Civil War
Army and Navy Journal and Gazette 1864-1865

832 pages of the "United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces," archived on CD-ROM.

Sometimes called "Army and Navy Journal" or "Armed Forces Journal," these 52 issues date from August 27, 1864 to August 19, 1865. The Army and Navy Journal was the nation's leading military journal of the time.

A significant aspect of the developing military professionalism that came as an outgrowth of the Civil War, was the founding of professional associations and journals. Notable among them were the United States Naval Institute, founded in 1873, whose Proceedings would become well known; the Military Service Institution of the United States, whose Journal would become a casualty of World War I; the United States Cavalry Association, which published the Cavalry Journal; and the Association of Military Surgeons, which published The Military Surgeon. In 1892 the Artillery School at Fort Monroe founded The Journal of the United States Artillery; and in 1893 a group of officers at Fort Leavenworth founded the Infantry Society, which became the United States Infantry Association the following year and later published the Infantry Journal. Earlier, in 1879, United Service began publication as a journal of naval and military affairs.

Still earlier, in 1863, the Army and Navy Journal, as it came to be called, began a long run. It was not just a professional journal like the others mentioned. The Army and Navy Journal, along with its social and other items about service personnel, carried articles, correspondence, and news of interest to military people that helped bind its readers together in a common professional fraternity. The Army and Navy Journal and Gazette first date of issue was August 29, 1863.

In addition to major Civil War events, the Army Navy Journal covered stories of court martials, obituaries, official dispatches from the War Department, appointments, list of AWOLs, foreign military matters, editorials and advertisements.

The Journal included reprints of articles from Confederate publications. Southern newspapers including the Greensboro Journal, Richmond Dispatch, Richmond Enquirer, Richmond Sentinel and Atlanta Constitutionist.

Key Civil War events occurring during the period of these 52 issues of the Army and Navy Journal include:

August 1864: Democrats nominate George B. McClellan for president to run against Republican incumbent president Abraham Lincoln.

September 1864: After forcing the Confederate army of John Bell Hood out of Atlanta, Georgia, General William T. Sherman captures the city, a major munitions center for the South.

October 1864: A Union victory at Cedar Creek ends the Confederate threat in the Shenandoah Valley.

November 1864: Lincoln is reelected President, with Andrew Johnson as Vice President, defeating Democrat George B. McClellan. After destroying Atlanta's warehouses and railroad facilities, Sherman leaves Atlanta and begins his "march to the sea," in an attempt to demoralize the South and hasten surrender.

December 1864: General George Henry Thomas leading 55,000 federal troops including African-American troops, wins the Battle of Nashville, decimating John Bell Hood's 23,000 member Confederate Army of Tennessee. Savannah falls to Sherman's army without resistance.  Sherman sends president Lincoln a telegram offering the city to Lincoln as a Christmas present.

January 1865: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which when ratified, abolishes slavery throughout the United States.

February 1865: President Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens hold a peace conference at Hampton Roads in Virginia. The peace conference fails and the Civil War continues. Columbia, South Carolina, is almost completely destroyed by fire, most likely set by Sherman's troops.

March 1865: President Lincoln is inaugurated as President for a second term. General Robert E. Lee orders his Army of Northern Virginia to attack Grant's forces at Petersburg. The attack is repelled and four hours later, Lee's last offensive move of the Civil War is ended. The Appomattox campaign begins, with Grant's move against Lee's defenses at Petersburg, Virginia.

April 1865: Petersburg falls, and the Confederate government evacuates its capital, Richmond. Confederate corps commander Ambrose Powell Hill is killed in action while attempting to rally his men. Union troops occupy Richmond. President Lincoln tours Richmond, where he enters the Confederate White House. Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.. John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln at Ford's Theater; Secretary of State William H. Seward is stabbed and wounded in an assassination attempt inside his Washington home. Lincoln dies, and Andrew Johnson is inaugurated as President. Joseph E. Johnston surrenders to William T. Sherman in North Carolina; John Wilkes Booth is shot in a tobacco barn in Virginia and dies.

May 1865: Jefferson Davis is captured and taken prisoner near Irwinville, Georgia. In New Orleans, terms of surrender are offered to General E. Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department. His acceptance on June 2 formally ends Confederate resistance, during which 620,000 Americans died.

June 1865: All eight conspirators are convicted for the assassination of President Lincoln; four are sentenced to death.
 

The disc contains a text transcript of all recognizable text embedded into the graphic image of each page of each document, creating a searchable finding aid. Searches can be conducted across all issues on the disc.