Civil War Vault is your curated gateway into thousands of restored photographs, maps, documents, and illustrated plates from the American Civil War — organized for researchers, educators, and history lovers.
Structured around how researchers actually work: by battle, by state, by branch of service, and by format. Every asset links back to its original source when available.
High-resolution scans organized by theater, campaign, and state — ideal for books, lectures, and documentary work.
Campaign atlases, battlefield diagrams, and engineer drawings tied to major battles and theaters.
Extracts from the War of the Rebellion alongside personal accounts that bring the official record to life.
Dive into specific states — from Pennsylvania and Virginia to Kentucky and Missouri — with tailored bundles of photos, maps, and primary documents.
Explore Port Hudson, Vicksburg, and other pivotal actions along the Mississippi River through lithographs, field reports, and maps presented as a guided digital exhibit. Ideal for classroom use, documentary pre-production, and personal research.
Browse every active collection inside the Civil War Vault — including diaries, journals, envelopes, forts, prisons, campaigns, fashion, and more — organized into a dedicated Collections hub.
Explore key campaigns, turning points, and documents by year. Each point on the timeline links into deeper collections within the Vault.
From Fort Sumter to First Bull Run, trace the opening clashes as states secede and armies mobilize.
Maps, reports, and field photographs from Shiloh, the Peninsula Campaign, and the bloodiest single day at Antietam.
Explore the dual turning points of the war with detailed maps, battlefield images, and primary documents from both campaigns.
Follow Sherman’s march, Grant’s Overland Campaign, and the shift toward a grinding war of attrition.
Documents and images from Appomattox, Lincoln’s assassination, and the first steps into Reconstruction.
Whether you’re a casual history enthusiast or a serious researcher, Civil War Vault gives you a structured way to work with primary sources.
Early members lock in lifetime access to core collections, plus new uploads added monthly as the Vault grows.
Join the interest list to be notified when membership opens.
No spam. Just launch details and occasional highlights from the archive.
Built as part of The Prudent Merchant · Ancestral Archives, Civil War Vault is a living digital catalog designed to preserve and share public-domain Civil War resources with modern researchers.
The Vault organizes thousands of photographs, maps, documents, and illustrated plates from 1861–1865 into a structure that mirrors how historians actually work: by campaign, by state, by branch of service, and by source collection.
Every effort is made to preserve original context, including source citations, publication data, and archive references, while offering modern conveniences such as high-resolution downloads and curated study bundles.
Civil War Vault grows over time as new materials are digitized, restored, and added from public-domain repositories and private collections. It is both a research tool and a preservation project within the broader Prudent Merchant ecosystem.