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The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective

This database contains the full-text of major articles extracted from more than 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and The Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 30, 1865. This database includes The Gettysburg Address, The Emancipation Proclamation, more then 12,000 articles and 700 maps from the pages of both Union and Confederate newspapers of the day.

Using Database

"Quick Start"

Access the program and press a space bar to activate the Query Screen. This screen displays the following three windows:

Words Window -- Left window that contains a full concordance of each different word and number appearing in the database.

Results Window -- Right window that displays the number of articles in the database found to contain your query. Press <Enter> to view full text of articles.

Query Window -- Horizontal Window at the bottom of the screen. Type the word you are searching for and press <Enter.> Articles containing search words are displayed in the chronological order.

Simple Search -- Type a word in the Query Window and press "Enter"

Example : Smith

Word Grouping -- Any query of two or more words should be enclosed in quotation marks:

Example : "John Smith" Omitting the quotation marks will bring up articles containing the names John and Smith which may not be related to one another.

Wildcard Search -- is used when the actual spelling or word length may be unknown.

Example : Smith* This will find Smith, Smithe, Smithey, Smithfield, etc.

Boolean Search (And, Or, Not)

AND operator (Ctrl + A) will bring up all folios containing two or more query or search words all appearing anywhere within a given folio.

OR operator (Ctrl + O) will bring up all folios containing one or more of the query or search words.

NOT operator (Ctrl + N) will bring up all folios contain the first query or search word but not the second.

Quantitative Searches -- the following example will demonstrate how to perform quantitative or statistical analysis of information contained within the Pennsylvania Gazette.

1. type "slaves liberated"

2. add to the above South

3. add to the above Women

The first step will provide you with all records containing the phrase "slaves liberated." The search parameters may be further defined by adding the name of the geographical area, state, etc. The scope may be further manipulated by adding dates, gender, clothing styles, cities rewards offered, etc.

The images of maps and illustration are accessed from Index menu (press <Tab and <Enter> at the start of the program) by placing the cursor under <> Program Link and pressing <Enter.> To operate the image use the following commands:

Zoom function Zoom In (Ctrl + F1) Zoom Out (Ctrl + F2)	Scroll Function Scroll DOWN (Page Down Key) Scroll UP (Page Up Key)
Print Image P Exit to Text Esc	Help ?

Printing

Select "Print" from the File Menu or press (Ctrl + Print Scrn). Select the scope that matches the information you need. Set other desired options. Make sure that the path "save settings to" defaults to C:\. Press <Enter> to print the specified information .

Select "Save As" from the File menu or press (Ctrl + S). Type a filename and indicate the scope that matches your selection. Select all other options desired. Press <Enter> to save the specified information.

Consult the on-line help or the user manual.

   
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