The National Park Service (NPS) was formed on August 25, 1916, and is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. The National Park Service publishes various reports and documents each year about environmental issues, park safety, and specific parks around the country. These publications include titles like: Vegetation of Shark Slough, Everglades National Park, Status of Woody Species in Big Cyprus National Preserve, and The Nest Environment of the American Crocodile.

For 11 years, I was closely associated with the Cairo project, and I know how difficult it is to place the undertaking in its proper perspective and to dispassionately evaluate its historical significance. I was accordingly delighted to learn that Virgil Carrington Jones, who needs no introduction to readers interested in Civil War partisan operations and action afloat, had agreed to chronicle the story of the Cairo and her rendezvous with destiny on the Yazoo in December 1862; and that Harold L. Peterson, whose publications on arms and armament are legion, would survey, describe, and evaluate the thousands of artifacts recovered. Jones and Peterson, as the readers of this booklet will discover, have written of the Cairo and her treasure trove of artifacts with keen insight and understanding. Their accounts will spark the reader's interest, and, in conjunction with the salvaged objects themselves, lead to a better understanding of how bluejackets lived and fought in our Civil War. Edwin C. Bearss Chief Historian National Park Service