Research Guides: HIST 4369: Civil War & Reconstruction: -- From the Library

History Librarian

Contact:

936-294-1520
kclaunch@shsu.edu
Library (NGL) Room 223G

Printed Collections

Often a variety of primary documents are collected together into a book (usually related to a time period, topic, or theme).

Below are just a few collections in the Library; each book contains many original documents. Search the library catalog for more Civil War sources...

War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
Call Number: Read Online - Or Print is Available (128 volumes/parts): E464 .U61, Series 1-4 (Thomason Room, 4th floor)
Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
Call Number: E464 .U61 NO.1 - 100 (Thomason Room, 4th floor)
100 volumes. (Broadfoot Publishing.)
- Pt. 1. Reports (v. 1-12, serial 1-12);
- Pt. 2. Record of events (v. 1-80, serial 13-92);
- Pt. 3. Correspondence (v. 1-3, serial 93-95);
- Index (v. 1-5, serial 96-100).
- "Material for the Supplement is arranged chronologically and geographically to correlate with the original War of Rebellion, official records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I"
The Civil War Diary of Gideon Welles, Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy
Call Number: E467.1 .W46 A3 2014 (4th floor)
Perhaps the hardest-working member of Lincoln's cabinet, Welles still found time to keep a detailed diary that has become one of the key documents for understanding the inner workings of the Lincoln administration. The several appendixes include short biographies of the members of Lincoln's cabinet, the retrospective Welles wrote after leaving office covering the period missing from the diary proper, and important letters regarding naval matters and international law.
Emilie Davis's Civil War: The diaries of a free Black woman in Philadelphia, 1863-1865
Call Number: F158.44 .D38 2014 (4th floor)
The Civil War Diary of Sarah Morgan
Call Number: E605 .D28 1991 (4th floor)
The Civil War-era diary of Confederate Sarah Morgan Dawson (1842-1909).
The Civil War Diary of Clara Solomon
Call Number: F374.S65 A3 1995 (4th floor)
The Civil War-era diary of Confederate Clara Solomon.
A Woman's Wartime Journal: An account of the passage over Georgia's plantation of Sherman's army on the march to the sea, as recorded in the diary of Dolly Sumner Lunt (Mrs. Thomas Burge)
Call Number: Read Online
Dolly Sumner Lunt begins her diary by recalling her anxiety about the approach of General Sherman's Union army on January 1, 1864. While she worries about the arrival of Sherman's troops and their habit of pillaging and burning everything in their path, she records stories of visits by local raiders posing as U.S. soldiers and the sleepless nights she has spent watching fires on the horizon. Despite Lunt's efforts to hide her valuable possessions, which include sending her mules into the woods, dividing her stores of meat among the slaves, and burying the silver, the passing Union troops raid her house and plantation and take her slaves with them. They also set fire to cotton bales in her barn, but the blaze burns out before spreading, largely sparing Lunt's property the widespread destruction suffered by neighboring plantations.
Women of War: Selected memoirs, poems, and fiction by Virginia women who lived through the Civil War
Call Number: Read Online - Or print is available at PS508 .W7 W595 2014 (3rd floor)
The American Republic: Primary Sources
Call Number: E173 .A7535 2002 (4th floor)
The Antebellum Era: Primary documents on events from 1820 to 1860
Call Number: Read Online - Or print is available at: E301 .D43 2003 (4th floor)
The Civil War: Primary documents on events from 1860 to 1865
Call Number: Read Online - Or print is available: E464 .C54 2004 (4th floor)
The Reconstruction Era: Primary documents on events from 1865 to 1877
Call Number: Read Online - Or print is available: E668 .D545 2003 (4th floor)
Letters from Prison: Jefferson Davis to his wife, 1865-1866
Call Number: Read Online - Or print is available at E467.1 .D26 A4 2014 (4th floor)
Compilation of letters written by Jefferson Davis to his wife Varina Davis while he was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, Virginia, from October 1865 through April 1866.

