Civil War: Governor Morton Telegraph Books

Introduction

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton's staff recorded thousands of the governor's incoming and outgoing telegrams in small, bound books. The governor and his staff communicated by telegraph with the highest and most prominent government and military leaders in the North, including President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, United States Senators and Representatives, other Northern state governors, and generals commanding in all the theaters of operations. As perhaps the most influential of the Northern state governors during the Civil War, Morton exerted significant influence over federal policies and military planning. A tireless worker for Union victory, he communicated his ideas, plans, news, and opinions by telegraph wires to other leaders to shape war policy. As such, these volumes may be the best documentation of an important Northern governor during the Civil War to survive. The physical Civil War Governor Morton Telegraph books are located at the Indiana State Archives, who collaborated with IUPUI University Library to make this digitization project possible.

Uses of the Telegraph Books

Researchers will find many uses of these messages. Historians studying politics and military planning at the highest levels of federal and state government during the Civil War will find many important communications. Persons studying the organization and actions of Indiana volunteer regiments and batteries will gain useful insights. Biographers, local historians, and genealogists will all learn much from consulting these records.

Arrangement

Morton's secretaries copied his outgoing and incoming messages inchronological order on opposite pages of the books, allowing them tofind corresponding messages quickly and easily. Messages to and fromPresident Lincoln, cabinet secretaries, and Generals Grant, Halleck,Sherman, Rosecrans, Buell, and Burnside were often copied into volumeslabeled "Department Telegrams," with the more local messages copiedinto "General Telegrams" books. However, in the rush of officebusiness, often during great crises like Bragg's advance on Louisvilleand Cincinnati in 1862 or the Morgan Raid in 1863, messages thattypically would appear in "Department" books were copied into "General"books, and vice versa.

Please note that the volumes overlap chronologically: in severalcases more than one telegraph book records messages from the same timeperiod. So messages, both Departmental and General, from a certain datemay appear in more than one volume. This interactive timeline shows therange of date coverage of each of the telegraph books:

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This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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Indiana State Archives

The Indiana State Archives is the official repository of Indiana government records of permanent historical and legal significance. It principally contains records generated by state government and state agencies, but also holds many county and local government records. Records of the executive, legislative and judicial branches begin in the 1790s and include papers of every governor; bills, acts and reports of the General Assembly; and proceedings of both the supreme and appellate courts. The lives of Indiana citizens are recorded in the many ways they intersect with government including military service, naturalization procedures, the state land office and state institutions. IUPUI University Library has collaborated with the Indiana State Archives to digitize the telegraph correspondence of Governor Oliver P. Morton, governor during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Online Collection:Civil War: Governor Morton Telegraph Books

How to Use This Collection

Keyword Search

To perform a keyword search using the yellow navigation bar at the top of the screen, enter search terms in the "Keyword Search" box. This box is an automatic "and" search, meaning results obtained will contain all of the words entered in the search box. For example, if you put in the box: Lincoln Morton, the results will include books that have both Lincoln and Morton. Do not enter the Boolean operators "and", "or", or "not" because they are not supported here and will hinder search results.

Advanced Search

Use the Advanced search to search by a certain field. To do this click on "Advanced Search" and add Civil War - Governor Morton Telegraph Books to "Selected Collections" in the bottom area of the screen. At the top of the page, click on "Selected fields" and pick a field to search using the drop-down menu. Clicking on "show terms" will display a box with a list of terms to choose from. For example, this kind of search could yield books that contain messages where Morton is the Message Sender and Lincoln is the Message Recipient. You may also perform proximity searches using the Advanced Search screen.

Browsing

Researchers can also simply "open" a telegraph book and begin to read. To do so, choose "Browse This Collection" and click on the thumbnail or the title of a book from the list.

Viewing a Book

The telegraph book pages are displayed as individual PDFs. You may use the Acrobat functions to zoom in, scroll across, and print the images. To the left of the book image is the navigation pane. This pane shows you a list of pages within the book. Any pages highlighted in red are pages that contain search result hits. The "Search this object" box enables you to search within that particular book. Below the search box is the "View" menu. By selecting a drop-down menu option and hitting "go", the display in the image window will change. "Document description" view will display information about the book you are viewing, including title and subjects. "Page description" view shows the information that is specific to that page only. These descriptions are what is searched when a Keyword or Advanced Search is executed. Each page description shows dates, senders, receivers, and subjects addressed on the page. In order to return to an image from either the document or page view, just click on a page title in the navigation pane. The "Page & text" view is not available for this collection.

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On navigation, etc.:

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On content:

A database compiled by staff of the Indiana State Archives may be instrumental when using this collection. This is the original source for the page descriptions used in this digital library and includes a date, correspondents (sender and to), book, page, and subject/name for each message in the collection. (Note: messages in the database that list no volume number but instead show an "S" are to be found on telegraph slips-the original forms used by the telegraph operators to write down messages-preserved at the Indiana State Archives. The contents of many of these slips were copied into the telegraph books, but many were not.) Visit the Indiana State Archives or contact Archives staff for further assistance.