Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live.
SEARCH THOUSANDS OF LETTERS
DIGITALLY TRANSCRIBED AND KEYWORD SEARCHABLE.
A DIGITAL ARCHIVE UNLIKE ANY OTHER
The Research Arsenal puts thousands of letters fully digitized and transcribed at your fingertips.
Read about the war from many perspectives. From privates, to generals, to the folks at home, the Research Arsenal letter and diary collection has a wealth of firsthand accounts of the war and details that get lost in “big picture” history books. Search thousands of Civil War letters and Civil War Diaries in a user friendly way to find exactly what you are looking for.
FILTER BY SPECIFIC BATTLES
UNDERSTAND THE PERSONAL SIDE OF THE WAR
The Research Arsenal’s letters and diaries collection is the perfect complement to our other material focused databases.
For authors, historians, and reenactors, the letters and diaries database offers unique insights into how soldiers and civilians lived, spoke, and thought.
The Research Arsenal makes it easy to read multiple perspectives on historical events all in one place. Read Union, Confederate, and civilian perspectives on major battles without combing through multiple state archives and historical society records.
Easily find letters written from and about specific regiments and learn what the soldiers were thinking during campaigns, and how they were viewed by the regiments serving alongside or against them.
Use our related image sets feature to find sub collections of letters written from or to the same individual, sometimes for the duration of the war.
FIND CONNECTIONS!
DISCOVER NEW AND UNDERREPRESENTED PERSPECTIVES
The Research Arsenal’s letters and diaries database offers a glimpse into the thoughts of people from all walks of life.
Read letters from staunch abolitionists, recent immigrants, African Americans, civilian plantation owners, small subsistence farmers, and women thrust into positions of greater responsibility.
Search for specific keywords to find related letters. What was the average price of butter in 1862 in different states? What did soldiers have to say about Nashville’s infamous “Smoky Row?” Who favored McClellan over Lincoln in the 1864 election? All of this and more can be found with a few simple searches.
SUPPORT OUR GROWING COLLECTION
Your subscription not only gives you full access to thousands of letters and diaries, some of which are in private collections and only available through the Research Arsenal, but also helps us maintain and grow our digital collection.
Your interest and support helps keep history alive and ensures that future generations will remember and preserve their past.
We don’t believe in locking content away in complicated tier systems. The letters and diaries collection is one of the many facets of the Research Arsenal which is available with your subscription.
OUR MISSION
The Research Arsenal focuses on preserving and digitizing records to give access to original historical documents to the hobby historian. Our content acts as a complement to Ancestry.com and Fold3.com, and becomes the "next step" in your own journey in researching the American Civil War. While other Civil War databases focus on the individuals, the Research Arsenal focuses on the material culture, uniforms, gear, equipment, and the opinions that the people of the time had.
Your subscription help keeps this database going and allows our team to partner with smaller museums, historical societies and private collections in order to give you access to primary civil war documents that other sites don't.
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A DATABASE OF THOUSANDS OF TRANSCRIBED TEXT SEARCHABLE LETTERS?
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IDENTIFY TRENDS IN LANGUAGE PATTERNSThe volume of letters & diaries in our civil war database allows you to search for common words of the time. Compare how common certain terms were vs. others (rebels vs. "secesh").
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HOW DID SOLDIERS DEAL WITH CERTAIN SITUATIONS?Search keywords like "rain" or "storm" and get firsthand accounts of how soldiers handled the cold rain. Or search terms like "sleep" or "camp" to find more than 1,000 results in which soldiers describe how they camped. The possibilities are endless with the ability to quickly search any word in our database of Civil War letters and diaries.
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OPPOSING VIEWSThe ability to keyword search political opinions, opposing views of battles, and similar topics allows you to better understand how each side was able to rationalize their thoughts.
The Research Arsenal is the fastest growing Civil War research database. Join our community and support the preservation of original documents through digitization. Not only does our collection contain the famous images from the Library of Congress, but hundreds of images come from private collections, community museums, and much more!
Testimonials from Subscribers
"The Research Arsenal allows me to search by keyword across multiple categories. As a historian, this means that for the first time, I can search on one site for a specific battle and find photographs, private letters, and military documents all at once. It combines ease of use with access to previously unavailable research material."
Johanna Wickman - Historian/Author