Resources

I have created a set of resources for students, historians, genealogists, and other researchers in Civil War history. One page contains links to digitized collections created by state and local entities. Other pages contain links to the letters, diaries and memoirs of Union and Confederate soldiers and sailors and civilians; open access newspaper databases and regimental histories; and links to Civil War photography websites. Below is a list of major databases related to the Civil War as well as a series of research guides.

Please feel free to email me about additional sources or broken links.

Major Databases

American Memory (Library of Congress)

FamilySearch.org

Making of America (Cornell University)

Making of America (University of Michigan)

Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina)

Windows on the Past (Cornell University)

National Archives: Archival Research Catalog

Library of Congress: Regimental Histories Collection

Union Army Data

Civil War on the Western Border

The Valley of the Shadow Project (University of Virginia)

Women Working Collection, 1800-1930 (Harvard University)

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection (Cornell University)

Secession Archive (University of Pennsylvania)

Freedmen and Southern Society Project (University of Maryland)

Digital Library on American Slavery (UNC-Greensboro)

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

Civil War @ Smithsonian

Civil War Trust

Ancestry.com Military Resources

Guide to Genealogy in Military Records

Research Guides

National Archives: Guide to Federal Records
This website contains a brief description and inventory of every record group held by the National Archives.

Making Sense of Evidence (George Mason University)
A series of essays and interviews that explain how to interpret various types of primary sources.

National Archives: Civil War Research Guide

National Park Service: Soldiers and Sailors Database
A searchable database containing information about the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War.

Guide to Research in Federal Judicial History (PDF)
A guide to historical records about the federal courts and federal cases.

Research Guide for Civil War Women (Middle Tennessee State University)

Manuscript Collections Related to Women and the Civil War (Duke University)

Yale Slavery and Abolition Portal
A useful starting place for research on American slavery.

U.S. Army Military History Institute: Reference Bibliographies
This website contains a bibliography for every Civil War regiment.

Essential Civil War Curriculum (Virginia Tech)