LibGuides: The Civil War: Primary Sources

Primary Resource Databases and Websites

A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event. Some types of primary sources include:

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or translations acceptable): Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records
CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art
RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: Pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings

--From Princeton's website "What is a Primary Source?"

African American Archives
Primary source documents relating to the history of African Americans; includes plantation records, enlistment records, correspondence, and more.
African American Biographical Database
AMDocs
Documents for the study of American history
American Memory Project

Ancestry Library Edition (ONLY AVAILABLE ON CAMPUS)
A collection of over 10 billion records in more than 8000 databases. Content categories include: birth, marriage and death records; census records; immigration and travel; military; schools, directories and church histories; tax, criminal, land and wills; references, dictionaries and almanacs; stories and publications; and photos and maps. The databases also include WWI and WWII draft cards, obituaries dating back to the 1800s, Social Security Death Index, U.S. Federal Census, federal slave narratives and more. Allows researchers to search by geographic location. Updates continually, with more indexes and original images added all the time. ONLY AVAILABLE ON CAMPUS.

Avalon Project
The Avalon Project is a digital library of documents relating to law, history and diplomacy. The project is part of the Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865
The sole authoritative record of the global abolition movement. This collection is made up of 14,000 primary source materials that include hand-written documents and rare publications. 1830 to 1865.
Black Freedom History Vault
Contains various primary sources on the struggle for black freedom and civil rights. On the topic of civil rights and Black Freedom, History Vault contains records of four of the most important civil rights organizations of the 1950s and 1960s: NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and CORE.

Civil War in Words and Deeds
These first-person accounts, compiled in the postwar period and early 20th Century period, chronicle the highs and lows of army life from 1861 through 1865

Civil War Service Reports of Union Generals
These generals' reports of service represent an attempt by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) to obtain more complete records of the service of the various generals contacted. Seeking both comprehensiveness and uniformity, the AGO requested of each general that he include certain kinds of information in his report. As a result, most of the reports consist of chronologically arranged sketches of activities associated with battles and other engagements.
Colonial State Papers
A major resource for historians of the Americas, Britain, slavery, commerce, and the Atlantic. Provides users with access to primary source documents from the 16th to 18th centuries. The earliest English settlements in North America, encounters with Native Americans, piracy in the Atlantic and Caribbean, the trade in slaves and English conflicts with the Spanish and French are all covered in this database.
Cyrus F. Jenkins Civil War Diary, 1861-1862
Chronicles Cyrus Franklin Jenkins' experiences as an enlisted man in the Meriwether Volunteers, Company B, 13th Georgia Infantry Regiment, during the first year of the war, June 1861 to March 1862. Vividly describes the early euphoria of the war and the regiment's campaigns in western Virginia as part of Floyd's Brigade and in Savannah in Lawton's Brigade. The regiment took part in skirmishes at Sewell Mountain, Laurel Hill, and Whitemarsh Island. While traveling, Jenkins also remarks on the changing scenery he encounters. His account of camp life highlights the medical care available to Confederate soldiers at this stage in the war. Jenkins was killed at Spotsylvania, Virginia, on May 12, 1864. Contains a transcription and images of the diary, a chronology of Jenkins' activities, a civil war timeline covering July 1861 to April 1862, a historical note, brief descriptions of the players and places mentioned by Jenkins, as well as suggested related archival collections and links to a civil war bibliography, related websites, and a map of the Gauley River region.

Digital Public Library of America
Documenting the American South
Website from UNC-Chapel Hill, "... provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs. "
Historical Census Information
The National Historical Geographic Information System has summary data for the US Census from 1790 - present.
History Matters
this site serves as a gateway to web resources and offers unique teaching materials, first-person primary documents, and guides to analyzing historical evidence.
In the First Person
The index contains approximately 20,500 months of diary entries, 63,000 letter entries, and 17,000 oral history entries.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
This site (run by Fordham University) includes primary history sources, classified by historical period.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection
The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.
Making of America
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
Miller Center American Presidents
In addition to contextual information available for each president, the site also has links to famous speeches, images, related websites, and recordings.
Sources in U.S. History: Slavery
This project documents key aspects of the history of slavery in America from its origins in Africa to its abolition, including materials on the slave trade, plantation life, emancipation, pro-slavery and anti-slavery arguments and the religious views on slavery.
Sources in US History: Civil War
This digital archive documents the war that transformed America, ending slavery and unifying the nation around the principles of freedom.

Cornelius C. Platter Civil War Diary, 1864-1865
Digital images and transcriptions of original manuscripts, scanned, transcribed, and encoded. A Civil War diary of Lt. (later Capt.) Cornelius C. Platter from November, 1864 to April 27, 1865. Platter's diary from November, 1864 to April 27, 1865 details Sherman's march through Georgia from Rome to Savannah and the march north through the Carolinas. He gives dates, times, and lengths of marches; describes the weather, locale, scenery, and food as well as orders, rumors, positions, troop moral, and administrative duties. Includes a description of the burning of Columbia, South Carolina, the news of the Confederate surrender, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Also contains a Civil War timeline, related links and archival collections, suggested readings, a name index, and notes on the project.

