Learn More about the Civil War and the Union Home Front
By Brett Barker

Brett Barker, editorial assistant for the Wisconsin Magazine of History, is currently working on a book entitled: Researching Civil War Wisconsin: A Personal Guide to Learning More. He is currently completing his dissertation on the Northern home front during the Civil War in the UW history department.

General resources
Jeanie Attie, Patriotic Toil: Northern Women and the American Civil War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998. Looks at the role of women's work in the Union victory, while documenting how Northern women demanded a voice in how their labors were used, and that their contributions be acknowledged and appreciated.

Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. An interesting study of challenges faced by Southern women during the war.

Richard Sewell, A House Divided: Sectionalism and Civil War, 1848-1865. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. An excellent, brief treatment of the war and its causes. The Northern home front is covered in Chapter 6, "The War at Home."

James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. McPherson won the Pulitzer Prize for this massive work on the Civil War. Information about the Northern home front appears throughout the book, but see especially Chapter 20, "Fire in the Rear."

Mark E. Neely, The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Neely won the Pulitzer Prize for this comprehensive study of Lincoln and the Union government's curtailment of civil liberties during the war.

Phillip S. Paludan, A People's Contest: the Union and Civil War, 1861-1865. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. A specific study of life in the North during the war.

Resources specific to Wisconsin
Richard Current, The History of Wisconsin, Volume II: The Civil War Era, 1848-1873. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976. The SHSW has produced a multi-volume history of Wisconsin. In Volume II, the Civil War is the central story, but much about the era is also discussed.

John O. Holzhueter, ed. Madison During the Civil War Era: A Portfolio of Rare Photographs by John S. Fuller, 1860-1863. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1997. Based on an article in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, this collection of wartime photographs offer a glimpse into Madison's past.

Frank L. Klement, Wisconsin in the Civil War: The Home Front and Battle Front, 1861-1865. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1997. Offers an introduction to Wisconsin's role in the war.

Carolyn J. Mattern, Soldiers When They Go: The Story of Camp Randall, 1861-1865. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1981. An account of Camp Randall and Madison during the war.

Frederick Merk, Economic History of Wisconsin During the Civil War Decade. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1916, reprinted 1971. This older study offers a bounty of detail about economic life in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's military effort
Edwin B. Quiner, The Military History of Wisconsin. Chicago: Clarke & Co., 1866, reprinted 2000. A massive study of Wisconsin's military organizations. It also includes some information about the Wisconsin home front.

Rufus Dawes, A Full Blown Yankee of the Iron Brigade: Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers. Marietta, Ohio: 1890, reprinted Madison, 1962. An account of the experience of war, written by a Wisconsin officer in the Iron Brigade.

Alan T. Nolan, The Iron Brigade: A Military History. New York: Macmillan, 1961, reprinted Madison, 1975. An account of Wisconsin's best-known contribution to the Union army.

Online resources
Wisconsin Goes to War
http://www.uwosh.edu/archives/civilwar/civilwar.html
This website uses original documents to explore many themes, including Wisconsin's contributions to the war effort, and "Women and the Home Front."

Roster of Wisconsin Civil War Soldiers
http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/roster/index.html
Scanned from the original printed rosters and index, every Wisconsin soldier is listed, along with his hometown and service record.

Lesson Plan for Wisconsin in the Civil War
http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/oss/lessons/civilwar
Created by the SHSW Office of School Services, this site allows students and adults to explore the home front in Wisconsin through letters, photos, and other original materials.

Wisconsin Electric Reader
http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/Galleries/CampRandall.html
This Web site provides more information on Camp Randall and its history.

Selected Civil War Photographs
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphome.html
A collection of over 1,100 photographs from the Library of Congress. The following two sites provide links to thousands of other Web sites related to the Civil War.

The American Civil War Homepage
http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war

The United States Civil War Center
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu