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MILITARY RESOURCES

LOCAL HISTORY/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

 

GUIDES AND INDEXES

 

1890 Veterans Census - Northern Virginia 
Enumeration of Federal (and some Confederate) veterans or their widows, including a number of United States Colored Troops.

 

Civil War Era Burials - Alexandria National Cemetery
This index, prepared from the Roll of Honor. Names of Soldiers, Victims of The Rebellion, Buried in the National Cemetery at Alexandria, Virginia. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1866, includes 3367 white Federal soldiers, 2 Federal seamen, 229 United States Colored Troops, 2 females, and 1 male citizen. 

 

Civil War Era Prints Inventory

Includes pictures from the following sources: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Harper's Weekly, 1860-1890, Illustrated London News, New York Illustrated News, Pictorial Battles of the Civil War, Pictorial Battles of the War of 1861, Pictorial War Record.

 

Confederate Historical Resources
Guide to our collection's resources including: General Resources, Politics and Governance, Sinews of War, The Home Front, Army of Northern Virginia, Navy and Marines, Alexandria and Northern Virginia, Women and War, African Americans and the War, Maryland, Guides to other Collections.

 

Notes on locating a Confederate ancestor
Guide to locating your ancestor.

 

Oath of Allegiance in Virginia, 1862-1865
The Oath of Allegiance, also called a Loyalty Oath, was a document  signed by persons during and after the Civil War to pledge loyalty and allegiance to the Union. Initially intended for employees of the Federal government and military personnel, the oath soon took several different forms and eventually extended to the state level. This list contains approximately 1,200 persons, many of whom were residents of Alexandria, who signed the Oath of Allegiance. 

 

Volunteers for Freedom: Black Civil War Soldiers in Alexandria National Cemetery
This list was created after a careful review of Volunteers for Freedom: Black Civil War Soldiers in Alexandria National Cemetery by Edward A. Miller, Jr., located in Local History/Special Collections. Miller's sources included -- but were not limited to -- pension files, military service records, and hospital records. His research was published in Historic Alexandria Quarterly.

 

World War I Draft Registrations - Northern Virginia
Draft registrations from Alexandria and Arlington and Fairfax Counties.  This index includes registrants for the City of Alexandria, Alexandria (now Arlington) County, and Fairfax County. Our source is microfilm from the National Archives and Records Administration RG163 M1509, roll numbers: VA3; VA4; and VA20.

 

BATTLEFIELDS OF VA

 

Souvenir photographs by Fred H. Foss

The Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections Division has among its photographs collections a group of photos which date from the May 1887 "excursion" of the veterans of the 57th and 58th Massachusetts to the Civil War Battlefields of Virginia. The series includes 25 images, of which, the library has 19.

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FROWN OF THE CITIZENS

 

Henry B. Whittington, ca. 1812-1884, was a clerk for an Alexandria mercantile business during the Civil War.  He enjoyed a local reputation as a poet and some of his work was published in the Alexandria Gazette. During the Federal Occupation of Alexandria, he kept a diary of nearly daily entries for the period May 24, 1861 through March 30, 1864.

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GIVE OCEANS OF LOVE

 

The prisoner-of-war letters of Brigadier General Montgomery Dent Corse, CSA, 17th Virginia Infantry to his wife, Elizabeth Beverley.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Corse was commissioned as a Colonel, served with the 17th Virginia Infantry, and took part in the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. At the Battle of Sayler's Creek on April 6, 1865, he was captured and held as prisoner-of-war at Fort Warren, Boston, MA.

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