The Civil War (website) - Tuesday's Tip

The Civil War (at sonofthesouth.net) is a website packed with resources about the Civil War.  You would think, with a url like "son of the south," that most of the content would cover the Confederate South but, surprisingly, there is information on both the Union and the Confederate war efforts.

The Civil War website says of itself, "the WEB's most extensive source of original Civil War resources.  This site has over 7,000 pages of original Civil War content, and is full of incredible photographs, original illustrations, and eye-witness accounts of the defining moments of this Historic Struggle."  If you have ancestors who served in the war, this may be a helpful site for you to learn more about their experiences.  You won't find genealogical information but you may be able to find meat to put on the bare bones of dates and places.

In an earlier post I introduced you to the Civil War issues of Harper's Weekly at The Civil War.  Now, let's look beyond the magazines to see what else is available.  Go to the site and look at the left sidebar.  Ignore the ads at the top and look below where you'll see a list of links to topics:  Civil War, Civil War Overview, Civil War Battles, Confederate Generals, Union Generals, Confederate History, Robert E. Lee, Civil War Medicine, Lincoln Assassination, Slavery, etc.  (There are also individual links to each year of the Civil War which will take you to issues of Harper's Weekly for that year)  

If you click on Civil War Battles you'll be taken to a page that looks like the one to the right.  Click on one of the battle images and you'll go to a page which gives details of the battle, the movements of the troops, and the actions of the soldiers and generals, along with images in photos and/or drawings.  There are multiple links on each page.

Click on Confederate Generals or Union Generals and you'll be taken to a page with photos of generals.  Click on one of them and you'll see photographs and be able to read a biography.

The links in the sidebar may change depending on the subject of the page.  For instance, when you click on Slavery you'll see another dozen options including Slavery History, Slave Photographs, Slave Pictures, Slave Maps, etc.  At each of the links you'll learn more about the topic.

I was particularly interested in Civil War Medicine because of my great-grandfather's Civil War Pension File.  It gives a good overview of the conditions of patients, a link to the report of the sanitary commission, and information about amputation, including a photograph of an original amputation kit.

At the main page, scroll down a little lower on the left sidebar and you'll see links to other wars and to Civil War artists Winslow Homer and Thomas Nast, and photographer Mathew Brady.  Read their biographies and see some of their art.

This website is very large with many individual pages.  I think it's a good site for both general and specific Civil War information.  (But don't be put off by the ads. Without the ads I suspect we'd have to pay to use the site.)  Explore and see if you find helpful information.
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