Download Civil War - The History Museum

Civil War
Curriculum
Booklet
T h e H i st o r y
Museum
808 W. Washington St.
South Bend, Indiana 46601
574-235-9664
historymuseumsb.org
Dear Educator:
Thank you for your interest in the Center for History’s Civil War Program. We are happy that
you are attending!
Inside this packet you will find an assortment of material that you can use in your
classroom. You might find it useful to go through the material first and find the resources
most suitable for your class. Feel free to adapt any of these informational resources to
your needs.
If you need any assistance or have any questions, please feel free to contact me at
(574) 235-9664 ext. 242 or at my email address [email protected]
Thank You,
Travis Childs
Director of Education
Indiana Academic Standards
The History Museum’s Civil War Program meets these Indiana Academic Standards for
Social Studies. (please note: at the time of this writing the State of Indiana is reconstructing
their academic standards, so these may be out-of-date)
4.1.7, 4.1.8 5.1.21, 5.1.22 8.1.21, 8.1.22, 8.1.23, 8.1.24, 8.1.25
ORIGINS OF THE CIVIL WAR
After the Constitution was adopted by all of the States in 1789, uniting the States into one nation,
differences between the States had been worked out through compromises. By 1861 these differences
between the Northern States (which included the Mid-Western and Western States) and the Southern
States had become so great that compromise would no longer work. Thus, a conflict started within our
nation that was called the Civil War.
For more than 30 years arguments between the North and South had been growing. One of these quarrels
was about taxes paid on goods brought into this country from foreign countries. This kind of tax is called
a tariff. In 1828 Northern businessmen helped get the "Tariff Act" passed. It raised the prices of
manufactured products from Europe that were sold mainly in the South. The purpose of the law was to
encourage the South to buy the North's products. It angered the Southern people to have to pay more for
the goods they wanted from Europe or pay more to get goods from the North. Either way the Southern
people were forced to pay more because of the efforts of Northern businessmen. Though most of tariff
laws had been changed by the time of the Civil War, the Southern people still remembered how the
Northern people treated them.
In the years before the Civil War the political power in the Federal Government, centered in Washington
D.C., was changing. The Northern and Mid-Western States were becoming more and more powerful as
the populations increased. The Southern States were losing political power. Just as the original thirteen
colonies fought for their independence almost 100 years earlier, the Southern States felt a growing need
for freedom from the central Federal authority in Washington D.C. They felt that each State should make
its own laws. This issue was called "State's Rights". Some Southern States wanted to secede, or break
away from the United States of America and govern themselves.
Another quarrel between the North and South, and perhaps the most emotional one, was over the issue of
slavery. Farming was the South's main industry and cotton was the primary farm product. Not having the
use of machines, it took a great amount of human labor to pick cotton. A large number of slaves were used
in the South to provide the labor. Many slaves were also used to provide labor for the various household
chores that needed to be done. Many Northerners thought that owning slaves was wrong, for any reason.
Some of those Northerners loudly disagreed with the South's laws and beliefs concerning slavery. Yet
slavery had been a part of the Southern way of life for well over 200 years. The Constitution of the United
States guaranteed the right to own property and protected against seizure of property. A slave was
property. The people of the Southern States did not like the Northern people telling them that owning
slaves was a great wrong. A person either believes that slavery is right or that slavery is wrong, so how
can two people arguing over such an issue compromise?
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. He vowed to keep the country united
and the new western territories free from slavery. Many Southerners were afraid that he was not
sympathetic to their way of life and would not treat them fairly. South Carolina was the first State to
secede from the United States soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Six other Southern States
quickly followed and also seceded. These States joined together and formed a new nation that they named
the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was elected their first president. On April 12, 1861 the
Confederate States of America attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was held by Federal
(Union) troops and flew the United States flag. As open conflict increased, other United States seceded
and joined the Confederacy. The fighting of the Civil War would take four long years to end. This country
would remain united and slavery would come to an end.
(Courtesy of U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service)
Primary Document Lesson Plan
The following lesson plan is meant to be used as an introduction for teachers and
students using primary source documents for the first time.
Objectives:
The learners will:
1. Examine copies of primary source documents.
2. Determine the document's value to a researcher.
3. Analyze and evaluate the document for bias or contradiction.
4. Know the difference between a primary and secondary source.
Definitions:
Primary source - source created by people who actually saw or participated in an
event and recorded that event or their reactions to it immediately after the event.
Secondary source - source created by someone either not present when the
event took place or removed by time from the event.
