Discovering the Civil War

The  Emancipation Proclamation

Background: President Abraham Lincoln by Mathew Brady, circa 1863.  Foreground: Page one of the Emancipation Proclamation. Courtesy of the National Archives, General Records of the U.S. Government. 

Drummer Boy, 78^th U.S. Colored Troops. Collection of the U.S. National Archives.

Cipher disk used to protect Union Army communications. This disc functioned by aligning the letters. U.S. National Archives, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer

Dr. Mary Walker, circa 1866. Collection of the U.S. National Archives.

More 1000 black troops from the Louisiana Native Guards fought at Port Hudson, Louisiana in May 1863. Collection of the U.S. National Archives.

Certificate showing proof of Union Service. Collection of the U.S. National Archives, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs

An integrated crew aboard a U.S. gunboat, probably the Mendota, circa 1864. National Archives, Records of the Secretary of War

This 1863 photograph of the former slave known as “Peter," displaying scars from his overseer’s whippings, was widely reproduced to evidence of slavery’s cruelty. He went on to join the Union Army. Photographer unknown. Collection of the U.S. National Archives.

The Corps D’Afrique, ca. 1864. Port Hudson, Louisiana. Photographer unknown. Collection of the U.S. National Archives.

Men on the deck of the USS Monitor, 1862. Collection of the U.S. National Archives.

Mary Tepe, ca. 1863. She traveled with the 114^th Pennsylvania Infantry and served as laundress, nurse, cook, and sutler. Photographer unknown. U.S. National Archives, Records of the National Park Service.

General J. E. Johnston, ca. 1865. Photographer unknown. Collection of the U.S. National Archives.