RECORDS OF THE RENT COMMISSION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (RECORD GROUP 132) The Rent Commission of the District of Columbia was created by an act of October 22, 1919, as an emergency agency with authority to fix fair and reasonable rentals for dwellings, apartments, hotels, and business properties in the District of Columbia; prescribe standard forms of leases; and recover, through actions in municipal court, rents collected in excess of amounts fixed by the Commission. The establishing act provided for terminating the Commission on October 22, 1921, but subsequent statutes extended its life to May 22, 1925. After that date prosecution of pending cases was vested in the Attorney General and was handled at his direction by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. By June 1928 all rent actions had been resolved and the records were transferred to the Department of Justice. Case papers filed in appeals to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, 1925-28, are among the records of district courts of the United States (see RG 21.) There are 7 cubic feet of records dated between 1920 and 1925 in this record group. RECORDS. 1920-25. 8 lin. ft. These consist chiefly of minutes, 192325, a final report, 1925, general correspondence, 1920-25, and copies of records relating to cases taken to the Court of Appeals and to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, 1923 24. OTHER GOVERNMENTS WAR DEPARTMENT COLLECTION OF The War Department Collection of Confederate Records consists of records of the Confederate States of America acquired by capture or surrender at the close of the Civil War and those later acquired by donation or purchase. On July 21, 1865, the Secretary of War established a unit in the Adjutant General's Office for the collection, safekeeping, and publication of the "rebel archives." The records were used in protecting the U.S. Government against claims arising from the war, in establishing pension claims, and for historical purposes. After many changes both in location and custody, the records were placed in the Organization Records Section of the Old Records Division of the Adjutant General's Office, from which they were transferred to the National Archives. Certain Federal records relating to Confederate soldiers, maintained with the Confederate records and in part interfiled with them, are included in this record group. Also included are records created by the custodians of the records. See Dallas Irvine, "The Fate of Confederate Archives," American Historical Review, 44: 823841 (July 1939); Irvine, "The Archive Office of the War Department; Repository of Captured Confederate Archives," Military Affairs, 1: 93-111 (Spring 1946); and Carl L. Lokke, "The Captured Confederate Archives Under Francis Lieber," American Archivist, 9: 277-319 (October 1946). There are 5,730 cubic feet of records. dated between 1860 and 1867 in this record group. COLLECTED BOUND RECORDS In 1881 the first of the 129 volumes of The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies was published. To facilitate this publication and to make the records more usable for researches regarding claimants and pension applications, the offices having custody of the Confederate archives classified the bound volumes roughly according to provenance into subgroups designated "chapters," the volumes numbered serially in each chapter. The volumes consist of diverse records of varying importance, such as letters, telegrams, and endorsements sent; registers of letters received; orders, circulars, regulations, and other issuances; records of appointments, promotions, discharges, and other personnel actions; account books; and records of receipts, requisitions, and inventories of supplies. The chapters into which the volumes were classified are I, Adjutant and Inspector General's Department; II, Mil itary Commands; III, Engineer Department; IV, Ordnance Department; V, Quartermaster Department; VI, Medical Department; VII, Legislative Records; VIII, Miscellaneous Records; IX, Office of the Secretary of War; X, Treasury Department; XI, Post Office Department; and XII, Judiciary. UNBOUND CORRESPONDENCE, PAPERS, AND REPORTS. 1861-65. 670 lin. ft. Most of the records are those of the Confederate War Department and consist of reports, letters, and telegrams received chiefly by the Offices of the Secretary of War, the Adjutant and Inspector General, the Quartermaster General, and territorial commands and armies. Other records include inspection and battle reports, orders and circulars, and a collection of officers' papers. There are some records of other executive departments, such as Treasury Department returns relating to the war tax, and also documents relating to vessels owned or chartered by the Navy Department. In addition there are South Carolina District Court sequestration case files and some legislative records, including bills and resolutions, messages from the President, and rough journal notes. Much correspondence relating to particular officers or enlisted men was removed from the letters received and other series and filed in the compiled military service records. Original documents selected for publication in the War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies were placed in a "publication file," arranged in the order in which the documents were published. CONFEDERATE ARMY ROLLS Most of the muster rolls, payrolls, and returns of the Confederate Army are for organizations connected with a Con federate State. There are similar rolls and returns for organizations raised directly by the Confederate Government and not identified with a State. The rolls list name, rank, age, date of joining for duty, and similar information for persons mustered into the service, and are supplemented by clothing, commutation, extra-duty, and hospital rolls and casualty lists. Information relating to the military service and medical treatment of individual soldiers contained in the rolls was abstracted on cards and placed in the compiled military service records. CONFEDERATE PAYROLLS. 1861-65. 