Browse primary source material in American history. The collection includes historical periodicals and books, with eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records.
The Civil War Collection Part I, A Newspaper Perspective: Contains news articles, eye-witness accounts and official reports of battles and events, editorials, advertisements and biographies gleaned from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865. Coverage begins with the events preceding the outbreak of war at Fort Sumter, continues through the surrender at Appomattox and concludes with the assassination and funeral of Abraham Lincoln.
The Civil War Collection Part II, The Soldiers’ Perspective: The Soldiers’ Perspective, provides an in-depth look at the day-to-day actions of the troops themselves primarily in the form of regimental histories.
The Civil War Collection Part III, The Generals’ Perspective: The Generals’ Perspective allows a look into the way the battles within the war were fought. Here the emphasis is on strategies and tactics as planned and executed by the commanding officers, with a longer-term view as opposed to daily concerns.
The Civil War Collection Part IV, A Midwestern Perspective: A Midwestern Perspective section of our Civil War collection consists of seven newspapers published in Indiana between the years of 1855 and 1869.These newspapers provide pre-and post-Civil War information, in addition to coverage of the Civil War itself.
The Civil War Collection Part V, Iowa’s Perspective: This collection consists of memoirs, pamphlets, and regimental histories that provide battle perspectives from both soldiers and generals, with additional accounts of Midwest action. Iowa provided more troops per capita than any other Union state, and these writings reflect the experiences of Iowa soldiers as they fought in nearly all the campaigns and major battles throughout the war years.
The Civil War Collection Part VI, Northeast Regimental Histories: These Union regimental histories provide details on the organization and achievements of particular units, including such items as regimental rosters, transportation documents, honor rolls and casualty statistics and promotion and court martial documents.
The Civil War Collection Part VII, Abraham Lincoln Library Abolitionist Books: This unique collection brings together a disparate group of abolitionist era reference materials. Ranging from memoirs to speeches, biographies to essays, sermons to proceedings minutes, these publications provide an intimate insight into the social, political and religious natures of these contentious times.
