Civil War Resources Erie County Community College: Primary sources
Primary, Secondary, Tertiary sources
Primary sources
What is a primary source?
Primary sources are often referred to as first hand accounts or original records. Some primary sources are written at the time of an event, and others, like an autobiography, are written long after the event has occurred.
Some examples listed below:
- Letters
- Diaries
- Autobiographies
- Speeches
- Newspaper articles written at the time of the event
- Maps
- Statistics
- Oral histories
Professor Forrester's Recommended Resources
- Official Records of the War of the RebellionCompilation of reports, letters and other correspondence from both the Union and Confederacy.
- Battles & Leaders of the Civil WarContains first person accounts from both Union and Confederate officers
- Civil War Primary Sources List from University of RochesterList of high-quality sources from the University of Rochester
- Making of America--Cornell UniversityAlternate, more searchable, location for the Official Records of the War of the Republic. Search tip: After retrieving results, sort by relevance instead of alphabetically
- Chronicling AmericaFrom the Library of Congress, contains digitized newspapers from across the country with articles ranging in years from 1777 - 1963
National Archives/Library of Congress
- National ArchivesTry searching the National Archives Catalog for primary sources
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionThe digitized collection of the Library of Congress
E-Books from Ebsco
To find primary sources, search diary or diaries or journal and Civil War in the Ebsco Community College e-book collection (link below). Click here to access the username and password for off-campus access
- Ebsco Community College E-book Collection This link opens in a new window
Access thousands of academic and trade e-books on a wide variety of topics specially selected for community college students, from introductory to higher level.
The following books are examples of primary sources from EC3's Ebsco e-book collection.
Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight by Experience of a Confederate officer who fought in the battles of Chickamauga, Atlanta, Nashville, and Bentonville
The Civil War Diary of Gideon Welles, Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy by Meticulously kept diary details inner workings of the Lincoln administration during the war, and battle strategies devised by the military
Additional E-books
The following full-text memoirs are freely available from Hathi Trust, a great source for free full-text books from libraries across the country.
- Memoirs of William T. ShermanFull-text version of Sherman's memoirs. Included in the memoirs are details of his experiences in the Civil War. Note: A physical copy of this book is available at the Erie County Public Library.
- Personal Memoirs of U.S. GrantThis link contains both volume 1 and volume 2 of the memoirs. A physical copy of this book is available at the Erie County Public Library