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U.S. Civil War Research
Use this guide to find primary and secondary sources for the study of the U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865.
Photo credit: From Documenting the American South.
Selected Books on Texas and the Civil War
Click a title to check availability.
Yours in Filial Regard: The Civil War Letters of a Texas Family by Call Number: E467 .L682 2015Primary source material
The Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846-1876Call Number: F392.R5 C58 2019 (One other copy available in Special Collections)
Frontier Defense in the Civil War: Texas' Rangers and Rebels by Call Number: E532 .S65 1992
An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865 by Call Number: E445.T47 C35 1989Publication Date: 1989Available as an e-book and in print
The Laws of Slavery in Texas: Historical Documents and Essays by Call Number: KFT1601.6.S55 L39 2010Available in print and as an e-book
Primary source material
The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas During the Civil War by Call Number: E580 .S43 2009
Six Constitutions over Texas: Texas' Political Identity, 1830-1900 by Call Number: KFT1601.5 .C47 2024Publication Date: 2024
Texas after the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction by Call Number: F391 .M636 2004
The Dance of Freedom: Texas African Americans during Reconstruction by Call Number: E185.93.T4 C75 2007
Why Texans Fought in the Civil War by Call Number: E580 .G74 2010
Key Web Resources
- Handbook of Texas OnlineAn online version of the Handbook of Texas. This encyclopedia gives information on the history, geography, and culture of Texas. Look up individual county names for a history of that county. Includes an article on defunct counties. (The New Handbook of Texas) (6 volumes)
- A Declaration of Causes Which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union, February 2, 1861Full text of the "Declaration of Causes" from the Texas State Library and Archives.
- Portal to Texas History: NewspapersA digital gateway to historical materials from private collectors and collaborative partners, including libraries, museums, archives, and other historical groups.
- Southwestern Historical QuarterlyThe Southwestern Historical Quarterly, continuously published since 1897, is the premier source of scholarly information about the history of Texas and the Southwest. The first 100 volumes of the Quarterly, more than 57,000 pages, are now available with searchable Tables of Contents.
- Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association (1897-1912)Texas State Historical Association's original scholarly publication about the history of Texas and the Southwest.
- TARO: Texas Archival Resources OnlineContains collection descriptions or "finding aids" for the rich archival, manuscript, library and museum collections in repositories across the state available to the public.
From the UTSA Libraries Digital Collection
- A Sketch of Hood's Texas Brigade of the Virginia Army by Joe JoskinsA digital copy of the personal narrative of a volunteer in Company A, 5th Texas Volunteer Infantry of the Confederate Army.
Selected Civil War Highlights from Rare Books
You will find these books in the Rare Books Collection in Special Collections on the 4th Floor of the John Peace Library.
- The Constitution of the State of Texas: As Amended in 1861 ; The Constitution of the Confederate States of America ; The Ordinances of the Texas Convention ; and An Address to the People of Texas.Call Number: KFT1601 .1861.A30John Peace Collection
- Heel-fly Time in Texas: A Story of the Civil War Period byCall Number: F391 .H93 1910First edition of this novel about a Texas Unionist and his adventures avoiding conscription. As the protagonist flees to Matamoros in 1862, the novel paints a detailed picture of life on both sides of the border.
- Shelby's Expedition to Mexico: An Unwritten Leaf of the War byCall Number: F1233 .E27 1872An account of Confederate cavalry General Joseph Shelby, who marched an army of about a thousand men through Texas and into Mexico in an effort to join Emperor Maximilian's army.
- The campaigns of Walker's Texas division : containing a complete record of the campaigns in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas ... including the Federal's report of the battles, names of the officers of the division, diary of marches, camp scenery, anecdotes byCall Number: E580.4 .W2 B6 1875A complete history of the largest single unit of Texas troops in the Civil War, written by a corporal on General Richard Scurry's staff, who drew much of the content from diaries he kept during the war. The division served primarily in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana and, according to John Jenkins in Basic Texas Books, "its major contributions were in opposition to Gen. N.P. Banks' invasion of Louisiana (43).
- Fourteen hundred and 91 days in the Confederate army : a journal kept by W. W. Heartsill, for four years, one month, and one day, or, Camp life, day-by-day, of the W. P. Lane rangers, from April 19th 1861, to May 20th 1865. byCall Number: E580.6 .M84 1876Contains muster rolls and photographs of the W. P. Lane Rangers.
- The Massacre on the Nueces River: Story of a Civil War Tragedy byCall Number: E580 .W54 1950
Featured Manuscript Collection at UTSA
- R. H. Porter Civil War Collection, 1860-1975 (bulk, 1860-1866).Location: Manuscripts at Main Campus
16 linear inches (3 boxes and oversized items) Collection is arranged into five series: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, The Confederate States of America, State of Texas, and General (Civil War).
The R. H. Porter Civil War Collection, 1860-1975 (bulk 1860-1866), consists of ephemera, photographs (mostly reproductions), manuscripts, government documents, original copies and photocopies of rare books, and pamphlets. Of note is the correspondence of Jefferson Davis; government documents printed by the Confederate States of America and the State of Texas; an original broadside copy of "An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Texas and The Other States..." (1861); and a Camp Ford diary kept by a Union prisoner (1862-1864). The books from this collection are available in the Special Collections room and are searchable in the UTSA Library catalog. R. H. Porter, former president of the Steck Company, Austin, Texas and Texas Confederate history enthusiast, gathered a collection of approximately one thousand Texas Confederate and Civil War items during his lifetime.