Civil War

PSN-curated Civil War primary source collections

Battles

• Battle of Antietam
• Battle of Bull Run
• Second Battle of Bull Run
• Battle of Chattanooga
• Battle of Cold Harbor
• Battle of Gettysburg
• Capture (Union) of Fort Morgan
• Fall of Atlanta
• Grant’s Army Attacks Confederate Lines at Petersburg
• Lee’s Surrender
• Siege of Vicksburg
• Tennessee Secedes

People

• Mathew Brady
• John C. Calhoun
• Jefferson Davis
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Stonewall Jackson
• General James Longstreet
• Detective Allan Pinkerton
• William T. Sherman
• General George H. Thomas: Rock of Chickamauga
• Henry Wirz & Andersonville Prison

More primary source collections

• Abolition in D.C.
• Boy soldiers of the Civil War
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Illinois Civil War Resources
• Primary Source Perspectives of the Civil War Article Resources
• Secret Service Agents
• Soldier’s Life-Saving Book
• Trent Affair

Teaching resources

Library collections

• Band Music from the Civil War Era
• Civil War Maps
• A Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment
• Clara Barton Papers
• Civil War Glass Negatives & Related Prints
• Confederate Army Maps
• The Frederick Douglass Papers
• Jubal Anderson Early Papers United States and Confederate army officer, lawyer, and Virginia state legislator
• Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
• Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1820-1885
• From Slavery to Freedom: African-American Pamphlets
• Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
• Washington during the Civil War: the Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft
• Works by Civil War Era African American Women

Prints & photographs collections

• Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints
• Drawings (Documentary) (eyewitness drawings from the Civil War)
• Gladstone Collection (photographs relating to the Civil War)
• Liljenquist Family Collection (many ambrotype and tintype portraits; select images listed below)
  • Military Specialties
  • Uniforms
  • Equipment
  • Musical Instruments
  • Communication
  • Maps
  • Photographers
  • Picture This
• Stereograph Cards (relating to the Civil War)
• Selected illustrations from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (1860-1865)
• Selected illustrations from Harper’s Weekly (1860-1865)

Primary documents in American History: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1877

• Homestead Act (1862)
• Pacific Railway Act (1862)
• Morrill Act (1862)
• Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
• Gettysburg Address (1863)
• 13th Amendment to the Constitution (1865)
• Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865)
• 14th Amendment to the Constitution (1868)
• 15th Amendment to the Constitution (1870)

Chronicling America historic newspaper collection topic guides

• Clara Barton (1881-1904)
• Belle Boyd (1862-1900)
• Civil War Ballooning (1861-1864)
• Civil War Maps in the New York Daily Tribune (1861-1865)
• Civil War Secessions (1860-1861)
• Emancipation Proclamation (1862-1863)
• Fort Sumter (1861)
• Gettysburg (1863)
• Ironclads (1861-1931)
• Lincoln Assassination (1865)
• Sherman’s March (1864)
• Sinking of the SS Sultana (1865-1898)

Civil War newspapers by and for soldiers

• American Union issues from Jul., 1861
• New South issues from Mar., 1862; Aug., 1862-Apr., 1864; Sep.-Oct., 1864; Dec., 1864; Apr.-Aug., 1865; Jun., 1866; Aug.-Sep., 1866
• Palmetto Herald 1864 (Mar.-Apr., Jun.-Aug., Dec.)
• Soldier’s Journal Feb., 1864-Feb., 1865; Jun., 1865
• Winchester Army Bulletin Jul.-Aug., 1863

More primary source sets

• Civil War sheet music
• Civil War books
• New-York Historical Society Civil War Treasures
• Photographs of African Americans During the Civil War
• Women’s Activities During the Civil War: A Select List of Photographs
• The West Point Atlas of the Civil War

Online exhibition resources

• African American Odyssey: The Civil War
• Civil War Treasures of the Library of Congress
• The Civil War in America
• The Gettysburg Address
• The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection
• With Malice Toward None: The Lincoln Presidency

Presentations

• History of the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865
• History of Mapping the Civil War
• Time Line of the Civil War
• Timeline: The Civil War & Reconstruction (1861-77)

Civil War poetry resources

America’s Library

• Civil War stories
• Reconstruction stories

Webcasts

• American Civil War webcasts
• Civil War symposium
• Death and the Civil War

Library Blog Posts about the Civil War

• Worlds Revealed: Geography and Maps at the Library of Congress
• Teaching with Library
• Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos
• Now See Hear!: The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center Blog
• Timeless: Stories from the Library of Congress
• Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business blog posts
• In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog
• In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress
• From the Catbird Seat: Poetry & Literature at the Library of Congress
• Folklife Today Blog
• 4 Corners of the World: International Collections and Studies at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Civil War search terms

Standardized subject headings for materials relating to the American Civil War include:

• UNITED STATES-HISTORY-CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865
• SECESSION-SOUTHERN STATES
• CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA

Within these categories are further subject divisions, such as UNITED STATES-HISTORY–CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865–CAMPAIGNS.

Also search under:

• Names of places (e.g., ALABAMA–HISTORY–CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865-CAVALRY OPERATIONS; CHARLESTON (S.C.)–HISTORY–CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865–FICTION.)
• Names of battles (e.g. , GETTYSBURG, BATTLE OF, GETTYSBURG, PA., 1863)
• Names of individuals prominent in the Civil War (e.g., LEE, ROBERT E. (ROBERT EDWARD), 1807-1870)
• Names of vessels (e.g., MONITOR (IRONCLAD)

Some search systems also offer a keyword search capability, that may have uncontrolled terms such as:

• CIVIL WAR
• WAR BETWEEN THE STATES
• WAR OF REBELLION