eReviews: The American Civil War Research Database (ACWRD)

Alexander Street Press, http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com/cwdb/

The American Civil War Research Database (ACWRD) is a searchable file of information on 4.3 million Civil War soldiers and thousands of battles, with over 16,000 photographs related to the conflict. The database holds all known regimental rosters (over 5000), nearly 3500 regimental chronicles, military records for every individual solider in the war, pension index records, 1860 census records, GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) records, Medal of Honor records, regimental histories, and over 1000 officer profiles, culled from newspaper reports, official records, personal accounts and ephemera, and cemeteries. The file also includes battle orders and descriptions of many battles, as well as reports for important battles throughout the conflict. The file is updated bimonthly, with over 35,000 records updated annually; hundreds of photographs are added annually as well. During the coming year, a Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War and records from Confederate Veteran magazine will be added to the file.

HOW DOES IT WORK? The Home page opens with a menu bar at screen top with links to Home, Soldiers, Regiments, Battles, Analysis, Bibliography, Help, and a single Search box. Beneath this bar are links to About (describing the file), Software Requirements, and a Database Status link (giving updated information on file content), as well as links to the Alexander Street Press History blog and RSS feed. Below these is a brief description of the file, and below that are Featured links to battles and regiments. The version reviewed featured the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment (Union); Cold Harbor, Virginia: May 20th, 1864 to June 12, 1864; 1st Arkansas Light Artillery Battery (Confederate); and Vicksburg, Mississippi: May 18, 1863 to July 4th, 1863.

CAN YOU USE IT? I started with my mother's kinsmen, first searching for Milks, and found 21 results under that surname. The list included the full names of each soldier and some of the following information for each: residence, rank, state served, enlist age, enlist date, enlist place, survived war, and allegiance. For that list of 21 soldiers, the spottiest information was "enlist place"; only four had listings. But of the 21, only two had "unknown" under whether or not they survived the war, and all had their rank and allegiance listed. That list was easy to browse, but my next search, for DeLong, found 414 results, too many to browse easily. So I tried Refining my search (an option displayed with results), which brought up a search screen that revealed the elements by which you can search for Soldiers in the file: last name, first name, allegiance, state, highest rank, and the ability to limit results to those including photos, listing on the Roll of Honor, or Medal of Honor recipient. When I refined my search by state (New York), I got a manageable result of 85, which was easy to scan by name and Enlist Place (present in many more records than Residence, not surprising since these are military records).

Another search (for Buffington) found 242 results; when I limited these to "includes photo" I got two—with very legible, printable photographs from State Rosters. I did wish I could search beyond the state level to the city/town residence level for soldiers, although given the dearth of information within the military records themselves that may not yield significant results.

Having done some soldier searches, I next tried a Regiment search, which lets you search by Regiment name and type—Band, Cavalry, Coast Guard, Engineers, Heavy Artillery, Hospital Guards, Infantry, Light Artillery, Mountaineers, Mounted Infantry, Pontooniers, Rifles, or Sharpshooters. I, of course, had to search for "Pontooniers" ("A person in charge of pontoons or the construction of pontoon bridges," according to the Oxford English Dictionary), and that brought up the 1st U.S. Volunteers Pontooniers Company, which was "organized on Feb 28 1865, at New Orleans, LA" and "mustered out on May 12 1866."

A search in Battles for Bull Run found the following: Bull Run Campaign, Bull Run Bridge, Bull Run, 2nd Bull Run Campaign, and 2nd Bull Run. I clicked on the Bull Run Campaign link and got a fascinating, nearly 2800-word report about the campaign, with its source listed at the end of the report at American Campaigns Vol. 1, p. 142. I had to go into the Bibliography and do a Control-F search for "american campaigns" to find the citation for the volume (Steele, Matthew Forney American Campaigns, Washington: Byron S. Adams, 1909), and that's something I suggest be changed in the file; it would make sense for the entry to link directly to the source (through a pop-up or by going into the bibliography) given that this is an online file.

The Analysis section of the file "consists of selected charts and reports on the dynamics of regiments and statistical information of personnel during the war (e.g., enlistment data by year and allegiance)" and is extremely interesting and detailed. Included is information on enlistees by year; statistics on numbers of soldiers commissioned, enlisted, or mustered in (including draftees and transfers); statistics on numbers of those killed or died of wounds, disease, or as prisoners; those discharged; deserters; and those mustered out-with active links to the regimental lists. This is where the enormity of the war losses really comes across, both on the individual level and the aggregated loss to the nation.

WHAT'S THE COST? The ACWRD is available through one-time purchase of perpetual rights or annual subscription. Annual subscriptions range from $810 to $1500, while outright purchase lists at $10,000. Considerable consortial discounts are available, and purchase can be as low as $5800 if your institution owns all of Alexander Street Press's Civil War series products.

HOW GOOD IS IT? I'd like to see a bit of tweaking in online functionality, but based on the content and what you can already get at easily here, the file deserves a solid 10 at the purchase price quoted. It's a bargain at lower, consortial prices.

BOTTOM LINE Essential for American history collections in academic and middle- to large-sized public libraries and all American history research institutions.