U.S. Military History Resources

[Airbornelawyer]

The thread on Sherman's March reminded me that I was going to post this list a while back, but forgot.

Google Books has begun digitizing and posting older books which are in the public domain or whose copyrights have expired. Many are readable online or are downloadable as PDFs. All of the books I have identified below are fully available, at least in the U.S., though some might not be available through foreign IPs, presumably because Google is unsure about their copyright status in other countries.

The first series of books below relates to biographical resources on the armed forces of the United States. They are registers of officers of the services of the United States for the periods indicated. The books cover several periods, from the American Revolution through the 19th Century. 20th century registers and the like are generally unavailable as they are still under copyright or otherwise haven't been digitized.

• Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution - 685 pages, 43.2 mB, originally published in 1914

• Historical Register of the United States Army: From Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to September 29, 1889 - 928 pages, 58.1 mB, originally published in 1890

• Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army: From Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903 - 1094 pages, 62.3 mB, originally published in 1903

• Powell's Records of Living Officers of the United States Army - 689 pages, 52 mB, published in 1890

• General Register of the United States Navy and Marine Corps: Arranged in Alphabetical Order, for One Hundred Years (1782 to 1882) - 993 pages, 33.0 mB, originally published in 1882

• Register of the Commissioned, Warrant and Volunteer Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and Others to January 1, 1863 - 32.9 mB, originally published in 1863

• Register of the Commissioned, Warrant and Volunteer Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and Others to January 1, 1865 - 46.3 mB, originally published in 1865

• Official Army Register for 1848

• Official Army Register for 1850

• Official Army Register for 1853

• Official Army Register for 1864

• Official Army Register for 1865

• Official Army Register for January 1880

• Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military and Naval, in the Service of the United States on the Thirtieth of September 1873 - originally published in 1874; covers civilian officials of the U.S. government as well as military

• Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, Volume I - 35.3 mB, originally published in 1873; covers the Civil War

• Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, Volume II - 24.6 mB, originally published in 1873; covers the Civil War

• Official Army Register of the Volunteer Force of the United States Army for the Years 1861, '62, '63, '64, '65: Part IV: West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky (1865) - 282 pages, 10.7 mB, originally published in 1865; covers non-regular volunteer officers in the Civil War. Unfortunately, this is the only volume I could find, but it might be the most interesting since it covers Union officers from Confederate states.

• General Officers of the Confederate Army, Officers of the Executive Departments of the Confederate States, Members of the Confederate Congress by State - alternate link - 188 pages, 1.5 mB, published in 1911