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UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

History - American Military History

Ask the Library

Librarian

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Kimberly Foster
she/her
Contact:
Thompson Library 119H
Coastal Carolina University
843-349-2260

Welcome to History 460

This guide is designed to assist you in finding primary sources on U.S. Military History. These sources include:

  • newspapers
  • diaries
  • letters
  • blogs
  • military reports

The guide is divided by time period, so select appropriate time period.

1700's: Primary sources for the Revolutionary era

1800-1859: 1st and 2nd Barbary Wars, War of 1812, and Mexican-American war primary sources

1800-1865: Civil War resources, a more in-depth guide is History-US Civil War.

Indian Wars 1700-1890's: primary sources

1898-1920: Spanish-American War and World War I.

1940-45: World War II, a more in-depth guide is World War II

1950-75: Korean War, Indochine Conflicts, Vietnam War

1990-present : Persian Gulf, War in Afghanistan, Iraq War

There is also a link to Secondary Sources where you will locate books and articles written by historians, as well as first person accounts of conflicts published as books. Biographical Information links to databases with biographies of prominent Americans.

 

Locating Diaries/Letters/Published Works

Some of the richest materials will come from personal accounts. These may be collected in published books, or printed in newspapers, or availabe online through blogs for the 21st century conflicts.

To locate published accounts, try searching the library's online catalog or PASCAL.

These search terms will help :

  • diary
  • letters 
  • correspondence 
  • narrative
  • journal
  • memoir
  • first person accounts

Combine the search term with the name of the conflict or the location of the conflict.