Edwin McMasters Stanton Civil War Papers. The papers of lawyer and Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton (1814-1869) span the years 1818-1921, with the bulk of the material originating between 1862 and 1870. The papers focus chiefly on Stanton's tenure as secretary of war under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and stress his role in the Union victory over the Confederacy and the first phase of Reconstruction. As revealed by his extensive correspondence, both the small and large tasks of winning the war came frequently within Stanton's purview. In addition to information on the reorganization of the War Department immediately after his arrival, there are reports from various state and departmental command posts, communications about army morale and discipline, and orders concerning the exchange of prisoners, the use of former slaves as soldiers, and the policies to be employed in occupied territories. The collection consists of correspondence, letterbooks, a draft of the annual report of the secretary of war for 1863, and the March 1862 proceedings of the War Board. Interspersed among the bound correspondence, which makes up most of the collection, are battle maps, reports, charts, and printed matter.

 (Page count: 9,000)

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