Scope and Content: The Massachusetts Military State Agency in Washington, D.C., established in 1862 and headed by Gardiner Tufts, served as a charitable and relief organization for Massachusetts soldiers during the Civil War, along with similar agencies in four other Atlantic seaboard transport centers. Its duties included the visiting of hospitals to ascertain the condition of soldiers and providing them with necessary supplies; acting for claimants of back-pay, bounties, and pensions; arranging for the interment or return to Massachusetts of the bodies of deceased soldiers; and providing information to soldiers’ families about their condition and whereabouts. After the war, the agency continued its work with pension and bounty claims, in Washington until 1870, then in Boston until 1879, when its functions were transferred from the state surgeon general to the state adjutant general.
Arrangement: In two subseries; arranged within each volume alphabetically by first letter of subject (surname)
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Massachusetts Military State Agency (Washington, D.C.): Index registers of correspondence regarding final status
Massachusetts Military State Agency (New York, N.Y.): Reports of Massachusetts soldiers in New York hospitals
Scope and Content: The Massachusetts Military State Agency in Washington, D.C., established in 1862 and headed by Gardiner Tufts, served as a charitable and relief organization for Massachusetts soldiers during the Civil War, along with similar agencies in four other Atlantic seaboard transport centers. Its duties included the visiting of hospitals to ascertain the condition of soldiers and providing them with necessary supplies; acting for claimants of back-pay, bounties, and pensions; arranging for the interment or return to Massachusetts of the bodies of deceased soldiers; and providing information to soldiers’ families about their condition and whereabouts. After the war, the agency continued its work with pension and bounty claims, in Washington until 1870, then in Boston until 1879, when its functions were transferred from the state surgeon general to the state adjutant general.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Typescript note inside front cover, presumably by Frederick W. Cross, military archivist, indicates that the volumes were submitted by Howe in his capacity as military agent
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Adjutant General’s Office: Draft enrollment lists
Scope and Content: During the Civil War President Lincoln issued a call on July 2, 1862 for 300,000 men to serve for 3 years. The Federal Militia Act of July 17, 1862 authorized the president to call up state militias into national service for 9 months and “to make all necessary rules and regulations.” The President’s General Order 94 of Aug. 4, 1862 called for 300,000 militia to serve for 9 months. States not meeting their quota by Sept. 3 (or Aug. 15 for the July 2 call) would be subject to a draft, the first instance of the federal government assuming the authority to draft in the United States. –The Secretary of War issued General Order 99 (Aug. 9), specifying that governor of each state was to enroll all able-bodied men 18 to 45. In Massachusetts, the state Adjutant General issued General Order 38 (Aug. 21), directing selectmen or other officials of each municipality to assemble an enrollment list of all eligible men. The order also provided for a drafting commissioner for each county and surgeons, to be appointed by the governor. They were to establish exemptions, such as for those already in the military, working on railroads, or with issues of age or poor health. –On Aug. 23, 1862, William Rogers was commissioned Second Assistant Adjutant General to administer the draft in Massachusetts. Rogers established each municipality’s quota based on the total number of able-bodied men before the war had started in 1861, as well as giving credit for the number of men it had already sent to the war effort.
Notes: Box 1: Berkshire. Essex. Box 2: Essex (ctd). Hampden. Norfolk. Box 3: Worcester
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Adjutant General’s Office: Middlesex County draft exemption book
Scope and Content: During the Civil War President Lincoln issued a call on July 2, 1862 for 300,000 men to serve for 3 years. The Federal Militia Act of July 17, 1862 authorized the president to call up state militias into national service for 9 months and “to make all necessary rules and regulations.” The President’s General Order 94 of Aug. 4, 1862 called for 300,000 militia to serve for 9 months. States not meeting their quota by Sept. 3 (or Aug. 15 for the July 2 call) would be subject to a draft, the first instance of the federal government assuming the authority to draft in the United States. –The Secretary of War issued General Order 99 (Aug. 9), specifying that governor of each state was to enroll all able-bodied men 18 to 45. In Massachusetts, the state Adjutant General issued General Order 38 (Aug. 21), directing selectmen or other officials of each municipality to assemble an enrollment list of all eligible men. The order also provided for a drafting commissioner for each county and surgeons, to be appointed by the governor. They were to establish exemptions, such as for those already in the military, working on railroads, or with issues of age or poor health. –On Aug. 23, 1862, William Rogers was commissioned Second Assistant Adjutant General to administer the draft in Massachusetts. Rogers established each municipality’s quota based on the total number of able-bodied men before the war had started in 1861, as well as giving credit for the number of men it had already sent to the war effort. –Massachusetts General Order 51 (Sept. 30, 1862) gave Oct. 15 as the final deadline before the draft was to proceed. The bounty was then increased to
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Adjutant General’s Office: Annual reports
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically.
