AMERICAN CIVIL WAR SOURCES

AMERICAN CIVIL WARSOURCES

Based on Presentation

Delivered to HST 304

OUTLINE• Civil War Search Strategies

in the Online Catalog• Online Reference Tools• Finding Primary Sources

• Online Catalog• American Memory• Am. Civil War Letters &

Diaries• Official Records• Harper’s Weekly

• Questions

Search Strategies in the Online Catalog:Unit Histories

SUBJECTS:1. United States. Army.

Michigan Infantry Regiment, 24th (1862-1865)

2. United States. Army. Iron Brigade

3. United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Regimental Histories

4. Michigan—History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Regimental Histories

Unit HistoriesUse this “Advanced Keyword Search”

Template

• SUBJECT: CIVIL WAR 1861• SUBJECT: [COUNTRY OR

STATE]• SUBJECT: [TYPE OF UNIT]• Any Field: [NUMERICAL

PERMUTATIONS]

EXAMPLES:

Battles and Campaigns:Use Subject Search:

Names of a Battle or Campaign• Antietam, Battle of, Md., 1862• Corydon, Battle of, Corydon, Ind., 1863• Morgan’s Ohio Raid, 1863• New Mexico Campaign, 1862• Petersburg Crater, Battle of, Va., 1864• Sherman’s March to the Sea • Valverde, Battle of Val Verde, N.M., 1862• Wilderness, Battle of the, Va., 1864

SiegesUse this format in the Subject Catalog[City (State)] – History -- Siege, [date]

• Baton Rouge (La.) – History – Siege, 1862• Charleston (S.C) – History – Siege, 1863• Corinth (Miss.) – History – Siege, 1863• Fort Fisher (N.C.) – History – Siege, 1864-

1865• Knoxville (Tenn.) – History – Siege, 1863• Petersburg (Va.) – History – Siege, 1864-

1865

COMBINE “REGIMENTAL HISTORIES”WITH A BATTLE’S NAME

General Ben “The Beast” Butler

What the !!!???***

West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Shirelle Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman. Vol. 2. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2005. p195.

PRIMARY SOURCES:Definition

“…items that are directly associated with their producer or user and the time period in which they were created. Examples, include diaries, newspapers articles, government documents, photographs, oral interviews, and news broadcasts.”

Presnell, Jenny L. The information-literate historian : a guide to research for history students (New York : Oxford University Press, 2007): 93.

CAUTION: MEMOIRS

SOURCE: Hamilton, Milton. "Augustus Buell: Fraudulent Historian", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 80 (1956), 478-92

FINDING PRIMARY SOURCESIN THE ONLINE CATALOG:

1. See if your person wrote something

AUSTIN BLAIR

ONLINE CATALOG SEARCH

RESEARCH IN AN ARCHIVES

FINDING PRIMARY SOURCESIN THE ONLINE CATALOG:

2. RESTRICT BY DATE OF PUBLICATION

JUDAH BENJAMIN: • 2nd Jewish Senator

in U.S. History• Confederate:

– Attorney General– Secretary of War– Secretary of State

• British Legal Expert

FINDING PRIMARY SOURCESIN THE ONLINE CATALOG:

3. STANDARDIZED

SUBDIVISIONS

sources manuscripts

archives notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.

archival resources personal narratives, American, Chinese, Finnish

correspondence personnel records

diaries records and correspondence

Operations at Sea: Diary

Memoir of Sarah Emma Edmonds

I was ordered by General H. to pass the rebel lines, and return as soon as possible. I took the train at Warrenton Junction, went to Washington, procured a disguise, that of a female contraband, and returned the same night. I passed through the enemy's lines in company with nine contrabands, men, women, and children, who preferred to live in bondage with their friends, rather than to be free without them. I had no difficulty whatever in getting along, for I, with several others, was ordered to headquarters to cook rations enough, the rebels said, to last them until they reached Washington.

‘GENERAL SIBLEY”

“OFFICIAL RECORDS”SETS

War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the

Union and Confederate Armies

VOL. 9 PRINT INDEX

VOL. 9 ONLINE SEARCH RESULTS

Vol. 9

A MICHIGANDER:G.A. CUSTER

QUESTIONS

DRILL

1. Did the Union Navy build submarines? (Actual question)

2. Did Black Confederate units fight Union troops?

3. Was the cause of the war Slavery or States’ Rights?

4. Does the library have any alternative history books on the South winning the war?

5. What’s a Civil War bounty jumper? Family stories says that one of our Quebec relatives did that.

Did the Union Navy build submarines?

1. Reference Universe. Keyword: Civil War submarine* Submarines: An Illustrated History of its Impact -- 2007, ABC-CLIO [V857.F65 2007]

2. OPAC Subject searches:a. united states navy history civil war 1861-1865b. Submarines (Ships) -- History. c. Submarines (Ships) -- United States – History

3. America, History & Life: “civil war” & submarine* -- Portrait of possibility: The Submarine Alligator. By: Maloney, Janet M.. Civil War Times, Dec2005, Vol. 44 Issue 5, p34-40

4. Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. a. Hunley & Charleston = “Submarine torpedo boat”b. Submarine torpedo boat & Alligator

Did Black Confederate units fight Union troops?

1. America, History & Life: “black soldiers” & confed* --

a. Black Soldiers, Southern Victory? By: Van Der Linden, Frank. Civil War Times, Oct2007, Vol. 46 Issue 8, p28-35,

DE "SOLDIERS, Black“ & DE " CONFEDERATE States of America. Army“ – 2 hitsb. MORE BLACK CONFEDERATES? By: Lowry,

Thomas P.; Ledoux, Albert H.. North & South: The Official Magazine of the Civil War Society, Jul2009, Vol. 11 Issue 3, p58-60,

INDEX: “Slavery” See Also:“African

American Soldiers C.S.A.”

“African American Soldiers C.S.A.” (page 18)

“Aside from the service of the Louisiana Native Guards at the outbreak of the war, and the several companies of African-Americans organized in Richmond in March 1865, there is little documentation indicating that blacks served as combat soldiers in Southern armies in anything but the most negligible of numbers.”

Was the cause of the war Slavery or States’ Rights?

INDEX: State rights, 387, 1531-1536

as basis of secession, 1373

SECESSION“Secession Looms” (p. 1376)

“Young slaveholding lawyers and planters spearheaded secession…Their recently acquired wealth in land and slaves rested on a rickety structure of credit that required rising slave prices to keep from collapsing. Economic self interest…drove them to secession once Lincoln’s election threatened to limit Southern growth by ending the expansion of slavery.”

Does the library have any alternative history books on the South winning

the war?

What’s a Civil War bounty jumper?

AHL: "bounty jumper*“ & 1861-1865THE BOUNTY JUMPERS OF INDIANA. By: Barnett, James. Civil War History, Dec1958, Vol. 4 Issue 4, p429-436,

GOOGLE BOOKS"bounty jumper“ AND canadian

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