Materials needed:
Primary source document-Abraham Lincoln correspondence included in this
curriculum packet
Directions:
1. Have students examine primary source documents from the Internet.
2. Have students examine the document and answer the following questions:
o
What type of document is it?
o
What is the date of the document?
o
Who created the document?
o
Why was the document created?
o
Any distinguishing marks or features on the document (date stamps,
someone else's notes in the margin...)?
3. Consider the following questions:
What does the existence of this document say about
whoever created it?
o
What does this document say about American (Ohioan)
life in this era?
o
• Ask students if they believe the document is an accurate representation of
what was happening.
•
Why do they believe that?
•
Do students think that outside events could influence what a person might
write or record about an event?
•
Do students think that outside events could influence the way that they are
interpreting the document?
•
What questions are left unanswered by the document? If you could ask
the author of the document a question, what would you ask?
•
Have students exchange documents and answer the questions about their
new document.
Follow-up activities:
1. Suggest to students that they have primary source documents at home
(driver's license, birth certificate, report card, yearbook, letter, diary...).
2. Ask students to bring in a document that they would be willing share with the
class and analyze the documents.
Letter to George Robertson, 1855
Judge George Robertson was a lawyer, professor of law, and former Congressman from Kentucky, who
had once served as legal counsel for Lincoln in the matter of his father-in-law's will. Robertson at one
point gave Lincoln a copy of his speeches and writings on slavery and other topics, and that precipitated
this letter.
Springfield, Illinois August 15, 1855 Hon: Geo. Robertson Lexington, Ky
My Dear Sir:
The volume you left for me has been received. I am really grateful for the honor of your kind
remembrance, as well as for the book. The partial reading I have already given it, has afforded me
much of both pleasure and instruction. It was new to me that the exact question which led to the
Missouri compromise, had arisen before it arose in regard to Missouri; and that you had taken so
prominent a part in it. Your short, but able and patriotic speech upon that occasion, has not been
improved upon since, by those holding the same views; and, with all the lights you then had, the
views you took appear to me as very reasonable.
You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In that speech you spoke of "the peaceful extinction of
slavery" and used other expressions indicating your belief that the thing was, at some time, to have an
end[.] Since then we have had thirty six years of experience; and this experience has demonstrated, I
think, that there is no peaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. The signal failure of Henry
Clay, and other good and great men, in 1849, to effect any thing in favor of gradual emancipation in
Kentucky, together with a thousand other signs, extinguishes that hope utterly. On the question of
liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been. When we were the political slaves of King
George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that "all men are created equal" a self evident
truth; but now when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have
become so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim "a self evident lie" The fourth of July
has not quite dwindled away; it is still a great dayCCfor burning fire-crackers!!!
That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery, has itself become extinct, with the
occasion, and the men of the Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the states
adopted systems of emancipation at once; and it is a significant fact, that not a single state has done
the like since. So far as peaceful, voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro
slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind, is now as fixed, and
hopeless of change for the better, as that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all
the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our
American masters voluntarily give up their slaves.
Our political problem now is "Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently -- forever -- half
slave, and half free?" The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in his mercy, superintend the
solution.
Your much obliged friend, and humble servant
A. Lincoln Text taken from Roy Basler (editor),
II, pp. 317-319.
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol.
Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to Grace Bedell
As you read this letter, it's easy to imagine a smile on Lincoln's face as he wrote it. It's a reply to an 11year-old Westfield, New York girl who wrote to suggest that he grow a beard to improve his Presidential
prospects. Lincoln didn't make any promises, but he wore a full beard as President-elect when he stopped
in Westfield on February 16, 1861, and met his young correspondent.
October 19, 1860
Springfield, Illinois
Miss. Grace Bedell
My dear little Miss.
Your very agreeable letter of the 15th. is received.
I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters. I have three sons -- one seventeen, one nine, and
one seven, years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family.
As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if
I were to begin it now? Your very sincere well-wisher
A. Lincoln
Grace Bedell's Letter to Lincoln
N Y Westfield
Chatauque Co Oct 15.
1860
Hon A Lincoln
Dear Sir
My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only
eleven years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont
think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am
if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brother's
and part of them will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of
them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers
and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is a
going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try and get every one to vote for
you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby
sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter dir[e]ct to Grace
Bedell Westfield Chatauque County New York
I must not write any more answer this letter right off
Good bye Grace Bedell
Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler
Abraham Lincoln Letter to Horace Greeley
Written during the heart of the Civil War, this is one of Lincoln's most famous letters. Horace
Greeley, editor of the influential New York Tribune, a few days earlier had addressed an editorial
to Lincoln called "The Prayer of Twenty Millions." In it, he demanded emancipation for the
country's slaves and implied that Lincoln's administration lacked direction and resolve.
Lincoln wrote his letter to Greeley when a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation already lay in
his desk drawer. His response revealed the vision he possessed about the preservation of the
Union. The letter, which received universal acclaim in the North, stands as a classic statement of
Lincoln's constitutional responsibilities.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.
I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be
in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and
here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do
not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable [sic] in it an impatient and
dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be
right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the
national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be
those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not
agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same
time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the
Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any
slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it
by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the
colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear
because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe
what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help
the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast
as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification
of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.
Yours,
A. Lincoln.
Source: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler.
Page 1 of 2
States and
Territories
Killed & Mortally
Wounded
Died of
Disease
Alabama
Arkansas
50
305
228
1,254
California
108
Colorado
153
1,947
2,542
Connecticut
Dakota
Died as
Prisoner
22
8
Died from
Accidents
Died from all Causes
except Battle
Total
Deaths
5
25
40
121
345
1,713
344
62
59
573
120
25
25
323
526
101
238
5,354
2
4
383
356
75
21
47
882
District of Columbia
41
150
44
10
45
290
Florida
18
189
8
215
Illinois
9,884
21,065
1,721
1,028
1,126
34,834
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
7,243
3,540
737
2,478
214
3,184
16,663
8,498
1,638
6,383
624
5,257
1,152
515
36
860
15
541
791
227
104
454
36
118
853
221
115
599
56
298
26,672
13,001
2,630
10,774
945
9,393
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
909
6,115
4,448
626
1,160
5,530
8,269
1,677
647
1,483
1,268
159
98
257
339
43
168
557
429
79
2,982
13,942
14,753
2,584
Delaware
Georgia
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
6
13
2
3
66
1
8
3,317
9,243
225
487
613
35
159
1
23
21
1
1
294
419
76
134
182
208
2
29
1,903
2,578
2,427
2,415
73
144
19
41
19,085
19,835
4,710
914
1,990
43
216
49
3
49
11,588
19,365
2,356
1,168
998
11
21
7
6
15,265
11,782
636
1,381
4,119
Dyer’s Summary of Losses During the War of the Rebellion
15
78
13,885
239
33
4,882
5,754
277
46,534
360
35,475
46
33,183
Page 2 of 2
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
460
744
12
1,809
10
648
4,086
101
2,597
16
1,247
3,802
1,878
7,464
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
69
375
6
70
2
5
5
617
604
150
212
125
219
4,017
12,301
10
126
1,018
540
98
197
576
116
3,621
12
Indian Nations
107
775
Regular Army
Colored Troops
2,283
2,894
2,552
29,658
Veteran Volunteers
84
1,150
1
486
13
60
422
21
262
1
1,321
6,777
141
5,224
42
22
5,798
36,847
1
82
14
9
106
12
202
11
18
243
263
247
6
11
552
Veteran Reserves
27
1,424
131
90
1,672
Generals and Staffs
Miscellaneous, Bands,
etc
Total:
85
142
10
1
U.S. Volunteers
U.S. Sharpshooters
16
110,070
200
199,720
25
1
2
24,866
1
9,058
Dyer’s Summary of Losses During the War of the Rebellion
13
15,814
239
232
359,528
Civil War Deaths
Directions: Study the attached “Dyer’s Summary of
Losses During the War of the Rebellion” to discover the
number of Union soldiers from each state who died during
the Civil War. Use the information to answer the questions
below.
1. Which state had the most deaths during the Civil War? ______________
2. How many people from Iowa died in accidents during the war? ____________
3. How many residents of California died of disease or accident? ____________
4. How many people in Pennsylvania died of causes not related to battle? ________
5. How many more people died in Missouri than in Connecticut? _____________
6. How many people from Indiana died in the Civil War? __________
7. How many residents of Tennessee did not die of disease? _________
8. Which state had the most prisoner of war deaths? ___________
9. Which state had the least amounts of deaths during the Civil War? _______
10.How many U.S. citizens died during the Civil War? __________
Civil War Math
The Civil War (1861-1865) was fought between the North (Union) and the South (Confederacy) to preserve our union and free the slaves. The
number of soldiers involved and the loss of lives was awesome. The loss of soldiers (the actual loss of civilian lives is unknown) in the Civil
War is equal to the lives lost in all other wars in which this country has fought.
1. In the Presidential election of 1860 Abraham Lincoln received 180 electoral votes. His three opponents received
123. What percentage of electoral votes did Lincoln get? __________
2. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, and died from a bullet at the hands of John Wilkes Booth on April
15, 1865. What were the exact number of years and days of his life? __________
3. In the election of 1864, Abraham Lincoln received 212 electoral votes and George B. McClellan received 21.
What percentage of electoral votes did Lincoln get? _________
4. Lincoln received 2,206,938 popular votes; McClellan 1,803,787. How many more popular votes did Lincoln
receive? __________
5. In 1861 the population of the United States was 32,351,000. The South had a population of 9,000,000. What
percentage of the total population did the North have? __________
6. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was born June 3, 1808, and died December 6, 1881. How many
more years and days did he live than Lincoln? __________
7. The Civil War started April 12, 1861, and ended April 9, 1865. How many years and days did the war last?
8. Before the Civil War ended, the North had an army of approximately 1,000,000. Of that number 360,000 lost
their lives. What percentage of soldiers lost their lives? __________
9. In 1860 there were 4,000,000 slaves in the South and 250,000 free blacks. What percentage of blacks were free?
10. 200,000 blacks fought for the North. What percentage of the Union army was black? __________
11. 260,000 Confederate soldiers lost their lives in the Civil War. What was the total loss of lives for the North and
South in the Civil War? __________
12. In the important battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, the North had an army of 90,000; the South had 75,000.
What was the number of men who fought in the battle? __________
13. The North suffered 18,000 casualties at Gettysburg. What percentage of their army were casualties? ________
14. The South had 20,000 casualties at Gettysburg. What was their percentage of casualties? __________
15. General Ulysses S. Grant was 63 when he died. He spent 4 years in the Union army. What percentage of his life
did he spend in the Union army? __________
16. Grant was President for 8 years. What percentage of his life was spent as President (nearest percent)?
17. General Robert E. Lee, the confederate general, was born in 1807 and died in 1870. How did the length of his
life compare to Grant=s? __________
18. What was the combined number of years that Lee, Grant, and Lincoln lived? What was their average age?
19. General Lee was a soldier for 40 years. What percentage of his life was spent as a soldier? __________
20. In 1861 the population of the United States was 32,351,000. In 1988 the population of the country was about
240,000,000. Approximately how many times has the population increased in 127 years? __________
CIVIL WAR MUSIC
Music has always been an important part of American society and
it was no different during the Civil War. Military bands were called
upon to play at recruitment rallies and their patriotic marching
tunes were sometimes a great incentive to inspire young men to
enlist. When volunteer regiments were recruited, a regimental
band was usually included as a part of that organization. The
bands were needed to play for parades, formations, dress parades
and evening concerts. Union and Confederate armies both
authorized regimental bands. In the Union army, each artillery or
infantry regiment could have one 24-member band and the cavalry
(Hardtack & Coffee)
was limited to a 16 member
band. So many bands and the need for more disciplined organizations made officials in the
Union War Department reconsider the regulations. In 1862, the Department ordered the
dismissal of all brass ensembles that belonged to volunteer regiments. To replace
discharged regimental bands, brigade bands were formed to serve the entire brigade of a
division. Despite the order, some regimental officers were able to retain their bands. The
musicians re-enlisted as combatants and were detailed by the colonel commanding the
regiment into a regimental band.
There were fewer Confederate bands because musicians
were not quite as plentiful in the South and good
instruments were expensive and very difficult to obtain.
Quality brass instruments were rare because that metal was
in short supply in the Confederacy and some of the best
instrument makers were in the North. Like their Union
counterparts, most Confederate bands were dismissed from
service after the first year of the war though several
organizations, including the 26th North Carolina Infantry,
retained their bands and many southern officers were glad
Members of the 26th North
for it. Generals Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet were all
Carolina Infantry Band
serenaded by Confederate bands while in camp and they
enjoyed the music very
much. Most officers, including General Lee, felt that the music supplied by these surviving
bands was very important to keep up the morale of the men. The bands that remained with
the army often used music borrowed from Northern song books and used captured
instruments in place of the inferior Confederate-made instruments. Some Confederate
bands were better than others and not all bands sounded that good. One Confederate
soldier regarded the playing of his regiment's band "comparable to the braying of a pack of
mules..."
Each company in an infantry regiment had a musician who was usually a
drummer. They were relied upon to play drum beats to call the soldiers into
formation and for other events. Drums got the soldiers up in the morning,
signaled them to report for morning roll call, sick call, and guard duty.
Drummers also played at night to signal lights out or "taps". The most
important use of drums was on the battlefield where they were used to
communicate orders from the commanding officers and signal troop
movement. Civil War drums were made of wood that had been cut
into thin layers, steamed, and formed into a round shell. The outside of a Union drum was
often painted and featured a large eagle displaying its wings with the stars and stripes
flowing around it. Confederate drums were not quite as fancy, many just having a plain
wood finish. The heads of the drum were made from calfskin and stretched tight by ropes.
A fifer often accompanied drummers. The fife was a high-pitched
instrument, similar to a piccolo, and usually made of rosewood. This hollow wooden
instrument was played by blowing wind over one hole and controlling the pitch with
fingers placed over other holes along the length of the tube. Fancier fifes had brass
fittings and engravings on them. Like drummers, the fifers were also part of the
regiment's band
who were detailed as musicians. Not all drummers, fifers and bandsmen were allowed to
go into battle. When fighting appeared imminent, musicians were often ordered to the rear to
assist surgeons and care for the wounded. Some brigade bands did accompany their
commanders onto the field and played patriotic songs while under the battle raged all
around them. Can you imagine the type of courage it took to play your instrument while
bullets and shells flew thick and fast all around you? Cavalry regiments did not use drums
and fifes. Instead, they used bugles to sound the different calls in camp and on the march.
The bugler was considered a cavalry regiment's musician. Cavalrymen became so familiar
with their own musician and his bugle calls, that they could often distinguish his calls from
that of another regiment. Like the cavalry, artillery units also used bugles in camp and on the
battlefield. One could tell who was camped where by the sounds of drums or bugles being
played. Soldiers in both armies had their own favorite songs to sing and listen to.
Sometimes they sang while marching to keep up their spirits. Union soldiers liked patriotic
and sentimental songs. The Battle Cry of Freedom was a Union favorite. Some other
popular tunes were The Battle Hymn of the Republic, John Brown's Body, Just Before The
Battle Mother, Dixie's Land, Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground, The Vacant Chair,
and Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! Confederate Soldiers also had patriotic and romantic songs they
enjoyed such as The Bonnie Blue Flag, Maryland, My Maryland, Lorena, and a southern
version of The Battle Cry of Freedom
THE BATTLE OF THE BANDS CIVIL WAR STYLE
During the winter of 1862-1863, Union and Confederate
armies were camped near each other at Fredericksburg,
Virginia, separated only by the expanse of the
Rappahannock River. One cold afternoon, a band in the
Union camp struck up some patriotic tunes to cheer the
men. They were answered from across the river by a
Confederate band. The Union band played another tune
followed by the Confederates who also did their best to
play the same song. Back and forth the musical duel went
well into the evening hours. Soldiers in both armies listened
to the musical battle and would cheer for their own bands.
The duel finally ended when both bands
struck up the tune of "Home, Sweet Home". It was then that the men of both sides who
were so far from their homes, cheered as one.
Do you know of any familiar songs today that were sung during the Civil War? How
about Goober Peas and The Yellow Rose of Texas? When Johnny Comes Marching
Home was another popular song that is closely associated with the Civil War. These
were among the many favorite songs sung by soldiers that are still popular.
Keywords:
regimental band Battle
Cry of Freedom
musicians bugler fifer
brigade band
CIVIL WAR FOOD
Feeding the troops was the responsibility of the
Commissary Department, and both the Union and
Confederacy had one. The job of this organization was
to purchase food for the armies, store it until it could be
used, and then supply the soldiers. It was difficult to
supply so many men in so many places and the North
had a greater advantage in their commissary system
was already established at the outbreak of the war, while
the Confederacy struggled for many years to obtain food
and then get it to their armies. A choice of what to give
(Hardtack & Coffee)
the troops was
limited as they did not have the conveniences to preserve food like we have today. Meats
were salted or smoked while other items such as fruits and vegetables were dried or
canned. They did not understand proper nutrition so often there was a lack of certain foods
necessary for good health. Each side did what they could to provide the basics for the
soldiers to survive. Because it was so difficult to store for any length of time, the food
soldiers received during the Civil War was not very fancy and they did not get a great variety
of items.
This photograph shows what a temporary
Union commissary depot looked like
during the war. Large wooden barrels
containing salted meat, coffee beans, and
sugar are stacked next to crates of
hardtack. It took a lot of food to feed the
army even for one day!
(photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)
When food was issued to soldiers it was called their rations. Everything was given out
uncooked so the soldiers were left up to their own ingenuity to prepare their meals. Small
groups would often gather together to cook and share their rations and they called the group
a "mess", referring to each other as "messmates". Others prided themselves in their
individual taste and prepared their meals alone. If a march was imminent, the men would
cook everything at once and store it in their haversack, a canvas bag made with a sling to
hang over the shoulder. Haversacks had a inner cloth bag that could be removed and
washed, though it did not prevent the bag from becoming a greasy, foul-smelling container
after several weeks of use. The soldier's diet was very simple- meat, coffee, sugar, and a
dried biscuit called hardtack. Of all the
items soldiers received, it was this hard bread that they remembered and joked about the
most.
"'Tis the song that is uttered in camp by night and day, 'Tis
the wail that is mingled with each snore; 'Tis the sighing of
the soul for spring chickens far away, 'Oh hard crackers,
come again no more!'
'Tis the song of the soldier, weary, hungry and faint, Hard
crackers, hard crackers, come again no more; Many days
have I chewed you and uttered no complaint, Hard
crackers, hard crackers, come again no more!"
-from a soldiers' parable called "Hard Times"
Hardtack was a simple flour biscuit issued to Union soldiers
throughout the war. Hardtack crackers made up a large portion
of a soldier's daily ration. It was square or sometimes
rectangular in shape with small holes baked into it, and similar
to a large soda cracker and baked in northern factories. If the
hardtack was received soon after leaving the factory, they
were quite tasty and satisfying. Usually, the hardtack did not
get to the soldiers until months after it had been made. By that
time, they were very hard, so hard that soldiers called them
"tooth dullers" and "sheet iron crackers". Sometimes they
were infested with small bugs
the soldiers called weevils, so they referred to the hardtack as "worm castles" because of
the many holes bored through the crackers by these pests. Packed into large wooden
crates, the boxes were stacked outside of tents and warehouses until it was time to issue
them. Soldiers were usually allowed six to eight crackers for a three-day ration. There were
a number of ways to eat them- plain or prepared with other ration items. Soldiers would
crumble them into coffee or soften them in water and fry the hardtack with some bacon
grease. One favorite soldier dish was salted pork fried with hardtack crumbled into the
mixture. Soldiers called this "skillygallee", and it was a common and easily prepared meal.
Would you like to try some hardtack? It's very easy to make and here's the recipe:
2 cups of flour 1/2 to 3/4 cup water 1
tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat 6
pinches of salt
Mix the ingredients together into a stiff batter, knead several times, and spread the dough
out flat to a thickness of 1/2 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake for one-half an hour
at 400 degrees. Remove from oven, cut dough into 3-inch squares, and punch four rows of
holes, four holes per row into the dough. Turn dough over, return to
the oven and bake another one-half hour. Turn oven off and leave the door closed.
Leave the hardtack in the oven until cool. Remove and enjoy! (And make sure your
parents try some!)
Does your taste lean more to the southern side? Then try a "johnnie cake" that the
Confederate soldiers enjoyed with their meals. The recipe is also very simple:
two cups of cornmeal 2/3
cup of milk 2 tablespoons
vegetable oil 2 teaspoon
baking soda 1/2 teaspoon of
salt
Mix ingredients into a stiff batter and form eight biscuit-sized "dodgers". Bake on a lightly
greased sheet at 350 degrees for twenty to twenty five minutes or until brown. Or spoon the
batter into hot cooking oil in a frying pan over a low flame. Remove the corn dodgers and let
cool on a paper towel, spread with a little butter or molasses, and you have a real southern
treat!
Some of the other items that soldiers received were salt pork, fresh or salted beef, coffee,
sugar, salt, vinegar, dried fruit and dried vegetables. If the meat was poorly preserved, the
soldiers would refer to it as "salt horse". Sometimes they would receive fresh vegetables
such as carrots, onions, turnips and potatoes. Confederate soldiers did not have as much
variety in their rations as Union soldiers did. They usually received bacon and corn meal,
tea, sugar or molasses, and fresh vegetables when they were available. While Union
soldiers had their "skillygallee", Confederates had their own version of a quick dish on the
march. Bacon was cooked in a frying pan with some water and corn meal added to make a
thick, brown gravy similar in consistency to oatmeal. The soldiers called it "coosh" and
though it does not sound too appetizing, it was a filling meal and easy to fix.
Do you want to experience the same type of meal that Civil
War soldiers had? Make yourself a soldier's lunch with some of
the following items:
hardtack or corn bread that you baked. dried beef salt pork or
bacon (make sure it's well cooked!) rice sliced carrots jam water
nuts apples or peaches dried fruit Pack your soldier's picnic in a
haversack (a paper bag will do) and have your feast in the
backyard with friends- your messmates. Enjoy!
Keywords:
Commissary Department
hardtack rations mess
messmates "toothdullers"
"sheet iron crackers"
"skillygallee" "coosh"
SOLDIER TALK
The military of today has a confusing and distinctive catalog of terms
all its own and it was no different during the Civil War. The Civil War
soldier had a wide variety of names for different army items and
many slang terms or nicknames for their equipment, experiences,
and other soldiers. Many of these expressions were based on
military terms, lighthearted humor, or biblical references and can still
be found in our everyday language. Here are some examples of Civil
War expressions and nicknames:
(Hardtack & Coffee)
accoutrements-A soldier's fighting equipments, made of leather.
a beat-A lazy soldier who dodges work.
bombproof-An underground shelter, used also to describe officers who never went to the
front.
bones-Dice.
buck and gag-A form of punishment.
carriage-The wooden mount for artillery, also used to describe a lady's shape.
dogrobber-The soldier of a group who cooks for everyone else.
dog tent-A small, two-man tent.
first rate-Feeling well and very happy.
forage-To search for food from nearby farms. Fresh Fish-New recruits.
greenbacks- Money or script.
gum blanket- Rubber-coated cloth sheet used as a rain cover.
haversack-Cloth bag for carrying the rations & utensils.
homespun-A clothing item made of home-spun cloth.
housewife-A sewing kit.
horse sense-Smart or to use good sense.
Johnny-Union soldier's term for a Confederate soldier.
Jonah-A soldier who always brought misfortune and bad luck with him.
paper collar man-Someone who has money or is financially well off.
picket-A guard or guard duty.
sacred soil-Virginia mud.
sawbones-The surgeon of the regiment.
seeing the elephant-A man's first experience in combat.
shebang-A temporary shelter of poles & branches.
shirker-A soldier who would not do his duty on the battlefield.
smart like a fox-Slick and cunning.
tough as a knot-In good health.
top rail-The best place
to be. Number One!
vittles-food or rations. Yank-Confederate soldier's term for a Union soldier.
Soldiers also used phrases such as "snug as a bug in a rug", "chief cook and bottle
washer", "been through the mill", and "scarce as hen's teeth." When soldiers gathered
around the campfires to cook, "grab a root" was a social term meaning to help oneself to
some vegetables. A soldier often referred to his camp as his "digs" and his fellow soldiers
as "the boys". Do you and your friends use similar expressions when you talk about
yourself or items that you own? If you think about it, we bet you would find a lot of slang
terms used by you and your friends everyday.
Keywords:
horse sense
buck and gag
accoutrements
Jonah
sawbones fresh
fish
ALL IS FAIR: WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, women turned their attention, and their
considerable energy, to the conflict. In both the North and the South, women gathered in aid
societies, circulated petitions, and, at home, took over the masculine duties of running the
household. (i) While these activities kept the women at home busy, many women wanted to
support their causes closer to the battlefield. Rather than face low-paying, grueling factory
work or even prostitution, poorer women followed their husbands, brothers or fathers to
camp. Slave women also found protection in camps. These women, in particular, were
vulnerable to the horrors of war, often forced to protect them and their children from
Confederate raiders who might rape, kill, or capture them. Escaping to a Union camp was
often their most promising option.
(ii)
Many of the poor and middle-class women who joined the troops worked as nurses, or even
as soldiers. Throughout the war, about 10,000 women served as nurses on either the
Confederate or the Union side. (iii) Smaller numbers of zealous women enlisted with the
troops, disguised as men. Cautious estimates place approximately 250 Confederate and
400 Union female soldiers on the battlefields. (iv)
For both the nurses and the female soldiers, their jobs required forgoing the modesty and
innocence attributed to white women at the time of the Civil War. No illusions of feminine
weakness could be sustained in the face of the day-to-day hardships of war. There
existed, however, yet another option for patriotic women who wanted to work for their
cause -- spying. This option could allow a woman to not only maintain her femininity, but
also greatly capitalize on it.
Perhaps the greatest example of femininity as a powerful weapon comes from the infamous
Belle Boyd, who made a wartime career of spying for the Confederacy. Charming and
flirtatious, Belle Boyd masked her fierce will with innocent smiles and coquettish
conversation. Her dark ringlets and flashing eyes, as well as quick wits and deep
determination, led her to become a great menace to the hapless Union army. One major
even informed her, “You will do more harm to our cause than half the men could do.” (v)
Belle began her career at the age of seventeen, when she shot a Union soldier for using
offensive language when speaking to her mother. Instead of punishment, Union officers who
agreed that a lady had a right not to hear offensive language absolved her of guilt. Less than
a week later, Union officers pardoned her yet again, this time for soliciting information from
Union soldiers and passing it on to Confederate officials. (vi)
The infamous spy continued her work throughout the war, completing such feats as
capturing Union cavalrymen as her prisoners (they agreed to escort her back to the
Confederate line after her horse ran into the Union line.) (vii) In fact, the charming Belle
Boyd is credited with having enabled Jackson’s troops to capture Front Royal, Virginia from
the Union. In order to deliver information about the Union movements in the
impending battle, Belle had to pass through the Union lines in Front Royal. She
accomplished this feat, as usual, with the gracious aid of a Yankee official. After sending
Union Colonel Fillebrowne a nice bouquet of flowers, Belle attached a note requesting his
permission to return to Front Royal. Permission was granted, and Belle’s useful information
gave the advantage to Jackson’s troops. (viii)
Belle Boyd’s exploits have become a thing of legend. Her manipulation of gender
expectations allowed her the freedom to aid her beloved Confederacy while claiming
blamelessness. Though the Union eventually imprisoned her, the confinement lasted only
two months, during which time she received special treatment, became friends with the
superintendent of the prison, and became engaged to a fellow prisoner. (ix)
The American Civil War dramatically altered the roles women played in American society, if
only temporarily. Gender roles became malleable as even white, middle-class women
stepped out, or were forced out, of their traditional private sphere. At home, they took over
the duties of running the household previously performed by their husbands. On the
battlefront, they bandaged wounds or fought side by side with men. Somewhere in between,
one particular woman enchanted men with her femininity, bewitchingly betrayed them, and
consoled herself that “All was fair in love and war.” (x)
Endnotes
i. Sara M. Evans Born for Liberty. (New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1997) p.117.
