The majority of the series consists of regimental and company descriptive books and company morning reports and order books. An informant in the Adjutant General's office described the company descriptive records as “field logs,” while the regimental descriptive books, the red and blue muster rolls, were described as “official records.” According to this informant, the field logs were compiled by officers in action (presumably at both the company and regimental level) and returned to the Adjutant General's office for verification. These volumes are thought to have been acquired by the Adjutant General during the 1880s as part of that office's effort to correct and complete the records of individual Civil War soldiers. (See, for example, the note inside the morning reports of Company E, 26th Infantry.) A few records (those marked Wis Mss ZZ) were probably donated directly to the Historical Society. (Additional records that are similar in appearance and function to the company descriptive books are scattered through the SHSW Manuscript holdings, especially Wis Mss S.)
The descriptive books contain summary information on members of the unit, including age; place of birth; physical description; information on discharge, death, and desertion; and some remarks on military service. (A few descriptive volumes designated with an asterisk (*) in the container list include specific birthdates for members.) The order books are handwritten copies of orders issued by or to the unit's commander. The order book kept by Captain Edgar A. Meacham of Company F of the 30th Wisconsin is of special interest, for it documents the period when the company was on detached service at the Crow Creek Indian Agency in the Dakota Territory. This volume concerns troop movements, promotions, safeguarding and rationing of provisions, requests for medicine and citric acid for scurvy, payment for Indians, and passes to allow Dakota (Sioux) and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Indians to enter the agency store.
Other types of records are also present occasionally: monthly morning reports of companies of troops absent or present; hospital records containing official letters and orders, certificates for disabilities and furloughs, and rolls of soldiers on duty in the hospital; and lists of final effects. The records of James G. Knight, quartermaster of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry, consist of correspondence and many official forms such as invoices, subsistence accounts, abstracts of provisions, special requisitions, quarterly returns of hospital stores, and abstracts of issues to hospitals. The records of J.E. Murta, surgeon of the 8th Wisconsin Infantry, include vouchers for hospital and medical supplies, invoices, yearly and quarterly reports, muster-in rolls, inventories, and monthly statements of the hospital fund. (Photographs of Murta and members of the 8th Wisconsin have been separated to the Visual and Sound Archives). The 21st Wisconsin Infantry is also documented by a hospital record, 1862-1865, maintained by various surgeons assigned to the regiment. Included are copies of orders and correspondence, certificates of disability giving reasons for discharge and furlough, and lists of men assigned to extra duty in the hospital.
