CIVIL WAR RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET

Research into the American Civil War continues to benefit, as does all other subjects, from the extensive amount of material on the Internet. The constant addition of still more relevant sites makes any list or book outdated but the list below can make a good beginning for finding your soldier, sailor, regiment, battle, campaign etc. Many state archives have public online access to at least some of their records holdings. The web sites of the archives of Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, for example, have digital copies of their respective state Confederate pensions. For other sites, the researcher should consult Alice E. Carter and Richard J. Jensen, The Civil War on the Web: a Guide to the Very Best Sites—Completely Revised and Updated (Wilmington: SR Books, 2003).

GENERAL WEB SITES

The American Civil War Homepage (free)

http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war

The Civil War Home Page (free)

http://www.civil-war.net

Civil War (free)

http://www.civilwar.com

Civil War Forum (free, part of the Genforum genealogical web sites)

http://genforum.genealogy.com/civilwar

Civil War Potpourri (free)

http://www.civilwarhome.com/potpourr.htm

Genweb (several of its state sites have Civil War projects)

http://www.usgenweb.org/

ROSTERS AND LISTS

Ancestry.com (subscription required; includes indexes to Confederate and Union soldiers; index to Federal Civil War pensions; service records of African-American soldiers in the Union Army; many records from prisons that held Confederate soldiers; some Civil War claims, and more)

http://www.ancestry.com

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (free, operated by the National Park Service)

http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss

Free Genealogy Search Engines

http://surnamesupersearch.com/index.html

Genealogy Today

http://www.genealogytoday.com

Veterans Administration National Grave Site Locator (free but incomplete)

http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/j2ee/servlet/NGL_v1

NAVY

Information on sailors and marines (free, Library of Virginia)

http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/connavy/search.asp

National Civil War Naval Museum (free, Columbus, Georgia)

http://civilwarnavalmuseum.com

Naval Historical Foundation

http://www.navyhistory.org/photographs

BOOKS INCLUDING THOSE SEARCHED BY “[PHRASE]” AND/OR WORD

The best source for finding the nearest library with a specific volume is World Cat http://www.worldcat.org although Internet Archive leads to books and manuscripts frees on the Internet: http://www.archive.org . Aside from searching for books on your subject in such online sales catalogs as Abebooks, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com, as well as large online library book catalogs as those for the Library of Congress and the Birmingham Public Library, you should also check for information on new books at

http://history-sites.com/authors.htm

Books word searched and actual pages read on the screen:

Making of America (MOA) Cornell (free; includes the original War of the Rebellion and the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies series; the supplement to the War of the Rebellion is not yet on the Internet)

http://digital.library.cornell.edu/m/moa

Making of America (MOA) University of Michigan (free)

http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp

Google books (free; go to Google.com and click on “more” then “books”)

Questia (free searches but a subscription is required to see the actual pages of the books)

http://www.questia.com/popularSearches

MANUSCRIPT CATALOGS

Some libraries have spectacular Civil War holdings that can be searched from their individual library web sites including Tulane, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Southern Historical Collection), Emory University, and the William L. Clements Library. Almost all National Park Service battlefields and other Civil War sites have libraries with manuscript materials.

Catalogs searched in major research libraries that are subscribers:

Archives Grid (free identification of collections but to learn libraries that have specific collections requires a subscription)

http://www.archivegrid.org/web/index.jsp

FirstSearch (OCLC)

http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC; free, does not include entries from its published edition, 1953-1986):

http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc

NEWSPAPERS THAT CAN BE SEARCHED AND ARTICLES READ

Many large research libraries subscribe to data bases of the past issues of such newspapers as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Incomplete international bibliographies of digitized newspaper sites include International Coalition on Newspapers: http://icon.crl.edu/digitization.htm; by the web site Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_newspaper_archives; and by the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/oltitles.html. The Library of Congress web site’s Chronicling America only includes newspapers for 1880-1920 but those include many but not all of the issues of the Civil War veteran’s newspaper The National Tribune with its many tales and reminiscences of the war http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle (subscription web site)

http://www.augustaarchives.com

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1842-1902 (free)

http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle

California Digital Newspaper Collection (you must turn on the phrase search control): http://cbsr.tabbec.com

Colorado Digitization Project, Newspapers (free)

http://www.cdpheritage.org/collection/chnc.cfm

Digital Library of Georgia (free), which so far includes newspapers for Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, and Milledgeville: http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/?Welcome

Genealogybank (subscription web site, includes some Columbus and Macon newspapers; taken from Readex’s American Historical Newspapers data base which has a better search engine; the Woodruff library of Emory University has the Readex version)

http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/keyword.html

Memphis Appeal, 1843-1859, 186-1893 (index only; free)

https://umdrive.memphis.edu/mckibben/www/appeal.html

NewspaperArchive.com (subscription required but includes more than seventy million pages): http://www.newspaperarchive.com/

Thomson Gale’s 19th Century Newspapers (available only at major research libraries such as the Woodruff Library of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia State University in Atlanta, and at the Tennessee State Library and Archives); you have to turn on the feature for full text searches, otherwise it only searches the headlines.

