Civil War Resources

Books

• The Approaching Fury
  Stephen B. Oates (973.5 OAT)
• At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise that Saved the Union
  Robert V. Remini (973.5 REM)
• Jefferson Davis, American
  William J. Cooper (B Davis, J.)
• John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights
  David S. Reynolds (B Brown, J.)
• Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter, 1860-1861
  Harold Holzer (973.7092 HOL)
• Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War
  Douglas R. Egerton (973.711 EGE)

-Suggested by Booklist 2011

General Websites

• The National Park Service website has an entire section devoted to the the Civil War.
• Fascinating National Park Service Online Exhibits:
  • Gettysburg
  • Vicksburg Siege
  • Music from the time period
  • Frederick Douglass
• Ken Burns’ epic, The Civil War, is available on DVD from the Library. A companion PBS website provides maps, brief biographies of key players, historical documents, and a fact sheet.
• The Smithsonian has created several online Civil War exhibits:
  • Their collections
  • Timeline
  • Resources suggested by the Smithsonian
  • The National Postal Museum
  • Civil War trivia posted on the Smithsonian website
  • Collection records of artifacts and archives
• The Civil War Discovery Trail is administered by the American Battlefield Trust and provides information, itineraries, and links to over 600 heritage sites, including 20 in Illinois.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities EDSITEment site includes three lesson plans and background information under the heading Civil War: A “Terrible Swift Sword.”
• Learn more about the Civil War era by going back to the original source documents, including the lyrics to Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic, Harper’s Weekly editorial on Emancipation, and Abraham Lincoln’s famous House Divided speech.
• The Library of Congress has provided online access to its Civil War Prints and Photographs Collection, with about 7,000 different views and portraits made during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and its immediate aftermath.
• The American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia warehouses a vast collection of artifacts, manuscripts, and photographs from the Civil War. It includes an encrypted message in a bottle sent to a confederate general that took 147 years to decipher.

Illinois Websites

• The Chicago Historical Society provides a brief summary of the impact of the Civil War on the city.
• The Illinois Humanities Council had created the Illinois Civil War Sesquicentennial website where you could find a statewide calendar of events related to the Sesquicentennial, a timeline of Illinois and the Civil War, images and artifacts of the era, downloadable PDFs of Civil War-related articles and educational materials, suggestions for further reading on topics throughout the site, and feature articles. Though the site is no longer running, some of its contents are still accessible through the Library of Congress’s web archive of the site.
• Northern Illinois University has collected a wealth of primary source material and articles written by Drew E. VandeCreek, Ph.D about the role Illinois played in the Civil War.

Local Activities

• Every summer, the Lake County Discovery Museum (Dunn Museum) has their Civil War Days event, which includes Civil War encampment, reenactments, and demonstrations and an exhibit highlighting the technologies that influenced the war.
• Don’t forget, the Library has 4 passes (admits 2) each week that provide free entry to the museum through the Museum Adventure Pass program. Visit the Youth Services Desk for details and restrictions.
• The Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook was a stop on the Underground Railroad. A Civil War encampment is scheduled for September. This museum also participates in the Museum Adventure Pass program. Visit the Youth Services Desk for details and restrictions.