Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Special Collections: American Civil War Manuscript Guides
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...
University of Maryland
University of Maryland: John Jacob Omenhausser, Civil War Sketchbook
Point Lookout, Maryland, 1864-1865 John Jacob Omenhausser was a Confederate soldier who was imprisoned towards the end of the American Civil War, from June 1864 to June 1865, at Point Lookout, Maryland. During his stay there, he...
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: Mc Dowell's Advance to Bull Run
Details written by James B. Fry, an adjutant to McDowell, describe McDowell's advance and the Union Army's attack and subsequent retreat at the First Battle of Bull Run. From "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" by Ned Bradford.
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus
This page provides Abraham Lincoln's orders to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in 1861 during the Civil War. From "Official Records of the Civil War."
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: Lee's Last Orders
Read the last orders of Robert E. Lee to the Confederate troops, relating the surrender of the South and thanking them for their service.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: The Civil War, 1861 1865
[Free Registration/Login Required] A collection of letters and documents focusing on the Civil War and the secession crisis. Learn about the historical events through personal letters, diaries, newspapers, and photographs.
University of Virginia
E Text Center: American Civil War Collection
Collection of primary documents--letters, diaries, photographs, and newspaper articles of both the Union and Confederate.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Treasures: A Civil War Sketch Artist
A presentation on Alfred Waud, who drew for the national press during the Civil War.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Emancipation: Civil War Ii: Soldiers
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.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Documents Gallery: Diary of Civil War Nurse
Interactive exhibition makes use of personal letters and diaries to document the life and experiences of Civil War nurse Amanda Akin.
Other
American Civil War Homepage: Declaration of Causes of Seceding States
Included is "Declaration of Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession - from the Federal Union" of each state in the Lower South.
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: The Cherokee and the Confederacy
This site contains the document in which the Cherokee pledge their allegiance to the Confederacy.
Library of Congress
Loc: Band Music From the Civil War Era
Explore band music from the Civil War Period at The Library of Congress website.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
This collection provides a unique view of American History using items such as posters, business cards, flyers, catalogs, advertisements and leaflets. These items capture experiences from important turning points such as the American...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Black Lost Cause. Colored Service in Confederate Army
This well-researched extensive essay by Peter Stam looks at the issue of the number of African Americans serving in the Confederate Army as soldiers. By examining information from many historians, some of whom turn out to be unreliable,...
Library of Congress
Loc: Sheet Music About Civil War
This resource provides more than 200 sheet music compositions that represent Lincoln, the Civil War and the times. Compiled by the greatest private collector of Lincoln material, Alfred Whital Stern.
US National Archives
Our Documents: War Dept General Order 143: Creation of Us Colored Troops (1863)
Original document that permitted the recruitment of black troops during the Civil War. Read about events and issues leading up to and following the 1863 establishment of the Bureau of Colored Troops.
University of North Carolina
Documenting the American South: John Hill Hewitt, "War"
This gives the history of the Civil War from its beginning to the Battle of Richmond in poetic verse written by John Hill Hewitt (1801-1890 CE). The introduction firmly establishes the sourthern sympathies of the writer.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Making of African American Identity: Vol I: 1500 1865: Emancipation
Primary source material on the how enslaved Africans envisioned and pursued freedom and how these ideas affected them after the Civil War.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory: Civil War Photographs Bull Run
These are fourteen actual photographs taken during the Civil War at the battlefield of Bull Run.
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: Remarks Relative to Iron Clad Gunboats
Remarks from Confederate General Beauregard about the feasibility of iron-clad ships for fighting naval blockades.
Federal Reserve Bank
American Currency Exhibit: Confederate Currency: Financing the Confederacy
Provides general information on the Confederate notes issued to Southerners during the Civil War. Pictures of the notes and a historical context.
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: Lee's Letter to Jefferson Davis
Lee communicates the cutoff of supplies and the events which followed it, causing his surrender.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Battle of Gettysburg
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.