Richmond Daily Dispatch, 1860-1865 (free)

http://dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr/

MAPS (all free)

Bibliographies of web sites for historic and modern maps include the Air University: http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/maps/general.htm and the Perry-Castaneda Map Collection of the University of Texas: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps

Library of Congress American Memory (includes Civil War era maps from the Library of Congress, National Archives, and Virginia Historical Society)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps

Alabama’s historical maps

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/index.html

Georgia’s historical maps

http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/gamaps.htm

ILLUSTRATIONS

Aside from going to Google and searching through “Images,” the following sites are good for pictures and other illustrations:

Civil War Photos, Library of Congress (high quality copies can be downloaded for free)

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp

CivilWarPhotos.Net

http://www.civilwarphotos.net

Digital History

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/timeline/timelineN.cfm

Picture History

http://www.picturehistory.com

MISCELLANEOUS

Civil War Richmond (free; newspaper articles, photographs, and more on Richmond)

http://www.mdgorman.com

Vicki Bett’s site on newspaper articles from throughout the country (1861-1865) on social history (particularly women) during the Civil War (free)

http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts

For history in general see:
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html

Coy E Michael wrote: I found this Civil War Site listing at

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/teacher/netres.html#GenAla.

* Alabama Civil War Soldiers database

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/civilwar/index.cfm

* Willis Brewer's Brief Historical Sketches of Military

Organizations Raised In Alabama During the Civil War

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/referenc/alamilor/mil_org.html

* Alabama Confederate Military Unit Histories at the ADAH

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/referenc/reghist.html

* Confederate Regimental History Links

http://www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/confeds.html

* Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: Civil War Unit

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/teacher/civil.html

*Documenting the Civil War Period Flag Collection at the Alabama

Department of Archives and History

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/referenc/flags/intro.html

*The Civil War in Alabama

http://www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/alabama.htmlhttp://www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/alabama.html

http://groups.msn.com/CivilWarAlabama/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us

* Alabama Civil War Map of Battles

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/al.html

* The Alabama Civil War Roots Homepage

http://www.rootsweb.com/~alcwroot/

* Alabama in the Civil War Message Board

http://history-sites.com/cgi-bin/boards/alcwmb/

* Constitution of the Confederate States of America http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/csa/csa.htmhttp://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/csa/csa.htm

* William Lowndes Yancey, a Bibliography http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7647/wly.htmhttp://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7647/wly.htm

* William Lowndes Yancey (1814-1863): Famous Orator and Secessionist of the South

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7647/wly2.htm

* Alabama's Ordinance of Secession

http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/constitutions/1861/1861ord1_20.html#anchor588392

* Alabama's Constitution of 1861

http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/constitutions/1861/1861.html

* Confederate Constitution

http://www.maitreg.com/politics/documents/confederate.asp

* Jefferson Davis' First Inaugural Address

http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/resources.cfm?doc_id=1508

* The Papers of Jefferson Davis

http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/

* Historic Blakeley State Park

http://new.siteone.com/sites/blakeleypark.com/civilwar.asp

* The Mobile Campaign/ Battle of Fort Blakeley and Spanish Fort

http://new.siteone.com/sites/blakeleypark.com/battlehistory.htm

* Hawkins' Division of 6,000 Black Troops

http://new.siteone.com/sites/blakeleypark.com/usct.htm

* United States Colored Troops in the Mobile Campaign

http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/MO_USCT.HTM

* CSS Alabama Digital Collection

http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/digital/cssala/main.shtml

* CSS Alabama -- Naval Historic Center

http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org12-1.htm

* The Official Site of the Friends of the Hunley

http://www.hunley.org/ (http://www.hunley.org/)

*The Hunley

http://www.thehunley.com/Artifacts/buttontype.htm

* Denbigh: Archaeology of a Civil War Blockade Runner

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/projects/denbigh/denbigh.html

*The Selma Campaign

http://members.aol.com/wwhitby/campaign.html

* Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, 1832-1915: A Southern Woman's War Time

Reminiscences

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/saxon/menu.html

* Frances Woolfolk Wallace, b. 1835, Diary, March 19-August 25, 1864

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/wallace/menu.html

* A Belle of the Fifties: Memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, Covering

Social and Political Life in Washington and the South, 1853-66.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/clay/menu.html

* Shelby Iron Company

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/shelby/menu.html

* Joseph Wheeler: Lt. General, Confederate States General, United

States Army, Member of Congress

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/jwheeler.htm

* Pond Spring and the Joe Wheeler Home

http://www.wheelerplantation.org/

* Alabama State Memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park

http://www.nps.gov/vick/al/al_stm.htm

* Fort Gaines

http://andy_bennett.home.mindspring.com/gaines.html

* Fort Morgan

http://andy_bennett.home.mindspring.com/morgan.html

* 1st Ala. Cavalry, U.S. Volunteers

http://www.1stalabamacavalryusv.com/

* U.S. Civil War Center

http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/

* Civil War Prisoner/prison Search Site

http://home.jam.rr.com/rjcourt52/cwprisons/index.html

* Civil War Prisons

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~south1/prisons.htm

* Civil War Photos of Confederate Soldiers

http://www.geocities.com/coh41/home.html

* Confederate Officers Photo Album

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/conoffalb/index.html

* Civil War Photographs

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html

*The Civil War Preservation Trust

http://www.civilwar.org

* Jews in the Civil War

http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/Default.htm

* National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System

http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/

* Civil War Battle summaries by state

http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/bystate.htm