The index below contains sample references to Mississippi in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, commonly referred to as the O.R. There is an interesting history of the compilation of the O.R. at the National Archives that explains how we got to the point of such a confusing index.
The On Line edition of the O.R. follows the numbering scheme of the original, and the index below cites the same numbering scheme. In order to find a particular entry, you will need to translate the Series, Vol., Part # to a particular serial numbered volume and check the index of the particular book to find the page number(s) of the information you're looking for.
All this is much easier to do with the CD-ROM which has a keyword search engine, but here's an example for using the index below and the on-line records at Ohio State University.
The first citation in the index below is for the Confederate Steam Ship Mississippi which is mentioned in Series I, Vols. 6, 15, and 53.
Click Here to access my Volume Cross Reference to the series and volumes.
Note that:
Series I, Vol. 6 is serial # 6
Series I, Vol. 15 is serial # 21
Series I, Vol. 53 is serial # 112
Go to the index for each particular volume which is located in the back of the book. You will need to browse through the index until you find the Mississippi entries. For the first entry above (Series I, Vol. 6), the particular page in the index turns out to be page 936. Here you will find that this single volume contains 27! citations to the C.S.S. Mississippi:
A plus sign (+) in the index indicates there is information in the Correspondence Volume for the book and Roman Numerals, II, III, and IV indicates volumes of that series.
You can then go to each page on line at Ohio State University and read the information regarding the C.S.S. Mississippi.
Click Here for information on ordering the CD-ROM.
Mississippi, C.S.S., Series I, Vols. 6, 15, 53.
Mississippi, Steamer, Series I, Vols. 6, 14, 15+, 32, 34, 35, 41, 49, 53;II, 4.
Mississippi, U.S.S., Series I, Vols. 6, 15+, 24, 26, 52, 53;II, 2, 5.