LibGuides: U.S. Civil War Resources: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Search the Randall Library catalog (and other libraries) for history makers' names as authors. This should retrieve their memoirs, diaries and correspondence.

As you search subject topics in the catalog, note that the following subdivisions indicate primary source (* indicates it can be used with individuals' names,classes of persons [e.g., soldiers], and organizations) :

Archives *
Caricatures and cartoons
Correspondence *
Diaries *
Early works to 1800
Facsimilies
Interviews
Newspapers [e.g., African Americans -- Newspapers]
Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Pamphlets
Personal narratives (used in relation to specific events only)
Photographs
Pictorial works
Songs and music
Sources
Speeches, addresses, etc.*
Treaties

More suggestions can be found on the "Primary Sources" guide.

Here are just a few useful free sources for U.S. Civil War primary sources:

American Memory Project
Images, videos, and presentations compiled by the U.S. Library of Congress related to American history.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938
Collection of more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. Volumes organized by state.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1841-1902
Archival documents from Brooklyn, NY newspaper. Clippings date from 1841-1963 with most collected during the early 20th century.
Documenting the American South
Resource providing documents, images, and audio files related to the history, literature, and culture of the American South.
Eastern North Carolina Digital Library
Resource provides searchable database of local history materials, historical fiction, maps, and museum artifacts related to Eastern North Carolina history.

HarpWeek
The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I and II full text of Harper's Weekly, 1857-1877. Harper's Weekly was one of the most important serials of nineteenth-century America, because it provided detailed information about cultural, military, political, and social issues. Its illustrations helped readers visualize current events. Its editorials were a major force in shaping public opinion in the North. The three parts of HarpWeek, an indexed, full-text database of Harper^s Weekly, provide searchable access to the events, people, and culture of the Civil War Era, 1857-1865; Reconstruction I, 1866-1871; Reconstruction II, 1872-1877.

Making of America (Cornell)
Provides full-text access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles related to 19th century American history.

Making Of The Modern World
Provides digital facsimile images of primary sources that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the periods 1450-1850, 1851-1914, and 1890-1945 provides researchers access to material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more. Includes books, serials, pamphlets, essays and more.

Randall Library Special Collections
Here are our collection's manuscript finding aids and information about using Special Collections. Links to finding aids are also in the library catalog.
Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
using letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches, church and census records, this site presents the experiences of two towns, one Northern and one Southern, from John Brown's Raid through Reconstruction. A project of the University of Virginia Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.