Civil War Primary Sources

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
20,000 documents pertaining to the general correspondence of Abraham Lincoln.

The Civil War Collection at Michigan State University
A research guide accessible from the homepage details the letters, papers, newspapers, and records available in this collection.

The Civil War Collection at Penn State
Diaries, newspapers, and other Civil War content.

Civil War Diaries and Letters
Items organized into categories and by year.

Civil War Diaries and Letters Collections
Civil War letters and diaries transcribed.

Civil War on the Western Border
A collaboration of Kansas City libraries, this site offers scanned images of Civil War documents that are also transcribed.

The Civil War: Women and the Homefront
Digitized diaries of women during the Civil War, as well as outside links to other Civil War collections focusing on women.

Manuscripts of the American Civil War
Features diaries of soldiers from both the north and the south.

South Carolina and the Civil War
Scanned collection of a variety of Civil War documents.

Valley of the Shadow
Focuses on documents originating from a northern town in Pennsylvania and a southern town in Virginia.

Wisconsin Goes to War
More than 2,600 pages of journals, diaries, and papers from Wisconsin Civil War soldiers.