| During the American Civil War (1861-1865) the conflict was a subject of
much debate throughout the Harvard community hundreds of students and alumni
served in both the Union and Confederate forces. This subject guide is an
introduction to the wide variety of collections and materials which document
the many aspects of the University's administrative, academic, and student life
in the years leading up to, during, and immediately following the American
Civil War.
This is not a comprehensive list of all of the Civil War-related
materials in the Harvard University Archives' holdings. To find other relevant
sources, consult with the reference staff.
Published sources
A good place to start your research is with the following published
sources. These titles may be found in many research and public libraries; they
are also available in the University Archives.
Books
- Three Centuries of Harvard by Samuel Eliot Morison, Harvard
University Press, 1937 (available in Archives' reading room)
- 'Harvard's struggle for emancipation' by Franklin Sanborn, AB 1855,
published in the Harvard Monthly, November, 1885, volume 1, number 2
(available in vertical file at Archives reference desk)
- Harvard Memorial Biographies, edited by Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, Cambridge : Sever and Francis, 1866. (available in Archives reading
room)
- Harvard College during the war, Harvard memorial poems by
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and
James Russell Lowell. edited by Nathan Appleton (call # HUD 863.4)
- Harvard University in the war of 1861-1865 : a record of services
rendered in the army and navy of the United States, by the graduates and
students of Harvard College and the professional school. by Francis H.
Brown. (call # HUG 3286.10.12)
- Records of the Harvard Medical School during the Great Rebellion
1861-1865, edited by Henry I. Bowditch (Call # HUG 3286.9)
- 'Memoirs of the war of '61' by Elizabeth Cabot Putnam (call #
HUG 3286.72)
- The Harvard
Book, (1875) a narrative history of the University includes references
to the planning and dedication of Memorial Hall which commemorates of Harvard's
Civil War dead.
Periodicals
- The Harvard Alumni Bulletin, 1910-1969 (call # HUK 137)
includes the following articles:
- 'Totals of Harvard Men in the Civil War' by H.N. Blake.
Harvard Bulletin, October, 1918, volume XXI, number 4, page 125.
- 'The 20th Massachusetts Regiment' Harvard Bulletin,
January 4, 1911, volume XIII, page 193.
- 'Memories of Warfare' Reminiscences of C.F. Morse, SB 1858
Harvard Bulletin, December 16, 1914, volume XVII, number 12, page
219.
- The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, 1892-1934, published
by the Harvard Graduates Magazine Association (call # HUK 435 and available in
the Archives reading room) includes the following articles:
- 'Harvard University in the War of 1861-65', Harvard Graduates'
Magazine, June, 1911, volume XIX, page 751.
- '61 in the Civil War' Harvard Graduates' Magazine,
September, 1911, volume XX, page 222.
- 'Harvard in Civil War Times' Harvard College Class of 1865
Reminiscences of a 'Civil War Class' Harvard Graduates' Magazine, March,
1914, volume XXII, page 423.
- 'Record of Harvard in the Civil War' by H.N. Blake. Harvard
Graduates' Magazine, December, 1911, volume XX, page 235.
- 'Proposal to include Confederate graduates in Memorial Hall'
Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June, 1910 , volume XVIII, page 783.
- 'Harvard Soldiers' address by Charles William Eliot, 30 May 1896
Harvard Graduates' Magazine, September, 1896, volume V, page 26.
- 'Harvard in the Confederate Congresses' 1861-62 and 1864-65, by
H.N. Blake. Harvard Graduates' Magazine, March, 1914, Volume XXII, page
432.
- 'Harvard Commanders in the Civil War' by H.N. Blake. Harvard
Graduates' Magazine, December, 1912, volume XXI, page 377.
- Memorial Day address by Joseph Sampson Reed, A.B. 1862, delivered
in 1900, relating to Harvard during the 1860s. Harvard Graduates'
Magazine, volume IX page 31.
- Civil War Harvard Statistical summaries by class by F.H.
Brown, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, volume XIX, page 749.
- Harvard Confederates killed in Civil War roster by classes by
H.N. Blake. Harvard Graduates' Magazine, volume XX, page 422 or
492?.
- 'Harvard students on the Union side'. Number killed with
tabulation. Harvard Graduates' Magazine, volume IV, page 376.
- 'Civil War: members of the Class of 1869 who served.' Harvard
Graduates' Magazine, September, 1911, volume XX, page 219.
- 'Share of '60' record of the war service of the Class of 1860.
Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June, 1911, volume XIX, page 751.
- 'Vacant tablets in Memorial Hall' roster of Law School and
Scientific School Union Army men by classes by H.N. Blake. Harvard
Graduates' Magazine, June, 1912, volume XX, page 597.
- Harvard College Class of 1862 statistics relating to height,
weight, and religious creeds Harvard Graduates' Magazine, volume VIII,
page 389.
- 'The True Measure of Valor' a Memorial Day address by Nathaniel
S. Shaler at Sanders Theatre, May 30, 1898, Harvard Graduates' Magazine,
December, 1898, volume VII, page 192.
