Civil War/Reconstruction

Background and Context  --  HOLLIS Subject Terms  --  Periodical Articles  --  Document Collections

Background and Context  

The Cambridge history of the American Civil War, edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2019. 3 volumes 
Volume 1 Military affairs.
Volume 2 Affairs of the state.
Volume 3 Affairs of the people.
Print version
Online

Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction era, ed. by Richard Zuczek. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2006. 2 v.
HOLLIS Record 
Internet Archive Full Text (vol. 2 only)

HOLLIS Subject Terms

  • Reconstruction
  • United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865

Periodical Articles 

For Newspapers, see the Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes

Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe)

Illustrated Civil War Newspapers and Magazines includes Union, Confederate, Abolitionist, and British papers.

ProQuest Civil War Era (1840-1865) includes complete runs of eight newspaper titles, covering 1840-1865: Richmond Dispatch (Virginia), Charleston Mercury (South Carolina), New Orleans Times Picayune (Louisiana), Boston Herald, New York Herald, Columbus State Journal (Ohio), The Kentucky Daily Journal, and Memphis Daily Appeal.

Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe)

Document Collections

The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

The American Civil War Collection, 1860-1922 offers over 13,500 works published between 1860 and 1922.

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) (1855-1875) includes published memoirs, letters, and diaries, plus 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Includes works by a variety of individuals including soldiers, politicians, wives, spies. Supplementary material includes chronologies, biographies, bibliographies, and facsimiles of selected texts.

American History, 1493-1945 (Material from the Gilder Lehrman Collection) includes extensive archival and printed material. Offers material on the Civil War era including a collection of newspapers and magazines. Choose Sub-Collection: Civil War

The Civil War (Accessible Archives)
Includes:

  • The Civil War, a newspaper perspective
    • New York herald
    • Daily Richmond enquirer
    • Richmond enquirer 
    • Charleston mercury
  • Personal narratives
    • The Civil War, the soldier's perspective
    • The Civil War, the general's perspective
  • The Civil War, a Midwestern perspective: Vincennes Gazette (1855-1869); The Vincennes Times (1865-1866); Vincennes Western Sun (1856-1869); Stars & Stripes (1862: 2 issues); The Old Post Union (1862: 5 months worth) - became The Vincennes Times; Vincennes Courant (1855-1856) and News of the Day (1855-1857)
  • The Civil War, Iowa's perspective: Memoirs, pamphlets, and regimental histories.
  • The Civil War, Northeast Regimental histories.

Images of the American Civil War (Alexander Street) offers photographs, wartime recruiting posters, envelopes, and other ephemera.

ProQuest Civil War Era (1840-1865) includes nearly 2,000 pamphlets.