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Civil War Resources in the Norwich Archives: University Records

Overview

The focus of these selections are materials reflecting Norwich University's operations during the Civil War and not the broader or more individual contributions of specific students, alumni, faculty or staff.

Collections that are not available online are usually described in a linked guide or "finding aid" but otherwise require researchers to visit or contact the Norwich Archives to access.

University Records

Board of Trustees Records:

  • 29 Boxes (29 linear feet)
  • Contains minutes of the Norwich University Board of Trustees during the Civil War as well as limited correspondence with Justin Smith Morrill in 1862 and 1865.
  • Collection is not available online

Records from the Office of the Commandant:

  • 8 boxes (8 linear feet)
  • Includes a letter from Charles Curtis to Wheelock Veazey written in 1872 about the Civil War service of NU alumni 
  • Charles Curtis' 1872 letter is available online

Event Ephemera Collection:

  • 2.5 drawers (4.5 linear feet)
  • A limited selection of ephemera overlaps with events at Norwich during and just after the Civil War
  • Collection is not available online

Collection on Edward Bourns:

  • 5 folders
  • Although Bourns was Norwich University's president from 1850-1865, there is limited documentation about the university during the Civil War included in the archival collection documenting his presidency
  • Collection is not available online

University Publications

University catalogs, 1861-1865

Reveille (student newspaper), 1860-1865

University Regulator and University Owl (student newspapers documenting Norwich University in the period immediately prior to the Civil War, ca. 1853-1856)

Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

  • Use to find obituaries, reminiscences, and other articles by or about Norwich University alumni who served in the Civil War

Fiction about Norwich University in the Civil War:

Photographs

Norwich University Photograph Collection

  • 71 boxes and 20 oversize drawers (144 linear feet)
  • Includes portraits of students and alumni during the Civil War as well as images of the university campus in the 1850s and 1860s

Photograph Albums

  • 2 boxes (1.5 linear feet)
  • Albums pertain to the Norwich University campus, student life, and fraternities beginning around 1859 

Burnham Family Photograph Album

  • 2 folders
  • Contains photographs of the South Barracks before and after it was destroyed by fire in 1866

Selection of photographs available online