Visit Your Local PBS Station PBS Home PBS Home Programs A-Z TV Schedules Watch Video Support PBS Shop PBS Search PBS
Detective Techniques
This Season's Highlights
Next on History Detectives.

WATCH SEASON 7 HIGHLIGHTS .

(Dur: 4.31)

Watch Video  Watch Video

MORE LEADS

Informants & Sources

Follow these links and leads to learn more about how to investigate the Civil War era in particular, and military research in general.

Military Records

Civil War Soldier Information - Vicksburg National Military Park
This page provides links to all State sources for service records, as well as some Federal records links.

Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System - National Park Service
A computerized database containing basic facts about 5.4 million soldiers who served on both sides during the Civil War. The site includes an interesting online exhibit about the daily life experience for Civil War soldiers.

Master Index of Army Records - U.S. Army Center of Military History
Plain vanilla site, but very concise. Records are identified by Group and relevant Repository. Includes official records, images, and "unofficial materials" such as unit histories, personal papers, and photos.

NARA, ALIC, Miltary Resources: Civil War - The National Archives

This National Archives resource links to 75 online sources for military records, with many links for Civil War investigations. It includes links to service records, regimental histories, photos, maps and flags. If you bookmark only one link, make it this one.

Prologue | Civil War - National Archives
A variety of topical articles about Civil War era research and records at NARA, oriented primarily toward genealogists.

Other Civil War sites

The Foot Soldier (QTVR) - Time of the Lincolns | American Experience | PBS
Listen to the contrasting sentiments of a Union and a Confederate, on a range of subjects. Transcripts with QTVR enhancement.

To Bind Up the Nation's Wounds: Medicine During the Civil War
This National Museum of Health & Medicine is not for the squeamish. It includes remarkably detailed information about Civil War medical care, featuring specific case histories. Items on display include amputated leg bones, etc.

Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency
A virtual exhibit featuring notes issued and circulated in the South during the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Eras.

The Making of America - University of Michigan Site
Cornell University Site
Two outstanding digital libraries of full-text primary materials (1850-1877). The collections are strongest in education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, science, and technology. The two libraries are not yet joined. Cornell's collection includes close to 300 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles. The UM collection contains around 8,500 books and 50,000 articles.

United States Civil War Center
An index of Civil War information on the Internet. Content promotes "the study of the Civil War from the perspectives of all professions, occupations, and academic disciplines."

NPS Civil War Links & Sites
From the Historical Division of the National Park Service, a page with Links to dozens of informative NPS sites about the Civil War and related subjects.

Civil War and Memorial Photo Album
This site is from the Vicksburg National Military Park and includes current images, historical photos, and historical postcards.

Civil War Women - Special Collections, Duke University
Explore the world of a Confederate spy, and a Union recruiter. Several links to fascinating primary documents by, and about, women of the Civil War era.

In Print

Multi-volume publications can be found through your local library and/or interlibrary loan programs.

Online Bookshelves - Civil War
Excellent online literary resources, including a number of "self-guided tours" related to Civil War battles and campaigns; extensive unit bibliographies.

Civil War Publications from the Government Printing Office

The Civil War, (3 vols.), Shelby Foote, Random House, 1958-74.

Getting Used to Being Shot At: The Spence Family Civil War Letters, Mark K. Christ, University of Arkansas Press, 2002.

The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union, Bell I. Wiley, Doubleday, 1971.

The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy, Bell I. Wiley, Louisiana State University Press, 1978.

Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor, Bertram Hawthorne Groene, John F. Blair, 1973.

War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, (128 vols.), Government Printing Office, 1880-1900. Reprinted: National Historical Society, 1971-72.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, (30 vols.), Government Printing Office, 1874-1922. Reprinted: National Historical Society, 1971.

Labs

Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
Organic analysis and microscopy of materials and construction method; works of art, historical, and archeological artifacts.
New York, NY 212.772.5800

McCrone Research Institute
Authentication of art and archeological objects; instructional microscopy in conservation and authentication.
Chicago, IL 312.842.7100

Orion Analytical
Analysis and authentication of materials and techniques of art, artifacts, and architecture; properties affecting treatment, study of authenticity and date.
Williamstown, MA 413.458.0233

PBS Links

Ancestors - Military History links
Ancestors program's sampling of some of the better Internet sites devoted to U.S. military conflicts other than the Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War I.

Antiques Roadshow - Appraisers of Militaria
Information on appraisers of military artifacts.