- 'Harvard in Civil War Times' Reminiscences of the Class of
1865--'the Civil War Class' relating to College life, professors, incidents,
and conditions at Cambridge. Harvard Graduates' Magazine, March 1914,
volume XXII, page 423.
- Harvard Magazine, an undergraduate student periodical,
published from 1854-1864, (call # HUK 544 and available at Archives reference
desk) includes the following:
- 'Letter from the Seat of War' reprinted letter from Private
J.L.W. stationed at Camp Essex, Maryland, dated May 19, 1861. Harvard
Magazine, volume VII, page 341
- Harvard College Class of 1861 Statistics relating to height,
weight, and religious creeds. Harvard Magazine, volume VII, page
361.
- "Drill Club" of 1861 or 'protection' of the Arsenal on Garden
Street. Harvard Magazine, volume VIII, page 83 and volume IX, page
115.
- Petition for regular course in drilling, 1863, would enable men
to enlist as officers instead of privates. Harvard Magazine, volume X,
page 113.
- Harvard College Class of 1863 Civil War record and statistics.
Harvard Magazine, volume IX, page 301.
- 'Roll of Honor' Roster by classes 1825 to 1867, showing killed
and retired. Harvard Magazine, volume X, pages 315 and 332.
- Statistics relating to students who left College and Law School,
May 1861. Harvard Magazine, volume VII, page 318.
- Statistics relating to College classes, circa 1862. Harvard
Magazine, volume IX, page 37.
- List of Harvard men drawn in the 1863 draft. Harvard
Magazine, volume X, page 73
- Letter from William Francis Bartlett, A.B. 1862, Captain of the
20th Massachusetts Regiments from Camp Foster, September 15, 1861. Harvard
Magazine, volume VIII, pages 56 and 83.
- Annual
Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard University,
includes reports documenting academic life at Harvard during the War
years.
Unpublished Records
-
University RecordsThese consist of minutes, correspondence,
reports, and other material produced by administrative, academic, and research
units in the course of University business. These records are organized
according to the office or department of origin. Records of the following
administrative units include material relevant to the Civil War.
- Records of the Harvard Corporation, Board of Overseers,
Harvard Presidents, and Treasurer
- Records of President of Harvard University, Cornelius Conway
Felton, 1860-1862 (call # UAI 15.890.xx)
- Records of President of Harvard University, Thomas Hill,
1862-1869 (call # UAI 15.892.xx)
- Corporation Routine Records include records relating to the
planning and construction of Memorial Hall, circa 1865-1878 (call # UAI
15.xx)
- Buildings records for Memorial Hall: records of the Committee
of Fifty upon the subject of Memorial Hall and Secretary of the Building
Committee, 1868-1878 (call # UAI 15.80.xx)
- Buildings records for University buildings: includes
architectural drawings relating to Memorial Hall and Sanders Theatre, circa
1870, Ware and Van Brunt, architects. (call # UAI 15.14 pf and UAI 15.25 pf)
Note: drawings may be in fragile condition, consult reference staff for
access.
For additional information, consult the following inventories:
Records of the
Corporation
Records of the Board of
Overseers
- Faculty of Arts and Sciences (call #s: UAIII 5.xx - UAIII
20.xx)
Record of students desiring military instruction, 1861 (call #
UAIII 28.61)
- Library
Harvard College Library letter books for the
period 1861-1865 include correspondence relating to donations and acquisitions
of library materials during wartime, occasionally from occupied areas in the
South (call # UAIII 50.8). See also the journal of Harvard College Librarian,
John Langdon Sibley (call # HUG 1791.72).
- General Historical Collections
These include materials documenting annual events, biography, buildings and
facilities, curriculum, lectureships, student life, music, religion, sports.
They also include works written about the history of Harvard.
- Biographical folders (call number HUG 300). These consist
primarily of newspaper clippings, as well as some manuscript materials,
relating to Harvard alumni, faculty, administrators, and staff. The following
folder is of particular interest:
Hunt, Carleton, 1836-1921.
- Correspondence with Civil War soldiers and relatives used
in compiling Harvard University in the War of 1861-1865. Collected by F.
H. Brown, circa 1875, 10 volumes (call # HUG 3286.10.4F)
- Newspaper accounts of Harvard men in the war and
biographical notices of desceased alumni used by F.H. Brown in compiling
Harvard University in the War of 1861-1865 (call # HUG 3286.10.5)
- Harvard men in the Confederate service, 1861-1865,
consists of news clippings (call # HUG 3286.14)
- "James Benjamin Clark and the southern experience at Harvard
College in the Civil War era" by William Braverman (call # HUG 3802.1)
Published in Harvard College Library Bulletin, v. 34. no. 4, Fall 1986.
- "Harvard's commemoration day, July 21, 1865" by Hamilton
V. Bail (call # HUA 865.90) Published in The New England Quarterly,
1942.
- Journal, 1846-1882, John Langdon Sibley, Harvard College
Librarian (call # HUG 1791.72
The journal includes observations
about the impact of the Civil War on Harvard as well as the University reaction
to the death of President Lincoln in 1865. (This journal is indexed by the
Tolman Index to Early University Records.)
