Civil War Era Primary Sources

Civil War Era Letters and Diaries

Many soldiers had never been away from home for more than a few days, let alone months or years off fighting a war.  During the war, thousands of letters, memoirs and diaries were written.  These letters contain everything from first-hand accounts of battles and descriptions of historical events to love letters home to a soldier’s sweetheart.  These letters provide glimpses into the daily life of a Civil War soldier and life on the homefront.  In addition to soldier letters, there are also the writings of politicians, generals, slaves, landowners, seamen, and spies and each has their own version of the events.  The surviving letters were written by everyone from the common infantryman to famous figures during the war. 

First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920

Carnage At Antietam 1862

The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863

The Death of John Wilkes Booth, 1865

Letters Home from an Iowa Soldier

“I take up my pen”: Letters from the Civil War

The Alice Williamson Diary is a 36-page journal of a young girl from Gallitin, Tennessee kept during the Union Army’s occupation of Gallitin.

Dear Brother, Civil War Letter

“Unforgettable Letters” from the United States Postal Service is a wonderful site.

Civil War Letters of Galutia York

Slave Voices from the Duke University Special Collections Library

PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project

Civil War Letters

Mother of a Northern Black Soldier to the President, 1863

Maryland Fugitive Slave to His Wife, 1862