Subject Guide
Off-Grounds Access
Most databases are available only when you're connected to the UVa network. For off Grounds use you'll need a connection through the proxy server or UVaAnywhere. More information.
Searching Virgo
Searching Virgo
Search Catalog Only = war civilians
Note: limiters on the results screen that will help filter your results.
To search Special Collections: "Advanced Catalog Search" Library = Special Collections
Keyword = diary confederate
Limit results by Format = Manuscript
- Virgo does not use Boolean connectors, such as and, or between terms.
- Put a phrase within quotation marks
- Automatically does stemming of search terms (view, viewer, viewers, viewing)
- You can further refine search results by using the limiters on the left of the search results screen. For example, clicking on "Special Collections" under "Library" will narrow your results to materials held in Special Collections.
- Be sure you click on "Start Over" to perform a new search
Finding Scholarly Articles
A list of all our major online databases is found in Virgo. Remember, to access our databases from off-Grounds you need a proxy server account, or a UVA Anywhere or Anywhere-Lite account.
America History and Life Covers the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to present with records from 2,000 English-language journals published worldwide. Includes book reviews.
Search = "Fetterman massacre"
JSTOR Full-text backfiles of many important scholarly journals. Coverage is usually from the first issue to 3-5 years before the present.
Academic Search Complete A general database of articles from a variety of scholarly journals, popular magazines, and some newspapers.
Search = "Philippine insurrection" [then apply Subject Limiter = Philippine-American War to results]
Historical Newspapers, Magazines & Books
A list of all our major online databases is found in Virgo. Remember, to access our databases from off-Grounds you need a proxy server account, or a UVA Anywhere or Anywhere-Lite account.
American Periodicals Series Full text of over 1,000 magazines and journals published in the U.S. between 1740 and 1900.
Advanced Search: "Mexican War" AND Santa Anna Date Range = 1846-1848
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922 Searchable full text collection of U.S. newspapers. Can limit by location.
Search: "ghost dance" OR "Wounded Knee" Date = 1890 Place of Publication = North Dakota
The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective - 1860-1865 Searchable text and page images from The New York Herald, the Richmond Enquirer, and The Charleston Mercury, published between November 1, 1860 and April 30, 1865, including many battlefield maps and other illustrations.
Search: "Bull Run" Source = Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective
Early American Imprints. Series I: Evans, 1639-1800. Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 Searchable full text with page images of books published in 17th, 18th and early 19th-century America. The collection can also be browsed by genre, subject, author, printer, place of publication, and language.
Search Series I, Evans: "Mary Rowlandson" or Browse Genre = Captivity Narratives
HarpWeek Full Text Database, 1857-1912 Searchable online text and images from Harper's Weekly. Searches can be limited to editorials, cartoons, illustrations, etc.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers Searchable full text and page images of several hundred U.S. newspapers from the 19th century. You can limit your search to particular states or cities.
Keyword Search: "Sand Creek" Place of Publication = Colorado
ProQuest Historical Newspapers Searchable backfiles of the New York Times (1851-2006), Wall Street Journal (1889-1991), Chicago Tribune (1849-1986), Los Angeles Times (1881-1986), Washington Post (1877-1992), and Chicago Defender (1910-1975).
Advanced Search: Search 'NY Times': draft = in Document Title AND riot= in all fields + text
Date Range =1863-1863 Document Type=Article
Additional Online Resources
A list of all our major online databases is found in Virgo. Remember, to access our databases from off-Grounds you need a proxy server account, or a UVA Anywhere or Anywhere-Lite account.
American Civil War A collection of letters and diaries from UVA's Special Collections Library that pertain to the Civil War.
American Civil War Letters and Diaries Letters, diaries and memoirs from the American Civil War, many still in manuscript form. Also includes selected biographies, a bibliography and a chronology of the War.
Advanced Search: Where Written (setting) = prisons
Documenting the American South Primary sources that document the cultural history of the American South from the Southern point of view. Includes diaries, autobiographies, travel accounts, titles about slavery, and regional literature. Emphasis is on the 19th century. Browse the Subject Index to get an idea of contents.
American Memory Project Primary source documents and archives from the Library of Congress for American history and culture: printed texts, collections of photographs, and some scanned manuscripts on topics such as African-American pamphlets, Civil War photographs, women's suffrage, etc.
Browse Collections by Topic = War, Military then (Search Selected Collection = Cuba)
Rotunda: New Digital Scholarship from the University of Virginia Press Online primary and secondary sources and collections in American history and culture. "American Founding Era" presents digital editions of the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Dolley Madison, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, with other collections by Founders planned. "American Century" focuses on figures of the 20th century, and "19th-Century Literature and Culture" includes correspondence and works by American and British authors of the era.
Select Papers of George Washington Search: Text = desertion Only in Series = Revolutionary War Series
ProQuest Congressional Full-text information by and about the U.S. Congress, including testimony before Congressional hearings, the Congressional Record and its predecessors, the Serial Set, legislative histories of laws, biographical information on members, etc.
Search = Fort Pillow Date between = Jan 1, 1864 - Dec 31,1864
Valley of the Shadow Details life in Augusta County, Va. and Franklin County, Pa. during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Contains letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches, census records, church records, etc.
War Years: Letters and Diaries: Search Letters and Diaries: Search Letters for = conscription
Library of Virginia, located in Richmond, has a number of military service research guides to its collection available.
Microfilm and Bibliographic Sources
Microform Collections: The Library has a number of significant microform collections that may be relevant to this class, including Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations; Pamphlets in American History: Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, Indians, etc; Draper Manuscripts Collection. See a general listing of our American history collections in U.S. history and the list of collections in Civil War history.
The following printed bibliographies are located in the Shannon Reference Department:
War of the American Revolution: A Selected Annotated Bibliography of Published Sources, Richard L. Blanco
AldRef Z1238 .B55 1984
Revolutionary America, 1763-1789, Ronald M. Gephard 2 Volumes
AldRef Z1238 .G43 1984
War of 1812: An Annotated Bibliography, Dwight L. Smith
AldRef Z1240 .S65 1985
American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research, Steven E. Woodworth
AldRef Z1242 .A47 1996
Military Bibliography of the Civil War, C.E. Dornbusch 4 Volumes
AldRef Z1242 .D6
Guide to the Sources of United States Military History, Robin Higham and Donald J. Mrozek 5 Volumes
AldRef Z1249 .M5 G83