LibGuides: History Research: HIST 316 Civil War America

Introduction

Welcome to the American Civil War Guide!
This guide is geared towards undergraduate students taking the History 316: Civil War America, 1846 - 1877 course, and is intended to introduce you to a variety of reliable resources useful in conducting research on a wide range of topics related to American Civil War history (also referred to as the United States Civil War and the War Between the States).

Civil War periods covered by resources in this guide:

1846 - 1860: The Pre-War "Antebellum Period."
1861 - 1865: The War: Battle Years
1865 - 1877: The Post-War "Reconstruction Period."

In this guide, discover:

subject heading and keyword suggestions to get you started in your search for books and other Civil War history materials.
scholarly e-journals that primarily focus on Civil War history
background information included in the encyclopedia and other reference works
databases for locating research articles
credible websites covering various topics related to the Civil War, such as causes, course, and its immediate aftermath.
images
narrative histories, archived collections, and more (many as digitized scans of primary-source documents)

Please note this guide is not exhaustive. It does not list all of the resources or categories available on American Civil War history but will function as a good tool as you move along in your research.

Relevant Call Numbers to Browse

For browsing purposes, some relevant Library of Congress call numbers for the United States Civil War are:

E456-655        Civil War period, 1861-1865
E456-459      Lincoln's administrations, 1861-April 15, 1865
E461-655    The Civil War, 1861-1865
E482-489    Confederate States of America
E491-586    Armies. Troops
E591-600    Naval history
E668               Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)

Keyword and Subject Heading Suggestions

Some suggested keywords:

Abolition
Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation Proclamation
Civil War Battles
Civil War Causes
Civil War and Gettysburg
Civil War and Slavery
Civil War Casualties
Civil War Soldiers
Civil War Statistics
Confederate Army
Confederate States of America
Secession
Union Army
War Between the States

Suggested subject phrases, starting with the main Library of Congress heading:

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Battlefields
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Biography
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Campaigns
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 --Causes
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Diaries
United States--History--Civil War, 1861 - 1865--Influence--Sources
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Maps
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Military life
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Naval operations, Confederate
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Reconstruction
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Religious aspects
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Social aspects
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Songs & music--Union

Any of these can be copied directly into Primo or a database and searched with the Keyword or Subject fields.

Featured Databases

America: History and Life (EBSCO interface) This link opens in a new window
A primary database for locating articles on American History, including the Civil War. Includes article citation indexing and full-text of over 40 academic journals in American History Studies, including several that solely cover Civil War history. Some relevant titles include Civil War History, Journal of American History, Civil War Regiments, and Journal of Southern History.

Search tip: Try limiting your search by historic period. This option is located below the search text box and within the 'Limit your results' section. Civil War history can cover not only the war years from 1861-1865, but also include both the years just prior to the war, known as the Antebellum Period, and the years after the war from 1865-1877, known as the Reconstruction Period. Limiting by historic period will generate search results for research on that specified time period.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences I - XV This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text of numerous journals covering aspects of American History Studies, including coverage of Civil War history. A couple of relevant titles include The William and Mary Quarterly and the Journal of African American History.

Search tip: When using this database, try conducting an advanced search where you can easily limit results by item type (e.g., articles, time of publication). Additionally, you may want to try narrowing by discipline(s) (e.g., History, African American Studies, American Studies). These options are located on the advanced search screen.
ProjectMUSE This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text of numerous journals covering American History Studies, including coverage of Civil War history. A couple of relevant titles include Alabama Review and Journal of the Civil War Era.

Search tip: When browsing, there are a number of more narrow research areas organized under the broad research areas that are not immediately apparent. To access the narrow research areas, you will need to click on the Browse button a second time. Let's take the broad research area of History as an example. By clicking the Browse button a second time, you will be provided with a listing of all broad and narrow research areas available. For Civil War history research the narrower topic of 19th Century under U.S. History would be good to browse through.

Selected Relevant Journals

Relevant Journals:

Below are links to two resources for scholarly e-journals dedicated specifically to the study of the United States Civil War (Regent user ID and password are required to access content).

Civil War History Full-text articles available through the Project MUSE - Premium Collection database with coverage from 1978 to the present. Features research on the "sectional conflict in the United States, focusing on social, cultural, economic, political, and military issues from antebellum America through Reconstruction. Articles have featured research on slavery, abolitionism, women and war, Abraham Lincoln, fiction, national identity, and various aspects of the Northern and Southern military".

Search the journal and access full-text articles from Project Muse one of two ways. Either browse the content of any available issue by clicking on the links associated to a specific volume, number, and date and then scroll to view the table of contents, or search all available volumes through a keyword(s) search. For this option, click on the 'Search Journal' tab and enter your keyword(s), such as "causes," in the 'Search inside this journal' box. At the results screen, browse for interesting articles and click the associated HTML or PDF icons to access full-text versions.

Journal of the Civil War Era Full-text articles available through the Project MUSE - Premium Collection database with coverage from 2011 to present. Features research on the sectional crisis, war, Reconstruction, and memory of the conflict with perspective on the military, the political and legal history of the era.

Search the journal and access full-text articles one of two ways. Either browse the content of any available issue by clicking on the links associated with a specific volume, number, and date and then scroll to view the table of contents, or search all available volumes through a keyword(s) search. For this option, click on the 'Search Journal' tab and enter your keyword(s), such as "sectional crisis," in the 'Search inside this journal' box. At the results screen, browse for interesting articles and click the associated HTML or PDF icons to access full-text versions.

In addition to full-text access to the two scholarly journals, Regent Library provides full-text access to two reputable Civil War magazines (not considered scholarly publications) - America's Civil War and Civil War Times (previously Civil War Times Illustrated). These magazines emphasize battles and battle maps, strategies and leaders, biographies, eyewitness accounts, and period photographs.

Reference Works

Overview resources such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, almanacs, and biographical compilations are helpful reference tools providing summaries and background information, definitions, facts, biographic information, and more. Individual entries often include a bibliography and cross-listings that refer to related terms or articles elsewhere in the resource. These types of works can prove helpful in narrowing research topics or in fostering ideas for potential research topics. Look up encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books with keyword searches in the library catalog by adding a term like "encyclopedia" or "dictionary" to the keyword phrase search.

Following are selected reference resources, which either focus solely on the United States Civil War or have well-developed entries on the Civil War within the work.

The Oxford Companion to United States history Editor in Chief, Paul S. Boyer, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Includes an extensive multi-part overview article on the Civil War covering causes, military and diplomatic course, domestic effects, and changing interpretations. In addition, bibliographic profiles of major Civil War figures are given.

You can search within the electronic resource for information on Civil War history any of the following three ways:

(1) Enter a term(s) in the 'Search within work' box located at the right of the screen; or,

(2) Browse through entries or people arranged alphabetically; or,

(3) Enter keyword(s) in the 'Starting with' box.

Search tip: Start with the multi-part overview article on the Civil War and then use the links to related content (on the left sidebar) and/or the 'See also' topics given at the end of the entry to narrow the subject area.

Hutchinson Dictionary of American History Abingdon, GBR: Helicon Publishing, 2005.

Although not specific to the United States Civil War, this resource defines a substantial number of words and terms related to the Civil War, such as abolitionism, confederacy, union, reconstruction, emancipation, and many biographical entries of Civil War figures. Neither guide to pronunciation nor etymology is given.

You can search by browsing through the table of contents which lists all the entries alphabetically, or by entering a search term(s) in the 'Search Document' box.

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Civil War Author, William L. Barney, New York, NY: