More than 600,000 Americans gave their lives for their country in the Civil War (1861-1865), more than any other war in our history. Although the North prevailed over the South, the grief and bitterness caused by such violence healed very slowly. Learn more at these fine sites.
Step back in time, and try to imagine yourself a soldier in the Civil War. Where do you sleep? How do you pass the time? What personal items did you bring from home? Camp Life reveals the daily life of both Union and Confederate soldiers with an online exhibition of common everyday items. Learn what a "housewife" is, and why infantrymen were only issued half a tent. By focusing on these simple, useful items, the Gettysburg National Military Park gives us unique insight into the life of a Civil War soldier.
During the 1999-2000 school year, the students in Mrs. Huber's class at Pocantico Hills School in Sleepy Hollow, New York studied the Civil War, and created a fabulous website summarizing everything they learned. The best clicks for elementary-age students are the illustrated Timeline, The Emancipation Proclamation, Uniforms, the Biographies of Civil War Leaders, and Children of the Civil War.
This extensive collection of articles, 1100 photos, battle maps, battle reports, 1860 census records, and Civil War links is a great resource for high school reports. The most fascinating documents are the primary sources, such as letters and diaries from the battlefield, slave narratives from interviews done in the 1930's, and transcribed battle reports. The most useful page, however, is probably the Timeline of Events Leading Up to The Civil War. "1619 - English settlers in Virginia purchase 20 Africans from a Dutch ship."
About the his PBS movie "The Civil War," filmmaker Ken Burns reflects, "Nearly six years later, when the documentary was finally finished, I realized that we had taken longer to make a film about the Civil War than it took the nation to fight it in the first place." Best click at this companion website is the opportunity to make your own Civil War movie out of archival photographs. Other worthwhile sections are The War (for students) and The Classroom (for teachers.)
The Time of the Lincolns is a companion website to the PBS television special Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided. It is a rich site for middle and high-schoolers that explores not just the Civil War, but also women's rights, slavery, abolition, politics and the growth of the industrial economy. Reasons to visit are the primary sources, such as newspaper excerpts, letters and diaries; and the Technology Gallery that features the "new technologies that brought about sweeping changes in the nation's economy" such as the Whitney cotton gin and the steam engine. The teacher's guide includes lesson plans in history, economics, geography, and civics.
Buy Civil War Printable for $2.00
or try a FREE trial of the Printables ClubThe following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery on Confederate CurrencyLetters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War | Library of Congress: Learning Page: Selected Civil War Photographs |
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