Civil War Documents

Civil War Documents and the Timeline of the Civil War

One of the many advantages of original Civil War documents is that a person can actually read and live the timeline of the Civil War as it unfolds. There are as many types of documents as there were individuals, units and departments in the war’s armies and navies. You can find prewar dated documents from northern and southern state’s government officials addressing the very causes of the Civil War.

Collectors and resellers alike prize documentation of the American Civil War. A document detailing the military battles and skirmishes does not necessarily have to be official to help put the timeline together. A document can simply be an original dated letter from a unit commanding officer down to the individual soldier.

Civil War soldiers often kept a diary or journal of their daily routine and recorded battles and skirmishes.We can learn about camp life and everyday experiences form these documents too. Commanding officer’s orders, army enlistment papers, battle orders, muster rolls, hospital documents, prison documents and discharge papers are but a few examples of official Civil War documents. Any dated Civil War letter or document is part of a specific time frame in the war.

You can always read a history book and get an exact timeline for the war. But when a piece of time in history comes from an original and dated document it has real meaning. It puts you in the action. Here in the Documents pages of our Civil War Relics home you can find the documents to put your own Civil War timeline together.