Civil War

The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

The “Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion” (also known as ORs or OR) is the most extensive collection of American Civil War land warfare records available to the general public. It includes selected first-hand accounts, orders, reports, maps, diagrams, and correspondence drawn from official records of both Union and Confederate armies.

The entire collection has been digitized in searchable format and is available online at the following links:

Cornell University Library “Making of America” (All volumes, no atlas plates)

Ohio State University (Some volumes missing, includes atlas plates)

Once on the desired page, use the scroll button in the center of the mouse to search through the page for the volume you need.

The collection consists of 70 volumes, organized into four series:

Series 1: Military operations; contains battle reports from the Union and Confederate armies
Series 2: Prisoners of War and political prisoners
Series 3: Miscellaneous Union correspondence, orders and reports
Series 4: Miscellaneous Confederate correspondence, orders and reports

Some series have both volumes and parts. Indexes are located in the last part of each series, and at the end of a Supplemental publication to the records.

Confederate Veteran Magazine

The Confederate Veteran was a magazine about veterans of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War of 1861–1865, propagating the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. A subsequent magazine of the same title is still in print and is an official publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization.

Archived issues and more information available here.