Tennessee History: A Guide to Primary Sources
Civil War
Home | Last updated: 10/4/2002 | Suggestion Box


Digital Collections from Tennessee Archives & Libraries

Ullrich, Dieter, ed. The Civil War Diary of Van Buren Oldham [online]. [Martin, Tenn.: D. Ullrich, 1999].

Digital Collections from Other Archives & Libraries

The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress [online]. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2001-2002 [cited 1 June 2002]. Available from: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.

Alice Williamson Diary: An Online Archival Collection [Online]. Durham, NC: Special Collections Library, Duke University, 1996.
An 1864 diary of a schoolgirl from Gallatin, Tennessee. Includes images and a transcription of the diary.

Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Southern Currency [online]. [Baton Rouge, La.: United States Civil War Center, Louisiana State University, 2000- [cited 13 August 2002]. Available from: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/cwc/BeyondFaceValue/beyondfacevalue.htm.
Three of the 75 notes in this collection were issued in Tennessee.

Civil War Maps [online]. [Washington, D.C.]: Library of Congress, 1999- [cited 30 May 2002]. Available from: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/cwmhtml/.

Manuscripts from the Civil War Era [online]. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Library, c2002 [cited 4 October 2002]. Available from: http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/civil_war/index.shtml.
See the Thomas Family Correspondence and the Harrison E. Randall Letters.

The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865 [online]. [Chapel Hill, N.C.]: Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998- [cited 28 May 2002]. Available from: http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/index.html.

The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies [online].
This site offers an online version of the 70 volume print edition of primary source material from the U.S. Civil War. The print edition was originally published in 1880-1901. It contains reports and correspondence produced by the Union and Confederate armies and various governmental bodies of the period. This website is part of Cornell University's "Making of America" series.

Commercial Digital Collections

The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries [online]. Alexandria, Va.: Alexander Street Press, 2002- . When complete, the collection will include more than 100,000 pages of primary materials. One can limit a search by location or battle name on the advanced search page.


Guides to Archival Collections


Primary Sources: Microform Collections

Regimental histories of the American Civil War. Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI, 1991-1993.

Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century: Papers and Diaries. Series A, Holdings of the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Part 3: Louisiana and Mississippi Collections. Bethesda, Md.: University Publications of America, [1991]. Overview from the publisher includes a description of the Gale and Polk Family Papers.

State Secession Debates, 1859-1862. Millwood, N.Y. : KTO Microform, c1976.

Travels in the Confederate States [microform]. Louisville, Ky. : Lost Cause Press, [197-?].
Microfiche collection of 485 titles from the bibliography Travels in the Confederate States by Ellis Merton Coulter published in 1948.


Primary Sources: Recent Books

Researchers can find references to older books in Tennessee History: A Bibliography (University of Tennessee Press, 1974) and A Bibliography of Tennessee History, 1973-1996 (University of Tennessee Press, 1999).

Brown, G. Campbell. Campbell Brown's Civil War with Ewell and the Army of Northern Virginia. Edited by Terry L. Jones. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001. 448p.

Brownlow, William Gannaway. Secessionists and Other Scoundrels: Selections from Parson Brownlow's Book. Edited by Stephen V. Ash. Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, c1999.

Inman, Myra. Myra Inman: A Diary of the Civil War in East Tennessee. Edited by William R. Snell. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2000. 395p.



Tennessee History: A Guide to Primary Sources