Excerpt from The Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65: The Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James

In preparing this narrative I have met with great and unexpected difficulties from the incomplete condition of the files of the War Department in the matter of the official reports of Corps, Division, and Brigade commanders. So many officers of high command were killed and wounded during the campaign, the movements by day and night, the battles, actions, and close contact with the enemy were so unceasing, that there was but little time for the preparation of reports, and to this day many of them, if prepared, have not been received at the War Department. The despatches become therefore the more important, but the files of these are not complete.

All the Reports, Returns, orders, despatches, and papers of every kind in the War Department, including the Confederate Archives, have been placed at my disposal by authority of the Secretary of War, and I am under many obligations to General Drum, Adjutant-General, and Colonel R. N. Scott, in charge of the preparation of the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" for publication.

Major-General Hancock has furnished me with a complete printed set of the reports made by him during the war.

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