Resources
Civil War Unit Histories: Regimental Histories and Personal Narratives
Free Digital Databases:
Missouri Digital Heritiage provides instant access to more than 500,000 digitized Civil War records, accompanied by research guides, lesson plans and other tools designed to help Missourians learn more about this tumultuous and violent period in their state’s history.
A Nation Divided: Arkansas and the Civil War (some digital content)
Civil War Resources in Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
U of Washington: Civil War Letters Collection
Virginia Tech: Digitized Manuscripts
Hamilton College Digital Collections
Iowa Digital Library presents: Civil War Diaries and Letters
State Historical Society of Missouri – Civil War Manuscripts
Civil War Letters from Western North Carolina
Delawareans during the American Civil War
Wisconsin Goes to War: Our Civil War Experience
Special Collections, University Libraries of Notre Dame
Free Digital Civil War Newspapers:
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Fulton Historic Newspaper Archive – The largest free newspaper archive in the world.
Virginia Center for Civil War Studies Newspapers of the Civil War
Harper’s Weekly for the year 1865
Personal Narratives:
Augustana College Library – Civil War Diaries
ACL provides the diary of an Illinois soldier from Peoria, Gould D. Molineaux and the diary of Canton, Illinois soldier, Basil H. Messler.
http://www.augustana.edu/library/SpecialCollections/civil1.html
Calvin Shedd Letters
Univ. of Miami's Richter Library offers a digital collection of letters from Calvin Shedd, a member of the 7th NH, to his wife and children.
http://www.library.miami.edu/archives/shedd/index.htm
Civil War Diaries Collection – PA and VA
Access full-text diaries of several individuals from Augusta and Franklin counties that fought in the American Civil War.
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/cwdiariesbrowse.html
Civil War Letters and Diaries – Georgians
University of Georgia furnishes this collection of Civil War letters and diaries of Civil War-era Georgians.
http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/cwletters.htm
Civil War Letters of the Christie Family
Minnesota Historical Society presents this collection of letters by three brothers who fought in the Union Army. Browse by author or date.
http://www.mnhs.org/library/Christie/intropage.html
Civil War Love Letters
Civil War Love Letters of Confederate and Union soldiers from The Special Collections Department of the University Libraries of Virginia Tech.
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/cwlove.html
Civil War Memories of Robert C. Carden
Read this long narrative of the Civil War written by a Confederate soldier in Company B, 16th Tennessee Infantry.
http://www2.dmci.net/users/bmacd/default.htm
Features Civil War letters authored by John C. Davis, a 14 year-old New Englander writing to his parents.
http://users.ids.net/~tandem/glory.htm
Dunton, Samuel – Letters to Family
Read Pvt. Samuel Dunton's transcribed letters to his family that describes his experience in New York's 114th Infantry unit.
http://home.pacbell.net/dunton/SSDletters.html
Features an archive of Iowa soldier's letters and journal entries. Also offers hospital letters, and photographs of Lincoln and General Grant.
http://www.alaska.net/~design/civilwar/
John and James Booker Civil War Letters
University of Virginia Special Collections Dept. provides transcripts of letters authored by twins John and James Booker, Confederate soldiers.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/civilwar/booker/
Ketzle, Henry – Civil War Diary
Ketzle family shares the diary of their father, Henry, who served in Company A of the 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
http://www.ketzle.com/diary/
Longstreet, Gen. James – From Manassas to Appomattox
War Times Journal publishes the commander of the Confederate First Corps' war memoirs.
http://www.wtj.com/archives/longstreet/
Moses, Jefferson – Company G, 93rd Illinois Volunteers
Read the diary and memoirs of this Illinois soldier who documents his experiences up to the surrender of Vicksburg.
http://www.ioweb.com/civilwar/
Orr, James Laughlin – Civil War Diary
Read the diary of this first lieutenant in the 42nd Indiana Regiment. Includes biographical information and genealogical details.
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/gen/civwdiar.html
Scott, Newton Robert – Letters
Peruse this collection of letters written by a Private of Iowa's 36th Infantry. Also find Scott's service record and obituary.
http://www.civilwarletters.com/home.html
The Story of One Union Soldier
Read an annotated account of Bernard McKnight, a Union soldier who was captured and taken to Andersonville Prison.
http://www.sinclair.edu/sec/his102/102doc01.htm
Underwood, Albert – Civil War Diary
Read the diary of this soldier from Indiana who was a member of the 9th Light Artillery. Entries date from Jan. 1, 1864 to Jan. 11, 1865.
http://dcwi.com/~dave/underwood.html
Valley of the Shadows – Civil War Letters Collection
Searchable Civil War letters of Confederate and Union soldiers from The Valley of the Shadow Project.
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/cwletters.html
Waugh, William A. – Reminiscences of the Rebellion
Peruse this manuscript first written by a member of the 5th Mass. Infantry and currently housed at Gettysburg National Military Park.
http://www.pompano.net/~rwaugh/CivilWar.htm
William J. Black Diary
Relive moments from the American Civil War by reading this diary, written by a confederate soldier. View the selection by date, or all at once.