LibGuides at USA: HY 435: Civil War and Reconstruction: Primary Sources

Primary Sources in History

Primary sources are direct examples of your research topic in real life.

Secondary sources are what other researchers have written after they researched the same topic as you.

Primary sources are:

Directly limited by your topic
Examples of your research topic in real life
Proof of your claims

What counts as a primary source depends on your topic and topic scope. Please visit the Primary Sources LibGuide for more information.

If you were writing about how boxing champions were trained in the 1920s, some primary sources could be:

a newspaper article written in 1920 by a direct observer of a boxing match
1920s boxing gloves
a journal entry written in 1921 by a boxing trainer
a source book of letters and essays written by 1920s boxers

For this topic, a book written in 1993 about the history of boxing would not be a primary source.

American Civil War Weblinks

American Civil War Homepage
The American Civil War Homepage gathers together in one place hypertext links to the most useful identified electronic files about the American Civil War (1861-1865). The page opens a gateway to the Internet's multi-formatted resources about what is arguably the seminal event in American history. Not only was the War the occasion for the abolition of slavery, but by conflict's end the re-United States had emerged as a modern, industrialized power.
Civil War maps from the Library of Congress
Civil War Maps brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman’s Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts—all available for the first time in one place.
The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
Alfred Whital Stern (1881-1960) of Chicago presented his outstanding collection of Lincolniana to the Library of Congress in 1953. Begun by Mr. Stern in the 1920s, the collection documents the life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) both through writings by and about Lincoln as well as a large body of publications concerning the issues of the times including slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and related topics.
The collection contains more than 11,100 items.
Making of America E-Book
Reconstruction, political and economic, 1865-1877, by William Archibald Dunning.
Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi
This archive contains letters written to 9 different Mississippi government administrations from 1859 to 1882.

Evaluating Web Information

Always review websites for appropriateness. If the website fails any of these criteria, it doesn't automatically make the website a "bad source," but the site should be critically viewed before using it for an assignment.

Purpose & Audience
- Who is the site designed for?
- Is the site scholarly or popular?
- Are there advertisements on the site?
- What is the overall purpose of the site?
Authority & Credibility
- Can the author of the site be identified? (Is the "author" an organization?)
- Is there any contact information for the author or organization?
- Do the author's qualifications show expertise on the subject?
- Is the site affiliated with a particular organization?
- What is the domain of the site (.edu, .gov, .org, .com)?
Accuracy & Reliability
- Does the site appear to be well-researched?
- Are there references supporting the site's statements or viewpoints? How well do the references relate to the site's claims? Are the references high-quality themselves?
- Is it easy to tell which references support which claims?
- Does the site include grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors?
- How does the site compare to library resources available on the topic?
Currency & Timeliness
- When was this information on the website published?
- When was it most recently updated?
- Are there dead links on the page?
Objectivity or Bias
- Does the site present many opinions or just one?
- Does the site present opinions or facts?
- What biases can you identify?
- Is the site sponsored by a company or organization?
- Are any advertisements easy to distinguish from the informational content?
Structure & Navigation
- Is the site well organized? Can you tell what content goes together?
- Is it easy to navigate between different pages on the site?
- Does the site have a search box?

Finally, ask yourself these questions:

Is this site a reliable, well-documented information source provided by a reputable author or organization?
Would this be a good source of information for my assignment?