Thanks to Bryan Howerton for an *excellent* discussion of Confederate records, especially in the Trans-Mississippi. I would just like to add that in addition to crippling paper shortages, the Confederates often were short of ink and, of all things, pencils. In late 1862, Thomas Hindman's Trans-Mississipi Army in the Fort Smith-Van Buren area ran out of pencils. Hindman himself had to issue directives regarding rationing of pencils. Yet another reason, albeit probably a rather minor one, why Confederate records at all levels tend to be less than complete.