The Nineteenth Century in Print
The books in this collection bear nineteenth century American imprints, dating mainly from between 1850 and 1880. Currently, approximately 1,500 books are included in this American Memory site. The collection is particularly strong in poetry and in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
U. S. Congressional Serial Set 1817-1975
Voyages: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
fully searchable database containing a wealth of information on the voyages, the captives, and the places from which slave ships sailed and landed. It contains maps, a timeline, images, and essays that place the data in context.
Women Working, 1800-1930
This collection is comprised of over 650,000 individual pages from more than 3,100 books and trade catalogs, 900 archives and manuscript items, and 1,400 photographs. Women Working, 1800–1930 is a digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. Working conditions, workplace regulations, home life, costs of living, commerce, recreation, health and hygiene, and social issues are among the issues documented in this online research collection from Harvard University.

Primary Sources--Georgia

Annual Reports of the Mayor of Savannah, Georgia, 1855-1923
Include information on city activities and finances, commercial statistics, health including death and illness statistics, and information on trade, public schools, weather, charitable institutions and city ordinances. The documents also include reports of the City Attorney, the Police Department (including crime statistics), the City Engineer, the Fire Department (including statistics on fires and property losses), and the Board of Trade, among others.
Barnard's Photographic Views of the Sherman Campaign, 1866
The site contains images of the 61 albumen prints found in early American photographer and member of the Matthew Brady studio, George N. Barnard's 1866 Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign. Subjects of the photographs include Sherman and his generals, Nashville, Chattanooga Valley, Atlanta, and Savannah. Barnard was the official photographer for the United States Army, Chief Engineer's Office, Division of the Mississippi.
Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868 : Reconstruction, Republicanism, and Race
Records of the Freedman's Bureau documenting the 1868 Camilla Massacre. Located at the DeSoto Trail Library and comprised of photostatic copies from the Freedman's Bureau records held by the National Archives of the United States, consists of letters, affidavits, reports and a newspaper clipping relating to a violent episode in Camilla, Georgia, in 1868 involving local republicans, freedmen, and townspeople.
Digital Library of Georgia
A gateway to Georgia's history and culture found in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, government documents, newspapers, maps, audio, video, and other resources. To search or browse the holdings of the Digital Library of Georgia, visit the DLG homepage at: https://dlg.usg.edu/ A complete listing of digital collections available through the DLG is at: https://dlg.usg.edu/collections
Georgia Aerial Photographs
Provides online access to approximately 50,000 black and white aerial photographs and indexes of selected counties from the State of Georgia.
Georgia Department of Archives & History
Maintains a web site of information on its organization, collections, and services. Its mission is to identify, select, preserve, and ensure the accessibility of government and other information constituting Georgia's recorded history, including the official records of Georgia from 1732 to the present. In addition, it collects private manuscripts and photographs which complement existing archival holdings. Links to online publications, finding aids, and other web sites related to Georgia history and genealogy are provided.

Georgia Legislative Documents 1755-
Georgia's Virtual Vault
provides virtual access to historic Georgia manuscripts, photographs, maps, and government records housed in the state archives.

Joseph Henry Lumpkin Family Papers, 1821-1862
Digitized selections from the Joseph Henry Lumpkin family papers consist of letters dated 1850-1861 (mostly 1852-1856) to Callie Lumpkin King, wife of Alabama lawyer and plantation owner Porter King and daughter of Joseph Henry Lumpkin. Correspondents include Sallie (Baxter) Bird, wife of Hancock County plantation-owner Edgeworth Bird; King's husband Porter; Thomas Read Rootes Cobb, her brother-in-law; and other Lumpkin family members. The letters touch on family life, local and national politics, marriage, and the social life in Athens, Georgia.
Robert E. Williams Photographic Collection: African-Americans in the Augusta, Ga. Vicinity (Richmond Co.), circa 1872-1898
Robert E. Williams Photographic Collection: African-Americans in the Augusta, Ga. Vicinity (Richmond Co.) consists of 86 glass plate negatives and positive prints of African-Americans in the Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia area. Robert E. Williams, an African-American photographer, operated a studio, R. Williams and Son, in Augusta, Georgia, from 1888 until around 1908. The photographs depict dwellings and domestic chores, rituals of baptism, harvesting and transporting cotton, vehicles and transportation, and children and family life. Eighty-four of the images are presented online, as two of the negatives are copies
Robert Toombs, Letters to Julia Ann DuBose Toombs, 1850-1867
Robert Toombs, Letters to Julia Ann DuBose Toombs consists of correspondence from Robert Toombs to his wife, Julia Ann DuBose Toombs in Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia from 1850-1867. During 1850-1859 his letters come from Washington, D.C. while he served in the U.S. Senate. During the Civil War, he wrote from Virginia (1862) and Atlanta, Georgia (1864). Following the war, letters are written from Paris (1866-67) while he was in exile. The correspondence generally discusses current events; his land holdings in South Georgia, Alabama, and Texas; people; other soldiers; and his wish to be with his wife and family.
Samuel Hugh Hawkins Diary, January - July 1877
The Samuel Hugh Hawkins Diary, January - July 1877, donated by Georgia State Senator George Hooks to the Lake Blackshear Regional Library System, chronicles Americus, Georgia entrepreneur, lawyer, and banker Samuel Hawkins' financial, agricultural, civic, and religious activities in Sumter County during the final months of Reconstruction.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Georgia 1867-1970
Vanishing Georgia
Nearly 18,000 historic photographs from private collections

Special Collections

Ingram LIbrary's Special Collections has a rich variety of primary sources that you can make use of. Find more info about Special Collections here:

Special Collections at UWG