The papers of Alexander Hamilton Stephens (1812-1883), lawyer, journalist, governor of Georgia, member of both houses of the United States Congress, and vice president of the Confederate States of America, span the years 1784-1886, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1850-1883. The collection consists primarily of correspondence, supplemented by an autobiography, journal, miscellaneous memoranda, legal documents, and clippings. The papers are organized into three series: General Correspondence, Letters from Servants, Autobiography, and Journal.
The American Battlefield Trust preserves America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters. Our education team offers various resources for teachers and students, from continuing education credits to curricula and lesson plans, from research guides to scholarships and contests.
More than 5 million items document over 300 years of Georgia and American history, from the colonial period through the 21st century. These include 100,000 photographs, 30,000 architectural drawings, 20,000 rare and non-rare books, and thousands of maps, portraits, and artifacts. Use these tools to search the Georgia Historical Society collections.
Documenting the American South
Documenting the American South (DocSouth), a digital publishing initiative sponsored by the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture. It supplies teachers, students, and researchers at every educational level with a wide array of titles for reference, studying, teaching, and research.
Documenting the Civil War experience in Georgia
Archival materials documenting the Atlanta Campaign and the defense of Savannah; the Eastern Theater and Western Theater outside of Georgia; Confederate government records and correspondence of its prominent officials; life on the homefront; slavery; and the Civil War in memory. The records include the diverse experiences and perspectives of military leaders, soldiers, and civilians whose lives were directly impacted by the Civil War. Thousands of first-hand accounts of Union and Confederate soldiers and officers document their hardships and opinions of the war and national politics. Military documents, including orders issued by William T. Sherman, describe the strategy of the Atlanta Campaign. Letters and diaries from Georgia civilians, young and old, male and female, describe in compelling detail the anxiety leading up to the war, the blockade of Georgia’s coast, the siege of Atlanta, and General Sherman’s subsequent march through Georgia. Financial and military documents reveal details of the buying and selling of slaves by private parties and by governments in the defense of the Confederacy. Letters, questionnaires, and 20th-century photograph collections capture the memories of Civil War veterans and document important Georgia Civil War landmarks a few decades after the conflict.
Most units were numbered; however, some were named. See the table in the link for lists of the regiments, battalions, batteries, and other units. The Georgia Military Units list information comes from the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors website, which can also be searched by a soldier’s name.
The Kenan Research Center’s military history collections document the Civil War, particularly the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, and the experiences of Georgia soldiers involved in other theatres of battle. The Research Center’s holdings include over 350 primary source materials, including diaries, letters, military orders, and other materials from Union and Confederate soldiers, officers, and civilians.
The New Georgia Encyclopedia (NGE) is the nation’s first born-digital state encyclopedia. Since 2004, it has provided ready access to authoritative scholarship on various topics. All of its entries are written and reviewed by scholars, fact-checked by reference librarians at the University of Georgia, and updated regularly to reflect new information and recent developments. Nearly twenty years after its launch, the NGE remains committed to the notion that history and culture are public resources that should be freely available to one and all.
In 1905, Georgia Gov. Joseph Terrell announced that the U.S. War Department had returned twenty-six Civil War flags to Georgia. He requested state funds to preserve the collection. In 1916, the General Assembly mandated that the flags from the Civil War and Spanish-American War “be preserved for all time in the Capitol of the State.” The law required the governor to accept “any such flag . . . offered to the State” and “to make such provision for its preservation as may be necessary. . . .” Thus began the Georgia Capitol flag collection, which can be viewed in this Virtual Vault.