LibGuides: Causes of the Civil War Timeline: Home

Causes of the Civil War

Wounded soldiers under trees, Marye's Heights, Fredericksburg, after the battle of Spotsylvania, 1864

Band of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry

Confederate prisoners waiting for transportation, Belle Plain, VA

Battery in action at Fredericksburg, VA

A company of the 6th Maine Infantry on parade after the battle of Fredericksburg

Quarters of Dr. Grant and Dr. Dwight in front of Yorktown, Va.

Interior Views of Fort Sumter, Charleston, S.C. taken by a Confederate photographer in 1864

Colors of 23rd Infantry, N.Y

Finding Tools for Primary Documents

Customized Google Search
Here is a custom search that will return relevant results only from U.S. Federal and state government sites. It is set to the Images tab, but you can select ALL to see all results. Feel free to customize the search to add, for example, site:.edu sources to add universities and some museums, or to limit the search to cartoons. You can also Google a timeline event and select the Image tab, but make sure they are actually from the time period and from reliable sources. Limiting to .gov or .edu sites is one way to be sure. To build your own custom search, try Google Advanced Search.
The American Civil War: A collection of free online primary sources
A collection of primary sources about the Civil War curated by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Logging into the Databases from Home

From school, clicking on any of the database links will get you directly in to any database.

From home, you need login credentials because these are subscription (that is, paid-for) databases. Click on the image below to access the Google Doc containing the passwords. You must be signed in with a Northern Highlands account to view these passwords.

Having trouble? Email the librarian at goldbergj@northernhighlands.org, or stop by the Library.

What you need to find

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Historical Topics Databases

U.S. History in Context This link opens in a new window
U.S. History in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History. U.S. History merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.
American History This link opens in a new window
American History is an indispensable resource for student research. Spanning our nations historyfrom prehistory to the present dayAmerican History was developed and curated by leading editors and scholars in the study of American history. It is composed of a variety of learning assets, including articles, images, primary source documents, timelines, videos, and slideshows.
Historical Newspapers: The New York Times This link opens in a new window
This primary source database offers the pdf full text of every issue of the New York Times from 1851 - 2014. You can read the news of, for example, the Civil War, just as someone living at that time would have done. From leading issues and events, like the U.S. Civil War, immigration, westward expansion, industrial developments, race relations, and World War I and II; to international, local and regional politics, society, arts, culture, business, and sports, ProQuest Historical Newspapers™ reveals the day-to-day news coverage to researchers and historical explorers, providing invaluable insights and information to users from a wide range of subjects.

NoodleTools Instant Database Citations

Instantly export database citations to NoodleTools

1. Log in to your NoodleTools account. (Forgot your login info? Contact the librarian.)

2. Create or open a project.

3. Follow the instructions for exporting a citation from each kind of database. Find the article you want, and then:

Gale	Click Cite at the top right of the page, then select "Export to NoodleTools."
EBSCO	Click on the right-hand menu, then click . Select the last item in the list, which is .
JSTOR	Click in the left-hand menu. Scroll down past the three citations and select , the first item on the list.
INFOBASE	Click directly under the article title. Then click .
PROQUEST	Click in the upper right menu. Scroll down past the citation. You do NOT need to change the citation format at the top! Select , then Continue on the next screen.

4. Refresh your Sources page, and there you will see a perfectly-formatted MLA citation.

5. To print or export all your sources into a pre-formatted Works Cited page, select the printer icon at the top of your Sources page, then choose what program you want your citations exported to.