Civil War News
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September 2021
ArchiveGrid Researchers seeking primary documents from the CivilWar period will benefit from using ArchiveGrid as a starting point in their quest for more information on a particular subject. As noted on this free site, their database “…includes over 7 million records describing archival materials…historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.” Start at https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/. Take time to read the ‘How to Search’ section of this site. Users
may perform Boolean searches to narrow the focus of search results. For example, this writer performed a general search on “Civil War.” The search yielded 84,597 hits as of this writing (late July 2021). See the screenshot middle right. Various categories allow further refinement: People, Group, Places, Archives, Archive Locations, and Topics. Adding “has_links:1” to your search topic will yield results with links to digital content. For example, adding “has_links:1” to the “Civil War” search produces almost 30,000 results. Selecting Civil War songs from the search and mining the UC San Diego collection netted the song sheet shown below left. Experiment with various search techniques to drill into particular collections. In this example, adding search criteria Soldiers – Michigan – Military Campaigns – Georgia netted three results. See the image at bottom right side of page. Some results will produce links to actual documents, while other searches may show finding aids for your use when visiting various repositories. Good luck in researching the American Civil War!
War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at mkscdr11@gmail.com or request speaking engagements via his website www.civilwarhistorian.net. Follow Michael on Facebook www.facebook.com/michael.k.shaffer, and Twitter @michaelkshaffer.
Summary view of “Civil War” search results at ArchiveGrid.
Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, and instructor, who remains a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil
STEPHEN DAVIS The American Civil War was the first war in which both sides widely used entrenchments, repeating rifles, ironclad warships, and telegraphed communications. It was also the first American War to be extensively photographed. Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and Timothy O’Sullivan are famous for having made iconic photographs in the Civil War’s eastern theater. George N. Barnard deserves to be ranked in this top tier for his photographic work in the war’s western theater. A civilian photographer hired by Gen. William T. Sherman’s chief engineer to take pictures of fortifications around Atlanta, Barnard took several hundred of them in and around the city in the fall of 1864. His most famous is the site of Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s death in the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864.
100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Atlanta Campaign presents a riveting collection of George Barnard’s camera work. Most of the photographs are from Barnard’s time in Atlanta, mid-September to mid-November 1864, during the Federal occupation of the city. With this volume, Stephen Davis advances the scholarly literature of Barnardiana. Thus far, no comprehensive, definitive listing has been made of the photographer’s work. The Library of Congress has 130 images; the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, has at least 98 photographs, donated by Captain Poe’s widow. Other repositories, such as the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City, have smaller collections.
For this book we have chosen a hundred images we deem “significant,” though other students may wonder at some of our selections. ISBN 978-1-61850-151-6
100 SIGNIFICANT CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHS : ATLANTA CAMPAIGN
The Atlanta Campaign
$19.95
51995
We hope that this work will stimulate further interest in Barnardiana, and that other scholarly volumes are yet to come.
9 781618 501516
>
$19.95 + $3.50 shipping 128 pages, photographs, maps, bibliography. $19.95 + $3.50 shipping. Softbound. ISBN: 978-1-61850-151-6. www.HistoricalPubs.com.
Order online at www.HistoricalPubs.com or call 800-777-1862
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Michigan soldier results for campaigning in Georgia.
Civil War News
September 2021