So I found a primary source in a book and need to reference it in my footnotes and bibliography. I have never done this and so confused. If you can help or provide a good website that would be helpful. It’s recommended to be in Chicago format Thanks
If I understand this correctly, you have a primary source that's quoted or excerpted in a secondary source? You could first quote / describe what the primary source said, in the text:
...as Lemuel Smith would argue in his letter to John Harris, May 23, 1873..
Then you could cite the secondary source in the notes:
John Bickerstaff, Fury Among the Industrialists ( New York: 1972) pp.25-29
If you had already cited Bickerstaff, you could abbreviate it:
Bickerstaff, pp. 25-29
But you should also be able to take the description out of the text and just put into the note, which I think is clearer:
Letter of Lemuel Smith to John Harris, May 23, 1873. In John Bickerstaff, Fury Among the Industrialists ( New York: 1972) pp.25-29
You are depending on the secondary source to be accurately quoting the primary one, so you should of course hope it's a reliable one!