Abstract of receipts and disbursements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. Total. Amount received. Balance July 1, 1877 $256, 888 84 $7,591 77 $451 50 July, 1877. August, 1877. September, 1877. October, 1877 1,941 87 8, 670 33 502 94 1,632 59 $950 59 $5,195 50 34,684 45 5,705 75 1,479 13 1,998 71 58,258 65 4, 182 35 3,047 80 $1,565 45 $243 46 March, 1878. 3,729 37 April, 1878. 6,682 80 2, 772 27 3,438 54 May, 1878. June, 1878 6, 690 71 1,815 19 5, 942 20 1, 844 41 2,308 62 5, 719 72 1,075 15 1,667 04 2,777 48 91 96 188 24 1. 454 13 FREEDMEN'S BRANCH, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE. 535 REPORT ON PUBLICATION OF WAR RECORDS. WAR DEPARTMENT, PUBLICATION OFFICE WAR RECORDS 1861–265, SIR: I have the honor to report that the work of preparing the cords of the War of the Rebellion for publication is progressing as atisfactorily, in my opinion, as attending circumstances will permit, nd much progress had been made when I took charge of the office in anuary last. The further prosecution of the work is embarrassed by a rant of sufficient and suitable office-room for the accommodation of the opyists and assorting of the records, by want of competent assistants o verify copy, and to some extent by the fact that Congress has not yet etermined the manner in which the records are to be published. It is of the utmost importance that the records be accurately pubished; and absolute accuracy can, in my judgment, only be secured by utting them in print under the immediate direction of those familiar with the names of persons and places concerned, and with military terms, and who are zealously interested in this special work. Many of the ecords can be copied in print directly from the original manuscript at out little, if any, greater cost than is involved in the ordinary process of opying, and with the advantage that the printed copies can be multilied at an inappreciable cost and be distributed to various places for safe-keeping. These original manuscripts cannot well pass from the ustody of the department, and I have therefore asked for a limited. umber of printers to work under my own or my successor's immediate direction. The Union records filed in the department are probably as complete as they can ever be; but the Confederate records are by no means complete. Additions are being made to them from time to time, and under the policy adopted by yourself I believe that all the most important missng documents will be secured to the use of the United States. Under hese circumstances I have been devoted more particularly to an examnation of the Union records, and those for 1862 and 1863 are now under scrutiny. In my opinion the Confederate records for 1861 are sufficiently complete to justify an attempt to publish all the records for that year; just what links are missing can be determined and searched for when the compilation is made. I therefore suggest that Congress be requested to determine the manner in which the work is to be published, and venture to suggest, for your better judgment, that such publication should give the records, as nearly as may be, in chronological order; that the correspondence, orders, and reports relating to any battle or campaign should be arranged so as to give a complete history of the events to which they relate; and that, by all means, both the Union and the Confederate |