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Videos of Public Programs at the National Archives

Lincoln and American Values
September 20, 2008, the Center for the National Archives Experience celebrated the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth with a daylong symposium, Lincoln and American Values. The symposium provided historical insight into some of the most critically important facets of Lincoln's Presidency.

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
On January 9, 2008, Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust spoke on her newest book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. Faust's book is an illuminating study of the American struggle to comprehend the meaning and practicalities of death in the face of the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War. Dr. Faust took audience questions after her talk.

The Lincoln Lectures
In celebration of Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial, the National Archives hosted a series of experts to discuss the Great Emancipator's legacy, biography, and assassination.

Digital Vaults

Explore Civil War documents found in the interactive online exhibit the Digital Vaults. Search for documents, Collect your favorites and use these records to Create a poster, movie or pathway challenge. Learn More

Our Documents

Many Civil War Era documents are featured on the site Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives.

• Missouri Compromise (1820)

• Compromise of 1850 (1850)

• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Dred Scott v Sanford (1857)

• Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter (1861)

• Gettysburg Address (1863)

• Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

• War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops (1863)

• Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

• Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (1865)

• 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)

• President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865)

• 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)

• 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870)

Prologue

Prologue magazine brings readers stories based on the rich holdings and programs of the National Archives across the nation-from Washington, DC, to the regional archives and the Presidential libraries. Prologue has been published quarterly by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for 40 years.

• "Sweltering with Treason"
  The Civil War Trials of William Matthew Merrick

• "Their . . . Bedding is wet Their floors are damp"
  "Pre-Bureau" Records and Civil War African American Genealogy

• An Extraordinary President and His Remarkable Cabinet
  Doris Kearns Goodwin Looks at Lincoln's Team of Rivals

• Sealing the Sacred Bonds of Holy Matrimony
  Freedmen's Bureau Marriage Records

• Trading Gray for Blue
  Ex-Confederates Hold the Upper Missouri for the Union

• Voices of Emancipation:
  Union Pension Files Giving Voice to Former Slaves

• Cold Mountain's Inman: Fact Versus Fiction

• Enhancing Your Family Tree with Civil War Maps

• Spotlight on NARA:
  The Freedmen's Bureau Preservation Project

• Black Men in Navy Blue During the Civil War

• Defunct Strategy and Divergent Goals
  The Role of the United States Navy along the Eastern Seaboard during the Civil War

• The Diplomats Who Sank a Fleet:
  The Confederacy's Undelivered European Fleet and the Union Consular Service

• The Rost Home Colony, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana

• Researching Confederate Marines in the Civil War

• The Shady Side of the Family Tree: Civil War Union Court-Martial Case Files

• Freedmen's Bureau Records: An Overview

• From Slave Women to Free Women:
  The National Archives and Black Women's History in the Civil War Era

• Slave Emancipation Through the Prism of Archives Records

• The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company and African American Genealogical Research

• Civil War Records: An Introduction and Invitation

• The Little Regiment
  Civil War Units and Commands

• Civil War and Later Navy Personnel Records at the National Archives, 1861-1924

• Honorable Reports
  Battles, Campaigns, and Skirmishes
  Civil War Records and Research

• Which Henry Cook?
  A Methodology for Searching Confederate Ancestors

• War in an Age of Wonders
  Civil War Arms and Equipment

• Confederate Medical Personnel

• Civil War Draft Records: Exemptions and Enrollments

• Women Soldiers of the Civil War

• The Emancipation Proclamation

• Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years

• The Civil War Era as a Crucible for Nationalizing the Lower Federal Courts

• Marriage Registers of Freedmen

Research Guide: Personal Participation in the Civil War