(Webmaster Note: Sadly I just realized that the first one or two? pages of the introduction appear to be missing in this book. I will attempt to get a copy from another source and will add it when able.)

     (v.) depositing with the Adjutant General necessary postage to cover the expense of sending such book. Also complete sets to adjutants general of other states, and to state and United States public libraries upon application, and to such other libraries in this state as the Governor may approve, and may he purchased by any other persons who may apply at cost of publication.

     Section 3. So soon as the work of preparation and compilation of the historical records herein provided for shall have progressed sufficiently near completion to enable printers and binders to make accurate estimates of the cost of publication, the Adjutant General shall serve a written notification of that fact on the Board of State Auditors; upon such notification, at the earliest practicable moment, the Board of State Auditors is hereby directed to solicit sealed bids for the publication, printing and binding of forty-five thousand volumes of  "A Record of Michigan Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Rebellion, Eighteen Hundred Sixty-one to Eighteen Hundred Sixty-Five," and give public notice of the time and place for receiving such bids and the requirements of the contract in acordance with this act by publishing the same in such paper or papers, and for such a period as will in the judgment of the board bring the subject to the attention of the several prominent publishing houses in this state: Provided, That the cost of such work complete shall not exceed fourteen thousand dollars for the printing, binding and delivery of the entire edition herein provided for; and the standard of excellence in quality of material, style of binding, typography and style of printing shall be equal to that used by the state of Massachusetts in its recent publication of "Massachusetts' Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War," copies of which are now on file in the Adjutant General's office of this state: Provided, further, That the apportionment of the copies of the different regimental volumes of the edition of forty-five thousand volumes herein provided for, shall be in the same relative proportion as the total enrollment of the organizations represented in any single volume, bears to the total enrollment of the entire edition as provided for in this act; for which purpose the Adjutant General shall direct the preparation of, and furnish the Board of State Auditors with a comprehensive table of data, showing the total enrollment of the organization, and the total number of printed pages intended for each volume, and the apportionment of the total number of copies to each of such volumes, for the guidance of bidders for the contract of publishing such work.

     Immediately upon the approval of the act by the Governor, the Adjutant General commenced active preparations to compile the work as provided for in the bill. No state has been more generous than Michigan in trying to secure full and complete historical military data of her sons, who patriotically volunteered to defend the integrity of their country, and probably the records in the military department are as acurate and complete as any like records of any state in the Union. Yet with all the care and research that has been made, there are individual histories that are deficient in some particulars, owing to the fact that the returns from which they were copied were written in the field during active and protracted campaigns, when great battles were fought, and the movement of troops continued incessantly night and day, circumstances incompatible with accuracy, completeness and legibility, and by officers who succeeded suddenly in command by the death of their predecessors. The greater number who possessed the information desired have been removed by death, and their silent lips can never complete the unwritten history of their comrades.

     (vi.) It was sometimes impossible in the stirring times of war for commanding officers to give authentic and final history of men who disappeared in a great battle, as in many cases the bodies of the dead could not be found, and if possession of the field was yielded to the enemy the fate of those who were made prisoners of war could only, if ever, be learned through unreliable Confederate sources.

     For such heroes who died for their country and who sleep in nameless graves their epitaph is inscribed in this history as "Missing in action." A more honorable or heroic epitaph could not be penned. Thousands of the Union dead have been removed by the Government from the field where they fell, and their bodies have been placed in national cemeteries, beautified and adorned, as the mausoleum of the nation's defenders with appropriate monuments at their resting places.

     In order to complete some of the records of the Adjutant General's Office, which is the custodian of all the field returns of the Civil War, Governor Bliss made a request of the Secretary of War, seconded by Senators Burrows and Alger, asking that the incomplete, individual records of this office be completed, upon presentation by the Adjutant General, provided the War Department was in possession of the facts desired. For reasons which seemed sufficient to the Secretary of War, the request was denied.

     To supplement the records of this office so as to make each individual history complete as far as possible, blanks were prepared and sent to all the Grand Army Posts of the state, with the request that the names of all Michigan soldiers in the Post and vicinity be returned to the Adjutant General stating the residence, if living, and, if dead, the date of death and place of burial.

     Three hundred out of the three hundred and sixty Posts of the state responded, and the data gathered from these reports have been added to the official history shown by the records of this office. Without doubt there are some inaccuracies in these reports, but the majority of them are correct and will enable many ex-soldiers to locate their comrades, if living, and to know their resting places if dead.

     A request was also made of each superintendent of the eighty national cemeteries to forward to the Adjutant General the names of all Michigan soldiers buried in such cemeteries. A gratifying response was received, and these reports have been carefully compiled and added to the history of the soldier. These reports of the superintendents of national cemeteries tell a mournful story. The superintendent of the National Cemetery at Andersonville, Ga., reports the names of six hundred and forty-seven Michigan soldiers buried there, victims of Andersonville prison. There is scarcely a national cemetery in the United States that does not contain the bodies of Michigan soldiers, and a number of them as many as the cemetery at Andersonville, Ga.

     (vii) Near the close of the war there were many recruits at depots awaiting transportation to join regiments at the front, but when it was found their services would not be needed, many returned home without the formality of a muster out, and their final disposition was incomplete, and in many such cases shows "no further record."

     In the compilation of this work no pains have been spared and no research of the almost numberless field returns made forty years ago, has seemed too arduous to make the soldiers record absolutely complete if there were material existing to make this possible. That inaccuracies will appear is unavoidable from the nature of the work. The inaccuracies are not the result of careless clerical work in the Adjutant General's office, but are due to the hasty compilation of returns in the field, where names were misspelled and where the name of a soldier is spelled differently in the muster-in' and muster-out rolls.

     In cases where the name could not be verified as the correct one both are published. When inaccuracies appear in the record if the soldier will send his discharge papers to the Adjutant General, the corrections will be made in the official records of the office and the discharge papers promptly returned. It scarcely occurred to the officers who made their official returns to the different departments that forty years after the conflict, an individual history of each soldier who participated would be written. Had such been known then, the meagre and scant accounts of skirmishes, battles and sieges-many of them destined to be of world-wide fame-would have been extended and written out fully giving a comprehensive history of individuals, companies and regiments, a history that would be a priceless heritage today and to future generations.

     The hardships of a campaign, the duties exacted night and day, the constant attention to matters of vital importance, are not conducive to literary efforts of biography or general history. It is pathetic to know that thousands upon thousands of Union soldiers who participated in many of the most desperate battles of the Civil War, have no records of such battles to their credit in the official reports. A limited number were fortunate enough to have their names recorded by their officers as participating in such engagements.

     Whenever the official records have mentioned the battles in which the soldier fought, or wounds that he received, or promotions made, or any gallant and meritorious service, such record has been carefully noted and attached to the soldier's history. At the commencement of the work it was found that many soldiers saw service in more than one regiment, and as the appropriation contemplated but one volume to each man, the entire history of the soldier has been compiled under his name and placed in the volume where he served longest. The primary object of the whole work has been to group the comrades (viii) who served in the same regiment, with names arranged in alphabetical order, and present him with the volume containing his own military history and the history of those with whom he served.

     The soldiers who enlisted for three years and after serving two years re-enlisted in the field for "three years or during the war," have the distinctive and honorable title of "veteran" placed after their names.

     Careful enumeration has been made of the total enrollment of each regiment, together with the list of casualties.

     The work of compiling these individual histories has been long and arduous, but it has been one of gratification and satisfaction to record the gallant deeds of Michigan men who contributed so gloriously to the unity and perpetuity of the Union.