HIST 3100 Civil War and Reconstruction

American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

Documenting the American South (DocSouth), a digital publishing initiative sponsored by the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture. It supplies teachers, students, and researchers at every educational level with a wide array of titles they can use for reference, studying, teaching, and research.

Making of America (MOA) represents a major collaborative endeavor to preserve and make accessible through digital technology a significant body of primary sources related to development of the U.S. infrastructure. Funded originally by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, MOA sought to involve research institutions and national consortia to develop common protocols and consensus for the selection, conversion, storage, retrieval, and use of digitized materials on a large, distributed scale.

The Valley Project details life in two American communities, one northern and one southern, from the time of John Brown's Raid through the era of Reconstruction. In this digital archive you may explore thousands of original letters and diaries, newspapers and speeches, census and church records, left by men and women in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The Valley Project tells forgotten stories of life during the era of the Civil War.

Inspired by conscience and guided by principle, abolitionists took a moral stand against slavery that produced one of America’s greatest victories for democracy.

Historian Jane E. Schultz's post on "Ten Common Myths about Women in the Civil War and How to Dispel Them."

Allows search of Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln and other association publications.

One of the free databases within Footnote.com.

A bibliography with the sections Historical Overviews, Primary Sources: Archival Collections, Primary Sources: Digital Collections, Primary Sources: Microform Collections, and Talking About Women's History.

A look at Arkansas's Civil War history.

See Civil War Unit Bibliographies, Civil War Union Biographies, Civil War Confederate Biographies

Sketches by artist-reporters for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper held at Boston College

The Black Abolitionist Digital Archive is a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the 1820s to the Civil War. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement; scans of these documents are provided as images and PDF files.

Documents detailing how various people from Kansas was affected by the Civil War.

Camp Ford was the largest Confederate Prisoner of War Camp west of the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. Established in August of 1863, the camp was not closed until May 19, 1865. At its peak in July 1864, over 5,300 prisoners were detained there. The site of the Camp stockade is now a public park, owned by Smith County, Texas, and managed by the Smith County Historical Society.

Letters written during the Civil War by Rufus and Mary Mann and by Dudley Ward.

Numerous resources on the topic of women and the Civil War are available at Duke University Libraries. This guide is not a comprehensive bibliography, but rather a starting point for doing research on the topic.

Very impressive site with documents from four states arranged by county, theme, and battles. Includes sound.

The Crisis of the Union enables students and other researchers to use primary documents in their study of political, economic, social, religious, racial and gender issues from the Jacksonian Era to the Gilded Age. The collection is comprised of pamphlets, books, broadsides, cartoons, clippings, paintings, maps, and other print memorabilia about America from circa 1830 to 1880.

Broadcast of the "American History Guys" including Drew Gilpin Faust discussing how the Civil War altered the American way of dying and Ed Ayers touring Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.

Sample documents from the volumes of Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation.

Designed for the use of students, teachers, and other researchers who wish to examine the attempt to make "one from many" in three critical decades of American life: the 1770s, the 1850s, and the 1920s.

Presents an examination of national popular political culture in antebellum America. It includes histories of the presidential campaigns from 1840-1860, as well as primary source material, such as campaign biographies and campaign songbooks. Recordings of some of the songs are also available.

Report by the Civil War Preservation Trust.

The Indiana Historical Bureau provides publications, programs, and other opportunities for Indiana citizens of all ages to learn and teach about the history of their communities, the state of Indiana, and their relationships to the nation and the world. The Indiana Historical Bureau also administers the Indiana Historical Marker Program.

Provides access to the historic but fragile paper records of the administration of President Abraham Lincoln. Once completed, the approximately 14 million federal records housed within the National Archives, including all documents, maps, and photographs, which encompass the Civil War era 1861-1865, will be available online to the global community.

One of the free databases within Footnote.com

Lesson plans for grades 3-12 on the Civil War, from Abraham Lincoln to Walt Whitman, antebellum through Reconstruction. Most utilize digitized documents at the National Archives.

The North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee's mission is to develop and execute a multi-year program of state-sponsored activities to commemorate, in an appropriate and historically accurate manner, the richness, diversity, and significance of the state’s participation in and contributions to the American Civil War.

Pennsylvania Civil War (PACW 150) is a statewide partnership of major history organizations convened by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) and the Pennsylvania Heritage Society (PHS) at the request of Governor Edward G. Rendell to serve as the Commonwealth’s official planning committee for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War (2011-2015).

A collection of the works by the newspaper editors involved with the coming of the Civil War.

American Historical Association's blog posting of notable websites, online lesson plans, and online articles dealing with slavery in America.

The South Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial Advisory Board’s mission is to coordinate, facilitate and promote activities to commemorate the significance of the state’s participation in and contributions to the American Civil War. Accordingly, the objective is to extend to the citizens of the state and others an observance that is inclusive and appropriately recognizes the experiences and points of view of all people affected by the Civil War and provide assistance for the development of programs, projects, and activities of the Civil War that have lasting education value.

New York Military Affairs Symposium--Full Text Resource

Lesson plans based on sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including Andersonville, Bentonville, Glorieta Pass, Honey Springs, Mill Springs, Prairie Grove, Stones River, Gettysburg, Clara Barton's home, Manassas, Fort Morgan, Lincoln's home, Camp Chase cemetery, Corinth, and Port Hudson, among others.

History, timeline, trails, events, sites, teaching tools

Scroll down to Documents, Contemporary Accounts, Memoirs, and Newspapers (Primary Sources)

A bibliography for Texas Civil War regiments.

Ken Jones, retired librarian at Tarleton State University, maintains a useful site with links to histories and web published muster rolls.

Ask a question, get an answer.

Focuses on the years of the Republic but sets the stage for later developments. Great interactive maps.

NPR story of Albert D. J. Cashier, 95th Illinois Infantry, born Jennie Hodgers, who fought through the war as a man.

Before the War, 1860: Big Trouble, Secession, 1861: Opening Act, Dissent, 1862: Fiery Trail, 1863: The Tide Turns, 1864: No Way Out, End of the Ordeal, For Further Reading

Links to vodcasts, podcasts, interviews, articles in online Encyclopedia Virginia, etc.

"The portal for all things historical about women in Texas."