- Physical Plant and Property (call # HUB 1xxx)
These
records include material relating to Memorial Hall and other buildings
constructed during and after the Civil War. Of particular interest is the
following material:
- History of Memorial Hall by Louise Ambler (call number HUB
1556.39)
- 'Generous instincts : remembering Harvard's Confederate
alumni' by Lila Weston. Thesis (A.L.M. History--Harvard University, 1994 (call
# HUB 1556.94.93 Box 75)
- "The Soldier's field" Henry Lee Higginson (call # HUB
3801.90.3 Box 70)
- Commencement, Class Day, and Exhibitions
This collection documents Commencement activities, programs, addresses and speeches during the Civil War period, and includes the following student essays:
- Compromise by Leonard Case Alden (call # HUC 6861)
- Our National Vanity by Henry Newton Sheldon (call # HUC 6863)
- A South-side View of Ethnology by Wendell Phillips Garrison (call # HUC 6861)
- The Swiss Sonderbund and the Secessionists by Joseph Hetherington McDaniel (call # HUC 6861)
- Can one of our States Commit Treason? by George Edwin Chapman (call # HUC 6862)
- The Duties of Young Men at the Present Time by Charles Pickering Bowditch (call # HUC 6863)
- "The American Crisis" from the Revue des Deux Mondes, November 1862 by James Thompson Bixby (call # HUC 6863)
- Modern Mitigations for the Cruelties of War by Clement Lawrence Smith (call # HUC 6863)
- What Degree of Equality is necessary in a Democracy by Edmund Souder Wheeler (call # HUC 6863)
- Emancipation in Missouri by Samuel Craft Davis (call # HUC 6863)
- The Value of Recent Proposals to change the Mode of Suffrage in Republics by Edward Bangs Drew (call # HUC 6863)
- The Trial of Democracy by Francis Alexander Marsden (call # HUC 6863)
- No Compromise with Secession by Edward Gray Stetson (call # HUC 6863)
- The Inferiority of the Black Race translation from R. Topffer's Reflexions et Menus Plautus by Robert Ralston Newell (call # HUC 6864) and George Anthony Hill (call # HUC 6864)
- What has been accomplished by the Monitors? by Albert Thomas Sinclair (call # HUC 6864)
- Liberty and Equality by Henry Harrison Sprague (call # HUC 6864)
- Our Freedmen by Edwin Pliny Seaver (call # HUC 6864)
- The Slave Ship of 1619 and the Pilgrim Ship of 1620 by Charles Edward Souther (call # HUC 6865)
- The Present State of the Suffrage Question in England by William Henry Fish (call # HUC 6865)
- Political and Civil Rights of Free Blacks in the South from the Revolution to 1830 by William Durant Bullard (call # 6865)
- A Reading and Writing Qualification for Suffrage by William Harrington Warren (call # 6865)
- Class Publications and Records (call # HUD 2xx.xx)
These include news clippings, memoirs, and correspondence relating to
Harvard alumni.
- Harvard College class reports: 1833-1900, on microfiche;
available at reference desk; 1900 to the present, available in print in reading
room.
- Harvard College Class Books, circa 1820-1900 (call number HUD
2xx.714) Volumes contain autobiographical sketches by members of each class
along with notes by the Class Secretary, and occasional news clippings, and
photographs.
- Harvard College class secretaries' records, circa 1830-1920
(call number HUD 2xx): records may include personal folders relating to members
of each College class (HUD 2xx.x).
- Religious Services (HUD 59xx)
Includes wartime sermons
and records relating to services commemorating men who died in the war.
Arranged in chronological order. Of note is:
Putnam, George, 1807-1878. An
address spoken in the college chapel, Cambridge, October 28, 1864, at the
funeral of Brigadier General Charles Russell Lowell, who fell at the battle of
Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. (Call # HUG 1533.72)
- Visual Collections
These include photographs, prints,
drawings, and moving image materials documenting people associated with Harvard
(e.g. alumni who served in the war), the campus (e.g. Memorial Hall), and views
(e.g. the Cambridge Arsenal). These collections are organized in the following
categories:
- Subjects (call number HUP-SF) inventory available at Archives
reference desk. Alphabetically arranged guide according to topic (e.g. Class of
1861)
- Portraits (call number HUP) Alphabetically arranged guide to
portraits of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and University guests. Inventory
available in Archives reading room. See also: Note: portraits may duplicate
those available via the Portrait Index.See also Harvardians in the Rebellion of
1861-1865. (call number UAV136.112)
- Views (call number HUV) arranged in alphabetical order according
to building and environs; additional series arranged in chronological order.
Inventories available at Archives reference desk. Of particular interest are
the following images:
- Cambridge Arsenal (call #HUV 1124)
- Memorial Hall (call #HUV 166)
- Soldier's Field (call # HUV 1330).
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Paul Joseph Revere
Harvard A.B. 1852
Colonel, 20th Regiment
Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, mortally wounded at Gettysburg.
Daguerreotype, 1852
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