Find More Printed Primary Sources

To find more primary sources in the Library's book collection, try these search strategies on the catalog's Advanced Search page:

1. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the subject row, enter the word "sources".

2. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the subject row, enter a word such as "correspondence", "diaries", or "personal narratives".

3. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the next row, change the first box to also say keyword, and enter the phrase "documents OR documentary" in that second search box.

4. For primary sources written by a certain person, click Browse on the right side of the search page. Enter the person's name backwards, like "Washington George" and click subject. In the list of subject headings that appear, look for headings that end with words such as "correspondence", "diaries", "notebooks sketchbooks etc.", "manuscripts", or "oratory."

Historical Newspapers

Nineteenth (19th) Century U.S. Newspapers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window 19th-century newspapers from various urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. Strong in topics such as Civil War, African-American history, Western migration, etc.
New York Times Historical, 1851 to 3 years ago This link opens in a new window Every page of every issue of the New York Times, from 1851 until approximately 3 years ago.
Civil War, Parts 1-7 (Accessible Archives) This link opens in a new window Wide variety of rosters, muster lists, newspapers, pamphlets, regimental histories, and memoirs, Union and Confederate. Click "more" for details of content.
- Regimental histories, rosters, and muster lists representing all Union regiments.
- Commanding officer memoirs, strategies and tactics (mostly Union, some Confederate).
- Selected newspaper content from 1850s and 1860s representing Union
America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1998 This link opens in a new window American and U.S. local newspapers from all 50 states, ranging from 1690 to 1998.
African American Newspapers 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window Approximately 270 U.S. newspapers, 1827-1998, document African American experiences.
Hispanic American Newspapers 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window Hundreds of Hispanic American newspapers, including both Spanish-language papers and papers published bilingually in Spanish and English. Largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Times Digital Archive, 1785 to 2014 This link opens in a new window "World's newspaper of record." Covers all major international historical events. Every page of every issue, from 1785 to 2014.

Women's Diaries

The library has a large collection of Southern women's diaries from the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

Read the online guide to Southern women's diaries to find the women's names, dates of the diary, and an overview of the topics discussed.

There are also several New England Women's diaries that cover the Civil War and Reconstruction period.

Read the online guide to New England women's diaries to find the women's names, dates of the diary, and an overview of the topic discussed.

Both sets of diaries will be found in the Microforms Room on the 1st floor of the library, call number HQ1412 .A54.

Titles from the Freedmen and Southern Society Project - "Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation"

Land and labor, 1865
Call Number: E185.2 .F88 ser.3 v.1, 4th floor
Examines the transition from slavery to free labor during the tumultuous first months after the Civil War through the letters and testimony by the participants--former slaves, former slaveholders, Freedmen's Bureau agents, and others.
Land and labor, 1866-1867
Call Number: Read Online
Examines the remaking of the South's labor system in the tumultuous aftermath of emancipation, using documents selected from the National Archives. Depicts the struggle of unenfranchised and impoverished ex-slaves to control their own labor, establish their families as viable economic units, and secure independent possession of land.
Destruction of Slavery
Call Number: E185.2 .F88 SER. 1 VOL. 1, 4th floor
Through the use of original sources, this volume examines the process by which slavery collapsed under the pressure of federal arms and the slaves' determination to place their own liberty on the wartime agenda.
The Black Military Experience
Call Number: E185.2 .F88 SER.2, 4th floor
Written in the words of the emancipated, this volume explains how black military service helped to destroy slavery, and how the experience of soldiering shaped the life of black people (in the army and out) during and after the war; it also provides a social history of black soldiers.
Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War
Call Number: E185.2 .F8 1992, 4th floor
The triumph and travail of emancipation emerge in the words of the participants–liberated slaves and defeated slaveholders, soldiers and civilians, common folk and aristocrats, Northerners and Southerners. Winner of the Lincoln Prize for scholarly works on the Civil War.

HIST 4369: Civil War & Reconstruction