Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
by Alan C. Aimone
This topic discusses the Official Records and other primary sources on the Civil War.
If you can read only one book:
Aimone, Alan Conrad and Barbara A. A User’s Guide to the Official Records of the American Civil War. Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Publishing, 1993.
Books:
There are so many items in the list of primary and important secondary sources on the Civil War that we have not reproduced them here. Please open the Official Records Resources document to view them all.
Organizations:
No organizations listed.
Web Resources:
Baylor University Libraries Making of America contains a free on-line version of the OR.
eHistory is an on-line free resource provided by The Department of History at The Ohio State University.
The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. This site provides free access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
The HathiTrust Digital Library brings together the immense collections of partner institutions in digital form, preserving them securely to be accessed and used today, and in future generations. Currently the Digital Library has almost 4 billion pages of material digitized.
19th Century Masterfile is a paid subscription website that aggregates pre-1930 scholarly materials.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University is houses a pristine copy of the War of the Rebellion Atlas, and in 2010 the Digitization Projects Group scanned the plates and placed them online in this collection. The maps are searchable by keywords, including military personnel, city, state, and geographic features.
U.S. Military Academy Library. Research Guides: Civil War Research provides suggested approaches to primary and secondary American Civil War research materials both online and print.
American National Biography Online offers an exploration of American history through the lives of the men & women who shaped the nation. Note this is a subscription site.
Other Sources:
H-Bar Enterprises
This website sells CD –ROM versions of the ORs, Southern Historical Society Papers and other source documents.Confederate Imprints
A Confederate imprint is a book or document printed in the Confederate States of America in a location which was under Confederate control at the date of printing. There are many sources of Confederate imprints available on line. Duke University holds one of the world’s largest collections of Confederate imprints available without charge.19th Century American Newspapers
A number of Confederate battle repots, especially late in the war and those for the trans-Mississippi were only published in regional newspapers. There are many sources of 19th century American newspapers available on line. Duke University has a large on line collection of 19th century newspapers available without charge.
