So I'm going to be doing a dissertation for my MA soon and although I've decided that I would like to do it on the American Civil War although I am yet to come to come up with a specific question.
I was thinking of focusing on a specific regiment such as one of the Massachusetts volunteer regiments and travel to Mass. to visit archives to get primary sources to answer whatever question I choose to do.
I'm struggling to come up with ideas so any help would be greatly appreciated.
You could look into recruitment demographics, re: age, occupation, property ownership, the personal lives of the soldiers as they traveled (letters home are always fascinating.) Another interesting view would be a regimental history, where they traveled, what battles they fought in, how long they were active, what was their relationship with other units in the field, how were casualties replaced, what were casualty percentages?
Just floating some ideas.
Please don't do anything with the 54th MA. It's been done to death.
The 29th MA has a pretty interesting history, and may be worth focusing on.
If you wanted to look at prominent MA generals and figures, Joe Hooker and Edwin Sumner would be interesting. Sumner fascinated me, because he was old as dirt by the time the war broke out, and McClellan hated him, which is always a plus in my book.
Depending on how you feel, there are several well-documented Union regiments you may wish to investigate.
-The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, popularized in Glory, was one of the earliest African-American units in the Union Army. This unit took heavy casualties during the assault on Fort Wagner, and fought in several other major battles during the rest of the war, including taking part in an action where they pulled a train full of wounded Union soldiers when the locomotive broke down. The 54th Infantry was recently (2008) reactivated as a ceremonial unit.
-The 1st Minnesota Infantry was the first unit to volunteer for the Civil War after Lincoln's call to arms. The unit was present at 1st Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, where eight companies of the unit actually charged down the hill at Cemetery Ridge into the Confederate advance, and took 82% casualties, but held the ridge. This is the highest casualty rate of any American unit in any war for a single day's fighting. A private from the 1st Minnesota actually captured the flag of the 28th Virginia infantry, winning the Medal of Honor. (Virgina tried to sue for return of the flag in the 1990s, but was rebuffed. This is an ongoing issue; the colors of the 28th remain in MN). The unit was praised by Generals and Presidents alike, and Calvin Coolidge referred to the 1st Minnesota as the "saviors of their country."
Those are some of the ones I'm familiar with, but there are others. Either one would be a good choice for a starting point, anyway.