NUCMC and the Documentary Heritage of the Civil War

Montage of Civil War images This Web presentation is part of a five year/five part effort to highlight program cataloging of the last quarter century, along with related visual content, in observance of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

Part 2, 2012 ("Gone to be a Soldier") personal narratives of members of the Union and Confederate armed forces is presented below. Succeeding years will feature the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and the African American experience from slavery to the end of the war (2013); the home front, women in the war, the role of charitable organizations, economic aspects of the war, and patriotic societies (2014); and the sesquicentennial of the death of Abraham Lincoln, Reconstruction, Confederate exiles, war monuments and the rise of veterans’ organizations (2015).

Part 2 (2012: "Gone to be a Soldier": Personal Narratives of Members of the Union and Confederate Armed Forces )

Firsthand accounts of Civil War battles/naval engagements of 1862; troop morale; opinions on Lincoln, officers, etc.; training; camp life; casualties; destruction and pillage; hospitals and medical care; prisoners and prisons; religious life; and desertions.

James K. Edmondson papers, 1856-1898 (Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.)
Edward M. Galligan diary, 1861-1863 (Montana Historical Society, Library and Archives Dept., Helena, Mont.)
Nelson L. Wandell, A Civil War record of Company K, 9th Vermont Volunteers, June 4, 1862-June 23, 1865 (Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro, Vt.)
Andrew Powell Civil War correspondence, 1862-1865 (Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, Ohio)
William R. Barry correspondence, 1855-1864 (South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, S.C.)
John E. Bowers Civil War letters, January 2, 1862-August 20, 1864 (Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, Ohio)
Edward Porter Alexander letter, 1863 May 11 (Pearce Museum at Navarro College, Corsicana, Tex.)
Hilary Valentine Harris, Autograph letter signed, July 7, 1863 (Pearce Museum at Navarro College, Corsicana, Tex.)
Daniel Garrison Brinton papers, 1863-1899 (Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pa.)
William Jonathan Davis papers, 1857-1908 (Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Ky.)
Granville W. and Mary Caroline Belcher letters, 1862-1864 (University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Miss.)
John Southworth letters, 1863-1864 (Duxbury Rural and Historical Society, Duxbury, Mass.)
Andrew Moffett Adger letters, May 21, 1864, and June 8, 1864 (South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, S.C.)
Lester S. Willson diaries, 1863-1865 (Montana State University--Bozeman Libraries, Bozeman, Mont.)
Herbert W. Mills collection, 1861-1865 and 20th century (Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Mass.)
Civil War letter of Myron Adams, August 19, 1864 (Pearce Museum at Navarro College, Corsicana, Tex.)
James W. McColl letters, 1864 (South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, S.C.)
William Clark Corson papers, 1861-1865 (Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va.)
Edward Hastings Ripley papers, 1840-1915 (Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vt.)
George B. Sanford manuscript collection, ca. 1893 (Litchfield Historical Society, Litchfield, Conn.)