View of Ship Island, Mississippi, from Harper's Weekly, February 8, 1862.
Courtesy of the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, LSU Libraries.

Links to Black Soldiers

A site that offers an almost unlimited potential for mining Civil War minutiae is the American Civil War Research Database. Described as "the largest, most in-depth and fully searchable database of United States Civil War soldiers and events," this collection of records, rosters, chronicles, profiles, and photographs is available for online research to anyone who joins by paying a $25.00 annual fee. For the serious researcher this database is well worth the price of admission.

There are two general resources on the internet that focus specifically on Louisiana. Louisiana History covers the state, while the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies focuses on parishes north and east of New Orleans. Nevertheless, both sites have links to a wide variety of topics related to the Pelican State's rich history, including the Native Guards.

An excellent web site related to black troops serving during the Civil War memorializes Company B of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. Two additional sites that contain information concerning African Americans who experienced combat deal with the siege of Fort Blakely outside of Mobile and the defense of Milliken's Bend near Vicksburg. The Milliken's Bend site is especially attractive and contains references to music, poetry, letters, and images depicting black soldiers during the Civil War. Finally, there is a brand new tribute to the Buffalo Soldiers on the internet. This site maintained by Stanford Davis has a wealth of information and photographs about black soldiers who continued their service to the United States after the Civil War in the American West.

There are several clearing houses that deal exclusively with Civil War material. Perhaps the best is the U.S. Civil War Center at LSU in Baton Rouge. In addition to providing a calendar of current events, the Center has an extensive directory of Civil War links. The Center is a good place to start for anyone interested in the Civil War on the internet. The United States Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research focuses on black troops specifically. Teachers interested in locating material about black soldiers for use in the classroom should consult Social Studies School Services, an educational resource center with several links to black soldiers in the Civil War.

Anyone interested in Civil War photographs will want to be aware of three major resources--The Library of Congress, the National Archives, and theUnited States Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The first two have a number of photographs on line, which can be down-loaded. In fact, several of the photographs in this web site's photography section below were down-loaded from either the Library of Congress or the National Archives. The Military History Institute does not have photographs on line, but its catalog of over 20,000 images can be searched over the internet. In that regard, the Military History Institute is an excellent resource for someone looking for photographs of a particular person or unit.

Are you interested in art work depicting black soldiers? Allen's Creations features prints of African Americans who served in the United States Army during the Civil, Indian, and Spanish-American Wars. The collection is impressive, and new prints are being added almost every month.

  Click here to see photographs of black soldiers available on the internet.

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