Hello Ed, Although I don't know for a fact I believe those original records were photostated by General Ainsworth and his staff. So yes they are copies of the originals which were taken from various southern state records. The various southern states would have wanted back the original documents from my understanding.

Your comment made me realize something at the archives once. You must hit the cancel button on the xerox machine when your finished. I heard a researcher once telling the archives how nice it was not to charge for using the xerox machine. The employee said "Oh but we do" He had accidently used someone else's money as they had not hit the cancel button. Ouch!

Using General Ainsworth on google look at the site; Thank You! General Ainsworth. It was made by a National Archives employee from what I remember. It should explain a lot and is interesting. If I remember correctly the National Archives employee goes into great detail on how and when the CMSR's were made.