DOCUMENTS FROM THE CIVIL WAR ERA:

DOCUMENTS WRITTEN BEFORE, DURING, AND JUST

AFTER THE WAR FOR SOUTHERN INDEPENDENCE

(Red-colored links support the Confederate or Southern point of view, and blue-colored links support the Union or Northern point of view.)

Inaugural Speech of Jefferson Davis (the President of the Confederacy)

William Seward's Speech "The Irrepressible Conflict"

Declarations of Causes of Secession

Inaugural Speech of Abraham Lincoln

A Southern Rabbi's Sermon in Defense of Secession

Southern Newspaper Editorial, October 11, 1860

The Question of the Hour

Robert Toombs' Speech to the Georgia Legislature

Autobiography of John Carroll 

War Days in Fayetteville

President Andrew Johnson's Veto Message of His Veto of the first Reconstruction Act (Note: Andrew Johnson was Lincoln's vice president and became president after Lincoln was assassinated. In his veto message, Johnson described the Radical Republicans' Reconstruction Act as unjust, despotic, unncessary, and illegal. Very interesting reading. The Republican-controlled Congress overrode Johnson's veto.)

Alexander Stephens' Book A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States: Its Causes, Character, Conduct and Results

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

Contact Michael T. Griffith