{"value"=>"<p>Letters received from officers of regiments enlisting early in the war, regarding the nativities of men under their command. Also present is a letter register. As part of the Bureau’s investigation, towards the end of the war, into the nativities of U.S. soldiers, clerks transcribed the state, region, or country of a soldiers' birth from original muster rolls. Early in the war, however, a soldier's nativity was not often recorded on the muster rolls. In their post-war efforts to fill this informational gap, Bureau staff sent form letters to those officers requesting an estimate of the nativities of soldiers under their command.</p> <p>States represented among the numbered letters are Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. The Statistical Bureau arranged the letters by state in that order, following their standard geographical arrangement pattern, and then numbered them sequentially 1-281. Letters are in no particular order within.</p> <p>Unnumbered letters, which are not represented in the register, refer to the German nativities of Missouri regiments. Included is a letter dated June 22, 1867 from Major General Franz Sigel.</p> <p>The letter register should be consulted for item level access to numbered items and general analysis of data collected. Entries for each letter, in numerical order, provide identification of the regiment and commanding officer, a synopsis of the letter, and tabulated data as to the number of soldiers within each of seven different nativities: Native Americans (born in the United States); British Americans; English; Irish; German; Other Foreigners; Foreigners Not Otherwise Designated; and, totaled nativities.</p> <p>Also present are lists of officers' addresses for New York and Pennsylvania regiments, which Statistical Bureau clerks likely used to contact officers for this investigation.</p>"}