I live in a small town in Oregon and it's nearly impossible to get microfilms here through ILL. I have gotten microfilms of genealogical records through the LDS church, but don't really have good access to period newspapers.

I'll probably be hitting Google News Archive pretty heavily at some point, but they don't have a lot of local papers - mostly the NYT and Chicago papers.

Although my gg-grandfather was a free man of color, nowhere on any of his military records is that noted, and I don't think he was considered 'black' by either army he served in. I'm still researching that, but nowhere is there any indication that he was considered anything but a regular soldier. In the Union Cav, he was even promoted to Sergeant.

Although if there was a list of 'black' prisoners and he was on it, that would be awesome, too.

It's an interesting tale, with a lot of twists and turns concerning race, honor and loyalty - which is why I'm writing a book about it.