Confederate Vessel Papers at Young-Sanders Center

Roland Stansbury, Director of the Young-Sanders Center, announced that they have completed an index to 32 reels of information on the Confederate Vessel Paper.

The Vessel Papers? Here is what the Young-Sanders Center says about the Papers:

The “Vessel Papers” was one of several files created during the late 19th century to facilitate research in claims cases. Following the Civil War, Southern citizens filed claims seeking compensation for property losses allegedly inflicted by Union forces. The treasury and Justice Departments, Southern Claims Commission, Court of Claims, and congressional claims committees were involved in processing these cases, and all, upon occasion, required documentary evidence based upon the confederate records in War Department custody. If disloyalty of claimant could be established by documenting services performed for the Confederacy, the claim could then be disallowed at a great saving to the Government.