120 lin. ft. These consist of receipts of payment for civilian labor, with the name of employing officer, place of employment, name and occupation of employee, period of service, and rate and amount of pay on each roll; and slave payrolls with similar information and name of owner, with his or his attorney's signature for receipt of wages. COMPILED MILITARY SERVICE These records and their name indexes were compiled by the War Department beginning in 1903. They consist of a jacket-envelope for each Confederate soldier labeled with his name, rank, and unit in which he served. The jacket-envelope typically contains card abstracts of entries relating to the soldier as found in original muster rolls, returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital rolls and registers, Union prison registers and rolls, parole lists, inspection reports, and similar records; and the originals of any papers relating to the particular soldier. The series of compiled service records for soldiers is arranged in three subseries filed in jacket-envelopes. The first includes men who served in organizations connected with one of the Confederate States. The second includes men who served in organizations raised directly by the Confederate Government and not identified with any one State. The third is for general and staff officers and nonregimental enlisted men. There is also a series consisting of card abstracts and personal papers accumulated by the War Department to be interfiled with the regular series of compiled service records. There are three similar, but very small, series of compiled service records for naval and marine personnel. DOCUMENTS RELATING TO These documents relate to Confederate citizens, railroads, newspapers, and companies doing business with the Confederate Government. The file was compiled by the U.S. War Department and contains original documents, with crossreferences to other compiled records and to the bound records. Most of the material was originally included in money accounts of Confederate quartermasters, commissaries, and other disbursing officers that had been settled or were in the process of being settled by the Confederate Treasury Department. UNITED STATES RECORDS RELATING TO CONFEDERATES. 1861-67. 900 lin. ft. These consist of prisoner-of-war records, chiefly of Union prisons in which Confederate soldiers were confined, and include prison registers and rolls, records of arrivals, commitments, transfers, deaths, paroles, and prisoners desiring to take oaths of allegiance to the United States (information from many of these records was abstracted on cards and placed in the compiled military service records); and Union provost marshals' records relating to such matters as charges, arrests, and detentions of persons suspected of aiding or spying for the enemy or violating military orders, persons claiming compensation for property used or seized by Union military authorities, and persons requesting passes to cross the lines into the Confederacy or permits to visit persons in prisons. See Elizabeth Bethel, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the War Department Collection of Confederate Records, PI 101 (1957). Microfilm Publications: Numerous series of these records are available as microfilm publications. Among them are the letters and telegrams sent and received by the Confederate Secretary of War, the Adjutant and Inspector General, and Quartermaster Generals; and the compiled service records of Confederate soldiers and related indexes, selected records relating to Confederate prisoners of war, and papers relating to civilians and business firms. For a complete listing see the current List of National Archives Microfilm Publications. TREASURY DEPARTMENT COLLECTION OF Although most Confederate treasury records that came into the possession of the U.S. Government passed into and remained in the custody of the War Department (see RG 109), some were acquired by the Treasury Department through special agents appointed to regulate commerce in areas recaptured by Federal forces and to superintend captured and abandoned Confederate property. These records were supplemented by purchases in 1872 and 1873 and the transfer of a small quantity of records from the War Department. This collection comprises records of the central office of the Treasury Department, records of local officials of the Treasury and Justice Departments and of State governments, records of the War Department's Trans-Mississippi Department cotton bureaus, and records of the U.S. Treasury Department relating mainly to attempts after the war to secure Confederate property abroad. Indexes prepared after the records were acquired by the U.S. Treasury Department are included. The Confederate Treasury Department was established February 21, 1861, by an act of the Confederate Congress. Its internal structure, patterned after that of the Federal Treasury, included Offices of the Secretary of the Treasury, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer, Comptroller, First, Second, and Third Auditors, Register, Commissioner of Taxes, and Deposit; and the Produce Loan, Treasury Note, and Lighthouse Bureaus. Department field officers included assistant treasurers; collectors of customs; superintendents of the mints; tax officials; employees of the Produce Loan, Treasury Note, and Lighthouse Bureaus; and agents assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department cotton bureaus. Duties of these officers were the receipt and disbursement of public funds; sale and distribution of bonds and stocks; purchase and transportation of cotton and other supplies; printing of treasury notes, stocks, and bonds; collection of taxes and customs; and maintenance of lighthouses and lightships. There are 102 cubic feet of records dated between 1861 and 1865 in this record group. RECORDS. 1861-65. 122 lin. ft. Central office records include letters received and sent by the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury and financial and accounting records relating to loans, expenses of Members of the House of Representatives, naval and army accounts, military claims, diplomatic accounts, post office accounts, and customs and internal taxes. Field records relate to cotton transactions, produce loans, loan certificates, and customs, including cargo manifests. For the southern district of Georgia and the eastern district of Texas there are district court records relating to sequestered property; there are also admiralty and criminal case files for the latter court. Records of the Trans-Mississippi Department Headquarters Office of the Cotton Bureau and the cotton bureau at Houston include cotton transactions and related correspondence. Records relating to the Federal Government's attempts to obtain title to Confederate property abroad include correspondence relating to foreign loans, including the Erlanger loan, and to the construction of ships. See Carmelita S. Ryan, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Treasury Department Collection of Confederate Records, PI 169 (1967); and Beers, Confederate Guide (1968). Microfilm Publications: Letters Received by the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, 1861-1865, M499, 57 rolls, DP; and Letters Sent by the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, 1861-1865, M500, 1 roll, DP. RECORDS OF FORMER RUSSIAN AGENCIES (RECORD GROUP 261) This collective record group consists of records of certain agencies of the Imperial Russian Government that later came into the possession of the Department of State. The Russian-American Company was |