Today marks the 150th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, which officially ended the Civil War. Approximately 600,000 troops were killed during the four years of the war. Although Colorado was far away from the majority of the battles, the territory did contribute to the war as fought in the West, particularly through the participation of the Colorado Volunteers in New Mexico, where they fought against Confederate Texans.
In our library you can find a number of resources, both memoirs and secondary sources, on the Civil War in Colorado. Selected resources include:
- Colorado Volunteers 1861-1865, Colorado State Archives.
- Distant Bugles, Distant Drums: The Union Response to the Confederate Invasion of New Mexico, by Flint Whitlock, University Press of Colorado, 2006.
- This Soldier Life: The Diaries of Romine H. Ostrander, 1863-1865, in Colorado Territory, Colorado Historical Society, 2006.
- “Confederate Guerillas in Southern Colorado,” by Morris F. Taylor, Colorado Magazine, Fall 1969.
- Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War: The New Mexico Campaign in 1862, by William Clark Whitford, Colorado Historical Society, 1963.
- “Quartermastering for the 2nd Regiment, Colorado Volunteers,” by Charlotte Barbour, Colorado Magazine, October 1961.
- “Life at Camp Weld and Fort Lyon in 1861-62: An Extract from the Diary of Mrs. Byron N. Sanford,” Colorado Magazine, July 1930.
- “My Experiences in the First Colorado Regiment,” by R. B. Wallace, Colorado Magazine, November 1924.
SLAVERY and FORMER SLAVES
- “Freedom and Slavery in the Pikes Peak Country, 1859-61,” by William J. Convery, Colorado Heritage, Nov/Dec 2011.
- “Dearfield, A Dream Deferred,” by Karen Waddell, Colorado Heritage, 1998, issue 2.
- Colorado Heritage, Spring 1996 issue on Buffalo Soldiers
- “Negro Rights in Colorado Territory, 1859-67,” by Harmon Mothershead, Colorado Magazine, July 1963.
- “Original Letters of General Grant, Written to His Cousin, Silas A. Hudson,” Colorado Magazine, March 1937.
- “Abraham Lincoln in Colorado,” by William J. Convery, Colorado Heritage, May/June 2009.
- “General John A. Logan: A Name Remembered and Honored in Colorado,” by Robert E. Hartley, Colorado Heritage, Summer 2007.