A large repository of letters and diaries from both Union and Confederate soldiers, homefront letters, memoirs, and contemporary research files. Includes materials from the war years, 1861-1865, as well as materials from later periods...

North Carolina is rich in Civil War history. The Department of Cultural Resources has compiled this digital library of primary source documents to and from soldiers in honor of the sesquicentennial of the war.

This resource provides an overview of the African American soldiers who fought during the Civil War.

What a find! Watch videos, read essays, and find first-person accounts of the Civil War in relation to Illinois. Although no battles were fought there, the state contributed many regiments.

While the American Civil War officially ended at the Battle of Appomattox, Confederate sensibilities ran deep and it was not until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s that blacks were able to fully assert their equality....

Photographs of and letters from slaves and former slaves who fought for the Union or were forced to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

A collection of nineteen original photographs of soldiers who served during the Civil War. Each photograph is accompanied by a short essay that includes biographical information about their Civil War experiences and, where possible,...

A learning module that begins with "Black Soldiers in the Civil War" by The National Archives, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online...

During the Civil War, military hospitals considered opioids to be essential medicine. Doctors and nurses used opium and morphine to treat soldiers' pain, stop internal bleeding and mitigate vomiting and diarrhea caused by infectious...

A thorough discussion of the formation and use of the Jessie scouts who were mainly cavalrymen who gathered intelligence. Dressed as Confederate soldiers, they were used extensively by General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Campaign.

Prints, photographs and documents form the Library of Congress collections tell a story of African Americans and the Civil War including contrabands of war, emancipation, soldiers and missionaries, and fighting for freedom.

View an entire collection of ambrotype and tintype photographs of Union and Confederate soldiers.

After a brief history of African-American regiments from New York, you can read about the United Stated Colored Troops in general, where they fought, how they were paid, and the number of casualties among the troops.

A vast listing of manuscripts available from the Connecticut Historical Society. Included are letters, records of military service, and regimental indexes. The documents themselves cannot be viewed, but there is a summary of what is...

Describes the poor state of medical knowledge and expertise during the Civil War and how this impacted soldiers who were injured or sick.

Biographical profile of a boy soldier of the Civil War, John Clem, who went on to have a lifelong career in the U.S. military.

When the war began, many African Americans - North and South - volunteered to serve as soldiers. The vast majority were former slaves who sought to strike at slavery and improve their position in society. Desperate to avert defeat, the...

A biographical profile of Albert Cashier aka Jennie Hodgers, who, disguised as a man, fought with the Union army.

Peruse the history of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park established in 1890 to honor the soldiers who fought on the two battlefields during the Civil War. The Military Park straddles the Georgia-Tennessee state...

Harvey Hogue's adventures as a Union soldier in a Confederate prison camp, and his escape from the notorious Andersonville make interesting reading. Not exactly a primary source document, but stories from an actual participant in the...

African Americans have fought proudly for our country as far back as the Revolutionary War. Christian Fleetwood gives an account of the history of African-American soldiers in the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. He cites examples of...

Photographs of and letters from black soldiers-both enslaved and free-from the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries that examine military experience for African Americans.

This lesson allows middle schoolers to compare and contrast print text structure with that of an online site. Students work together and use worksheets in comprehending the informational text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.7 Conduct short...

Online personnel narratives by African American soldiers who participated in World War II.