More Online Sources

As mentioned in a previous post, period newspapers are a gold mine of information when doing research for a particular place, person or organization. There are many online sources of material, some free, some available for a fee.  The following are some of the sites I used in researching I Will Give Them One More Shot, and am going back to for my research for my upcoming novel My Brother, My Friend, My Enemy.

Fold3.com: Formerly Footnote.com, this subscription site contains a wealth of military records covering the entire history of the United States, including the Compiled Service Records from the National Archives. http://www.fold3.com/

Augusta Chronicle Online Records: This site contains archives for the Augusta, Georgia, Chronicle and Sentinel newspapers. A search of newspapers can be done for free, but the site charges a fee of $19.95 for a one month pass (download up to 200 articles), or a one day pass at $9.95 (download up to 50 articles).  http://www.augustaarchives.com/

Another fee-based service is Newspaper Archive.com, with subscriptions ranging from monthly to annual.  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/

The University of Virginia hosts a free research site called The Valley of the Shadow, which "details life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown's Raid through the era of reconstruction." This archive includes access to letters, newspapers, diaries and a multitude of other records for the years just before, during and after the Civil War.  http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/