Civil War Links
The War Between the States on the
Web
TheOldenTimes.com Genealogy &
History - Historic Newspapers Online
Always FREE!
Learn more about the defining experience of a generation.
Did you Civil War ancestor fight to save the Union? To defend his home? To free himself from slavery and bondage?
Was he a Northern civilian, reading about the war in the newspapers? Was he a Southern civilian, too old or too sick or too crippled to join a regiment? Was he an immigrant just off a European boat, short on English but long on draft-ability?
Did she rear her children with an a hostile army camped in her yard? Did she have to leave her home as shells whistled nearer and nearer? Did she and her children wait anxiously for news from a husband and father gone far away to fight? Did she wonder whether she would ever see her only brother again? Did she join her neighbors and sisters and aunts to knit socks for soldiers?
What was it like?
It's hard to know today, though diaries and letters and memoirs do survive. I have only one family story that's been passed down to me about my own great-grandparents (the generation in my family who lived through the Civil War), and no physical artifacts other than copies of 2 photographs: one of Mary Virginia Dowdy (1850-1921) and one of James William and a copy of a photograph of Mary Virginia Dowdy, my great-grandmother (1850-1921).
Unfortunately, if you're like me, you may have almost nothing at all. That's when we rely on historical context: we learn as much as we can about their communities, their neighbors, their occupations and the lifestyles of others of their socioeconomic class and social standing.
We learn everything we can about events they would have experienced, whether those events were local (an early rainy season that wiped out a cotton crop) or global (a world war, the 1918 flu epidemic).
Ancestry.com has several excellent articles on the subject of historical context in their online library. Browse their historical context library archive for more information, including such articles as
Civil War Records: Valuable Sources for Genealogists by Kip Sperry
The Transition from Slavery to Freedom by David Thackery
The Civil War Prison at Andersonville by William G. Burnett
and others. Many other subjects are covered as well.
This is a new section and will be growing as I add new links. Be sure to stop back by and see what's new!
Illinois Civil War Veterans Database New Link!
Online Archive of Terry's Texas Rangers
Sharing & preserving the history of the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment, 1861-1865NARA Article: The Shady Side of the Family Tree: Civil War Union Court-Martial Case Files
The Civil War in Arkansas Outstanding!
The American Civil War Homepage
Civil War Women - Online Archival Collections at Duke University
Civil War Memories of Robert C. Carden, Co. B, 16th TN Infantry
Louisiana Civil War RecordsGeorge Connor's helpful article in the Ancestry.com Library.
The 12th Tennessee Cavalry, CSA
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System
Search the Brooklyn, NY Civil War Deaths Database.
From Amazon.com
My Passage at the New Orleans Tribune: A Memoir of the Civil War EraFind out more about the lives of Civil War P. O. W.'s at the Elmira Prison Camp Online Library.
Texas Confederate Pension Index
Ancestry Databases:
Military Regimental Histories
can hold clues to your ancestor's wartime experiences, as George Morgan writes in this Ancestry library article.
Researching the Military Heroes in Your Family History
The Sultana Disaster, 27 April 1865
