still this list (while incomplete) is most convenient, since one would have to open each volume to see what is included while trying to find a particular battle or campaign. You can astound your friends and confound your enemies at the library when you can show them that you know the exact volume you need for your research.
One of the shortcomings of A Users Guide to The Official Records of the Civil War (besides omitting Gettysburg from the index of principal events per volume) is that it does not give any recommendations on how to actually acquire the Official Records. Despite this, if one does have access to a large university library, which should have a copy of the Official Records, or if one uses the source for research, A Users Guide to The Official Records of the Civil War is one of those works that can benefit the historian.
A Users Guide to The Official Records of the Civil War is available by writing directly to White Mane Publishing Company, Inc., PO. Box 152, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, 17257.
Copyright 1995 by the American Civil War Society