History - Primary Sources: Civil War & Reconstruction

Documents antebellum and Civil War-era history of American Baptists, both North and South.

Click "Exhibition" and page through using the "Next" links (lower right of the page) to see various images and primary documents. (National Library of Medicine)

The American Battlefield Trust preserves America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters.

Selected materials digitized from the LSU Special Collections.(Louisiana State Univ.)

Primary sources, photos, and battle maps (including modern, historical, and even animated maps). (Civil War Preservation Trust)

Easiest way to access primary content: scroll down in menu on left and use "Browse Soldiers" or "Search Letters".

Uses contemporaneous articles & images from The Times (New York Times)

Includes 1864-1865 newspapers from D.C.; medical and surgical cases from the The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion; slaveholders' petitions for compensation, 1862; photographs; maps; and downloadable data sets. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Some primary documents related to Delaware's involvement in the Civil War. Includes documents related to colored troops, as well as lists of soldiers killed, sick, wounded, paroled, etc. (State of Delaware)

Digital history projects providing new ways to visualize data on topics such as news dispatches; where, when, and how emancipation occurred; Virginia secession; black marriage and migration; slave markets; and elections. (Univ. of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab)

Digital library of primary sources (mostly books and journal articles) in American social history, from the antebellum period through reconstruction.

Compares Northern and Southern experience of the war through primary sources from two communities. (Virginia Center for Digital History)

Transcribed texts of the debates concerning Virginia's secession or support of the Union in 1861. Also includes data visualizations of secession votes by county and similar. (Univ. of Richmond)

Digitized edition of the War Department's official Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, published in 1895. Contains more than 1,000 maps, illustrations, and diagrams detailing battlefield maps, scenes from the conflict, and military equipment. (Baylor Univ.)

Get help starting your research on the Civil War and Reconstruction: where and how to find books, articles, primary sources, and more.

Find primary sources on the web that specifically relate to slavery and its abolition.