Notes: Public document, no. 7. –Includes extra copy of 1864 report, of 1862 report of surgeon general, quartermaster general, and master of armory only. –Reports for 1847-1848, 1858, 1861, 1863, 1866, 1878, 1880 missing
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Adjutant General’s Office: Discharge register
Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength; these activities were intensified during the Civil War. This series identifies soldiers receiving a discharge upon leaving the ranks of Massachusetts Volunteers between Jan. 1863 and approximately May 1864.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by first letter of surname, thereunder chronologically
Notes: Presented to Archives by the United States Civil War Center; received June 19, 1997
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Adjutant General’s Office: List of soldiers receiving municipal bounties
Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength. During the Civil War these activities were intensified, particularly as they related to fulfillment of municipal recruitment quotas and determinations of entitlement to state aid and bounties. This series, probably prepared shortly after the war, consists of a list of soldiers receiving bounties from municipalities for military service.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by surname
Notes: Although the adjutant general had responsibility for militia pay records before, during, and after the Civil War, including this series, from Dec. 1864 (pursuant to General Order 51) such records were in the specific custody of the paymaster general until that office lapsed in 1866. Collated: 1865? Vol. 1 (Reel GSU 512): A-K. Vol. 2 (Reel GSU 513): L-Z; summaries of payments
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Adjutant General’s Office: Confirmations of Marine Corps service
Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength; these activities were intensified during the Civil War. This series of certificates, recruitment declarations, and correspondence documents the service activities of personnel of the U.S. Marine Corps during and after the war.
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Adjutant General’s Office: Rolls of detached units of the Massachusetts Militia
Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength. This series documents the administrative management of detached units of the Massachusetts Militia performing service during the War of 1812 on the Maine coast, where they were posted by the governor to defend against a threatened invasion by the British. –Intermittently the General Court acted to authorize payment of these troops by the adjutant general (e.g., Resolves 1812, c 158; Resolves 1813, c 105). Consisting of an assortment of payrolls, muster rolls, abstracts, copies of brigade orders and general orders, and other supporting items, documentation provided by this series was used primarily to validate payments to troops for service. It also served to confirm personnel in the respective militia units and to determine their strength. Information includes name of soldier, date of muster/pay, length of term, rank, amounts paid, arms and accouterments, and remarks. –At the back of the volume is a contemporary printed document entitled: Tables of pay and emoluments of the Army of the United States. It provides information on the rates of pay and subsistence costs of all categories of U.S. Army personnel. Also laid in the back are several loose rolls and related correspondence made available by Frank E. Dresser in 1930.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically, thereunder by military unit
Notes: Spine title: Letters to qr. ms. gen’l. and additional rolls of troop service
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Adjutant General’s Office: Clothing accounts
Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has general superintendency over military stores and property. These accounts, kept for federal authorities during the Civil War, detail uniforms and other clothing issued during the war.
Arrangement: Arranged numerically by military unit (regiment/company), thereunder by officer rank, then by soldier, in each group alphabetically by surname
Notes: Held by the Record and Pension Division of the U.S. War Dept. until transferred to the Adjutant General’s Office, 194-? Series incomplete. Includes regiments for Cavalry 1-4; Heavy Artillery 1-4, 11th battalion; Light Artillery 1, 5-7, 9; Infantry 2, 5, 11, 17-20, 23-25, 25 unassigned, 27-40, 56-59, 61.
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