“History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5,” Samuel P. Bates, 1869-1871 (public domain).

“So long as differences arise among nations, which cannot be settled by peaceful conference, and appeals are made to the arbitrament of the sword, the only safety that remains to the government is in the courage of its soldiery. In the late sanguinary struggle, the national unity was preserved, and the perpetuity of democratic institutions secured, by the men who bore the musket, and who led in the deadly conflict. Argument and moral sentiment were at fault, diplomacy was powerless, and courage proved the only peacemaker.

“In recognition of their services, and as a mark of the appreciation in which their valor is held, the Legislature of Pennsylvania authorized the preparation of a record of each of the military organizations in the field since 1861.” 

— Samuel P. Bates, “Preface,” History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5

One of the first pieces of advice that archivists, librarians and professional genealogists will often give to descendants of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen when beginning their research of soldier-ancestors is to “Check Bates’ History,” which often results in descendants responding with, “What’s that?” and “Where Can I Find It?”

“Bates’ History” is, in fact, a five-volume series of books entitled, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Prepared in Compliance with Acts of the Legislature, that was researched, written and published during the mid-1860s through the early 1870s by Samuel Penniman Bates, an American educator and historian. Appointed in 1864 as state historian of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin, Bates was subsequently commissioned by the governor on June 1, 1866 to fulfill a legislative directive that “a military history of the organization of Pennsylvania volunteers and militia, who have been, or may be in the field” be researched, written and published for the public record. Bates was then given additional instructions by the Pennsylvania Legislature on April 17, 1867 “that the military history of the Pennsylvania volunteers … embrace an account of the organization, and services in the field, of each regiment, together with a roll giving the name, age, and residence of each officer and soldier, the date and term of enlistment, the promotions, the discharges, and casualties, and the places of burial of those who died in service.”

Thanks to that foresight by elected officials from Pennsylvania and Bates’ Herculean effort, generations of genealogists and academic historians have since visited historical societies and libraries across Pennsylvania and beyond to peruse increasingly worn copies of Bates’ books in order to learn more about the history of a specific regiment and confirm the names of that regiment’s leaders and rank and file members.

Access to Bates’ data was then made even easier by technological advancements in library science with the digitization of Bates’ books. As a result, family historians and other researchers no longer need to schlep to libraries to hunker down over their desired dusty tomes because Bates’ complete series has been accessible online, free of charge since 2012, thanks to HathiTrust, a collaborative effort between multiple academic institutions across the United States that is headquartered at the University of Michigan’s main campus in Ann Arbor. (“Go Blue!”)

This highly user-friendly format presented by HathiTrust allows users to not only read or browse each volume, but to also search for a specific soldier’s name by entering that name into the search textbox for the volume where that soldier’s name would most likely be located.

With respect to members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, that book would be Bates’ first volume. So, to find your 47th Pennsylvanian:

1. Pull up volume one of Bates;
2. Click on the downward-facing arrow of the black “Options” line near the top of the webpage you’re now seeing;
3. Click on “Search in This Text”;
4. Enter your ancestor’s name in that text box, between quotation marks, beginning with his last name, followed by a comma, one space, and his given name (example: “Clouser, Ephraim”); and
5. Click the magnifying glass.

That search should pull up a new webpage that lists the page(s) in Bates’ first volume on which your ancestor’s name might appear — if your ancestor actually did serve with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Each of those items on that list will have an active link that will take you to the specific page in Bates’ first volume on which your ancestor is listed (or may take you to a page on which someone who had the same name as your ancestor is listed; so double check the data to be sure you’re looking at data for the correct soldier).

But if your search does not pull up a page(s) with your ancestor’s name, it may mean that your ancestor did not actually serve with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry — or that Bates spelled your ancestor’s name incorrectly.

Caveat Emptor

“Let the buyer beware” — or in this case “Caveat Scholaris” (“Let the student beware.”) While Bates History can be a helpful starting point for research regarding the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, each volume in the series contains significant errors — understandable when considering that Bates was tasked with summarizing the myriad number of muster rolls generated by hundreds of Pennsylvania military units that were staffed by more than three hundred and sixty thousand soldiers from Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. (And many of those original muster rolls were filled with errors because the Union Army clerks assigned to maintain those rolls simply could not create or update records when their regiments were being moved from one duty station to another as they marched into, or retreated from, battlefields scattered throughout three theaters of war that spread across multiple states in the Union and Confederacy.)

That being said, Bates left future generations of Pennsylvanians with a useful, detailed and reasonably accurate record of Pennsylvania’s role in the American Civil War. So, by all means, use Bates’ History to further your research; just don’t rely on it as your sole source of data.

As you go about finding your 47th Pennsylvanian, always double check the new data you find against the regiment’s original muster rolls and against other sources, such as the individual U.S. Civil War Pension file(s) for your ancestor and his parents, widow and/or children — records that are often chock full of new data and are maintained by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. (More information about those pension records is available online here.)

Sources:

1. “A State History of Our Pennsylvania Regiments.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Daily Evening Telegraph, January 19, 1867.
2. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Prepared in Compliance with Acts of the Legislature, volumes 1-5. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869-1871 (full text search and browse options available through HathiTrust, University of Michigan).
3. Hodge, Ruth E. “Samuel Penniman Bates Papers, 1853-1895,” in “Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2000.
4. Royer, Douglas L. Guide to Civil War Holdings of the Pennsylvania State Archives. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives, 2001.