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Here are selected memoirs, letters, diaries and narratives written by men and women on both sides of the conflict. Consult the American National Biography and the African American National Biography for additional primary and secondary sources.
John Singleton Mosby, confederate guerilla
The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby. Indiana University Press, 1959.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E581.6 43d M49
The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby. Little, Brown, & Co., 1917.
Take Sides With the Truth: The Postwar Letters of John Singleton Mosby to Samuel F. Chapman. University Press of Kentucky, 2007.
Short biography by Jeffry D. Wert, American National Biography.
John Wilkinson, confederate blockade runner
The Narrative of a Blockade Runner
Reprint, Falvey, 3rd floor: E600 .W56 2011
The Narrative of a Blockade Runner. Sheldon & Co., 1877.
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Washington: G.P.O., 1894-1922.
Short biography by Stephen R. Wise, American National Biography.
Loreta Velazquez, confederate blockade runner
The Woman In Battle: a Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, And Travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Valezquez, Otherwise Known As Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate States Army. Dustin, Gilman & Co., 1876.
Short biography by Lyde Cullen Sizer, American National Biography.
Charles Wright Wills, U.S. Army, Illinois
Army Life of an Illinois Soldier. Southern Illinois University Press, 1996.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E601 .W73 1996
Army Life of an Illinois Soldier. Globe Printing Co., 1906.
William Watson, confederate blockade runner
The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner. Texas A&M University Press, 2001.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E600 .W3 2001
The Adventures of a Blockade Runner. Unwin, 1892.
William Frederick Keeler, U.S. Navy
Aboard the USS Monitor: 1862: The Letters of Acting Paymaster William Frederick Keeler, U.S. Navy, to His Wife, Anna. United States Naval Institute Press, 1968.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E595.M7K4
Aboard the USS Florida, 1863-65: The Letters of Paymaster William Frederick Keeler, U.S. Navy, to His Wife, Anna. United States Naval Institute Press, 1964.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E595.F6K4
Peter Welsh, U.S. Army, Massachusetts
Irish Green and Union Blue: The Civil War Letters of Peter Welsh, Color Sergeant, 28th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. Fordham University Press, 1986.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E601.W37 1986
James Henry Gooding, U.S. Colored Troops
On the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier's Civil War Letters From the Front. University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E513.5 54th .G66 1991
Short biography by Wallace Hettle, African American National Biography (Oxford African American Studies Center)
Chauncey Cooke, U.S. Army, Michigan
A Badger Boy in Blue: The Civil War Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke. Wayne State University Press, 2007.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E537.5 25th .C476 2007
Susie King Taylor, U.S. Nurse and Teacher
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops late 1st S.C. Volunteers. Arno Press, 1968.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E492.94 33d .T3
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops late 1st S.C. Volunteers, original edition published by the author, 1902
Short biography by Gerald S. Henig, African American National Biography (Oxford African American Studies Center)
William Benjamin Gould, U.S. Colored Troops, Navy
Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor. Stanford University Press, 2002.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E591 .G68 2002
Short biography by William B. Gould, African American National Biography (Oxford African American Studies Center)
Emma LeConte, C.S.A. civilian, South Carolina
When the World Ended: Diary. Oxford University Press, 1957.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E577.L4
Transcript of the manuscript, UNC-Chapel Hill, Southern Historical Collection
Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, C.S.A. civilian refugee
My Day: Reminiscences of a Long Life. Macmillan, 1909.
Reminiscences of Peace and War. Macmillan, 1904.
Short biography by Marilyn Elizabeth Perry, American National Biography.
Lucy and Sarah Chase, Massachusetts teachers in "contraband camps"
Dear Ones At Home: Letters From Contraband Camps. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1966.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E185.2.S98
Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, C.S.A. civilian, Alabama
A Southern Woman's War Time Reminiscences. Pilcher Printing Co., 1905.
Mary Livermore, U.S. Sanitary Commission nurse
My Story of the War: A Woman's Narrative of Four Years Personal Experience as Nurse in the Union Army, and in Relief Work at Home, in Hospitals, Camps, and at the Front, during the War of the Rebellion. Worthington & Co., 1889.
Short biography by Marilyn Elizabeth Perry, American National Biography.
Sara Emma Edmonds, U.S. Army
Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse, and Spy: A Woman's Adventures in the Union Army. Northern Illinois University Press, 1999.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E628 .E36 1999
Nurse and Spy in the Union Army: Comprising the Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-fields. Williams & Co., 1865.
Short biography by Lyde Cullen Sizer, American National Biography.
Jonathan Letterman, U.S. Army surgeon
Medical Recollections of the Army of the Potomac. Appleton & Co., 1866.
McGaugh, Scott. Surgeon in Blue: Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War Doctor Who Pioneered Battlefield Care. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2013.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E621 .M36 2013
Mary Edwards Walker, U.S. Army surgeon, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
Hit. American News Co., 1871.
Unmasked, or, The Science of Immorality: To Gentlemen. W.H. Boyd, 1878.
Spiegel, Allen D. and Andrea M. Spiegel. "Civil War Doctoress Mary: Only Woman to Win Congressional Medal of Honor." Minerva 12, no. 3 (1994): 24.
Harris, Sharon M. Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical, 1832-1919. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2009. (JSTOR)
Emilie Davis, U.S. civilian, Philadelphia
Emilie Davis's Civil War: The Diaries of a Free Black Woman in Philadelphia, 1863-1865. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014.
Falvey, 3rd floor: F158.44 .D38 2014
Memorable Days. Villanova University, 2012.
Cornelia Hancock, U.S. nurse
Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865. University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
William Smith, U.S. child soldier
On Wheels And How I Came There: A Real Story for Real Boys And Girls, Giving the Personal Experiences and Observations of a Fifteen-year-old Yankee Boy as Soldier and Prisoner in the American Civil War. Hunt & Eaton, 1892.
William Bircher, U.S. child soldier
A Drummer-boy's Diary: Comprising Four Years of Service With the Second Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteers, 1861 to 1865. St. Paul Book & Stationery Co., 1889.
Dora Miller, C.S.A. civilian, occupied Vicksburg
Strange True Stories of Louisiana. Scribner's Sons, 1889.
Charles Wright Bardeen, child soldier
A Little Fifer's War Diary. C.W. Bardeen, 1910.
William Quantrill, confederate guerilla
Quantrill Letters. Two Trails Pub., 1997.
Falvey, 3rd floor: E470.45.Q3 E185 1997
William Robert and Mitchell Bennett Houghton, child soldiers
Two Boys In the Civil War And After. Paragon Press, 1912.