Civil War records go online

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Though the Wabash Valley’s Civil War veterans are long gone, many of their letters, documents and photographs remain.

For the past couple years, several area groups have been working to scan those records and make them available online in honor of the war’s 150 ^th anniversary.  

Among those doing the work is Jim Gilson, archivist at the Vigo County Public Library, who said that putting the records online can help preserve the original copies. 

“You preserve the records for posterity,” Gilson said. “These records are fragile and some of them are falling apart already, but you want people to be able to look at them.”

Digitizing those old records costs money, and Gilson said much of that money is provided through grants from the federal Library Services and Technology Act.

Those grants are distributed by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, Gilson said.

Along with the library, groups like the Sisters of Providence, the Vigo County Historical Society, and Indiana State University are also contributing to the project.

“It’s nice to be able to connect somebody to their past, so they can actually say ‘My ancestors were in the Civil War,’” Gilson said.

To view the searchable civil war archives, click here .