U. S. CIVIL WAR RESEARCH

USING PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS

Battle of Gettysburg - Eyewitnesses and Participants

Gettysburg Documents and Letters (look at the authors for these)

Destination Gettysburg: General Robert E. Lee's Farewell Address

The Heart of a Soldier - Letters of George Pickett

From Manassas to Appomattox - James Longstreet

Longstreet at Gettysburg

Gordon - Reminiscences of the Civil War: Gettysburg

The Union Cavalry at Gettysburg

JEB Stuart at Gettysburg

John Buford's First Day Defense at Gettysburg

E. P. Alexander at Gettysburg (Artillerist for Longstreet)

A Civil War Journal: First Minnesota Infantry Reports from Gettysburg

Letters of Lt. Col. Rufus Dawes (Union)

Joshua Chamberlain

Battle of Gettysburg: Memories of a Teenage Girl- Tillie Pierce

Third Wisconsin Infantry at Gettysburg

A Soldier's View of Gettysburg

 

Other Civil War Primary Sources

Civil War Primary Documents

Eyewitness to History - Civil War

Eyewitness Accounts (The Civil War) - from the War Times Journal Archives

Selected Civil War Photographs (from American Memory)

Rose O'Neal Greenhow (Letter from a Southern Lady in Prison)

Battle of Pea Ridge (detailed battle description and Confederate and Union reports)

Battle of Stone's River - Report of General Braxton Bragg

 

 

FEE-BASED DATABASES THAT SPECIALIZE IN PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIALS

Available through BCPS

American History (obtain login and password from your library media specialist)

Student Resource Center Gold (obtain login and password from your library media specialist; choose "Primary Sources" under content type when doing your search)

Available through BCPL

History Reference Center (available through BCPL using a public library card barcode number)

Historical Newspapers (available through BCPL using a public library card barcode number)

 

 

USING SEARCH TOOLS TO LOCATE SOURCES:

Another idea for finding primary sources is to use a search tool such as Google or AltaVista

Once there, type your topic in the search window. Be sure to spell it correctly! Add a second key word such as one of the following to try to find primary sources on that topic:

letter
diary
journal
correspondence
battle orders
photographs
autobiography
interview
newspaper article

 

USE BOOKS THAT SPECIALIZE IN PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIALS:

The following books may also be very helpful:

Civil War: Primary Sources. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2002. (Call no. 973.7 CIV)

Hillstrom, Kevin and Laurie Collier Hillstrom. American Civil War: Primary Sources. Detroit: UXL, 2000. (Call no. REF 973.7 HIL)

Kirchberger, Joe H. The Civil War and Reconstruction: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 1991. (Call no. REF 973.7 KIR)

Seidman, Rachel Filene. The Civil War: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University, Press, 2001. (Call no. REF 973.7 SEI)

Books by Diane Smolinski - Soldiers of the Civil War, The Home Front in the South, The Home Front in the North, and Key Battles of the Civil War (all in Call no. 973.7 SMO)


Any book from the series Voices of the Civil War (published by Time-Life books). Various books found in Call no. 973.7.

 

 

Last update: April 30, 2008

J. Caldwell