ii. ibid., p.113.
iii. Linda Grant DePauw Battle Cries and Lullabies, Women in War from Prehistory to the Present. (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1998) p.156.
•
ibid., p.151.
•
Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention, Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. (Chapel
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996) p.217.
vi. ibid., p.215.
vii. ibid., pp.215-216.
viii. ibid., p.217.
•
ibid.
•
ibid., p.216.
Sources
1.
DePauw, Linda Grant Battle Cries and Lullabies, Women in War from Prehistory to the Present. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1998.
2.
Evans, Sara M. Born for Liberty. New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1997.
3.
Faust, Drew Gilpin Mothers of Invention, Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of
North Carolina Press, 1996
"House Divided" Speech
Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858 MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION:
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do,
and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed
object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that
policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will
not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot
stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect
the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the
further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of
ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the
States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.
Have we no tendency to the latter condition?
Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination -- piece
of machinery, so to speak -- compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let
him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted; but also, let
him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the
evidences of design, and concert of action, among its chief architects, from the beginning.
The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State
Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional prohibition. Four days
later, commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition. This
opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained.
But, so far, Congress only had acted; and an indorsement by the people, real or apparent, was
indispensable, to save the point already gained, and give chance for more.
This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the
notable argument of "squatter sovereignty," otherwise called "sacred right of self-government,"
which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so
perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if any one man choose to enslave
another, no third man shall be allowed to object. That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska
bill itself, in the language which follows: "It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to
legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people
thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only
to the Constitution of the United States." Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of
"Squatter Sovereignty," and "sacred right of self-government." "But," said opposition members, "let
us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the Territory may exclude slavery."
"Not we," said the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment.
While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, a law case involving the question of a negro's
freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free State and then into a
Territory covered by the Congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave for a long time in each,
was passing through the U. S. Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and
law suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negro's name was "Dred
Scott," which name now designates the decision finally made in the case. Before the then next
Presidential election, the law case came to, and was argued in, the Supreme Court of the United
States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator
Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his
opinion whether the people of a Territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and
the latter answers: "That is a question for the Supreme Court."
The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement, such as it was, secured. That was
the second point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly
four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The
outgoing President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the
people the weight and authority of the endorsement. The Supreme Court met again; did not announce
their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The Presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of
the court; but the incoming President in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide
by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a few days, came the decision.
The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capital
indorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new
President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe that
decision, and to express his astonishment that any different view had ever been entertained!
At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the
mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made
by the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the
people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his
declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other
than as an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the public mind -- the principle for
which he declares he has suffered so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And well may he cling
to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle is the only
shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision "squatter sovereignty"
squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding -- like the mould at the foundry
served through one blast and fell back into loose sand -- helped to carry an election, and then was
kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution,
involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point -- the right of a
people to make their own constitution -- upon which he and the Republicans have never differed.
The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection, with Senator Douglas's "care not"
policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of advancement. This was the third
point gained. The working points of that machinery are:
First, That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such slave, can ever
be a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States.
This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of that
provision of the United States Constitution, which declares that "The citizens of each State, shall be
entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."
Secondly, That "subject to the Constitution of the United States," neither Congress nor a Territorial
Legislature can exclude slavery from any United States territory. This point is made in order that
individual men may fill up the Territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property,
and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institution through all the future.
Thirdly, That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State, makes him free, as against
the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any
slave State the negro may be forced into by the master. This point is made, not to be pressed
immediately; but, if acquiesced in for awhile, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election,
then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred
Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one
thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State.
Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is
to educate and mould public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery
is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where we now are; and partially, also, whither we
are tending.
It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string of historical
facts already stated. Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when they
were transpiring. The people were to be left "perfectly free," "subject only to the Constitution." What
the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly
fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision to afterward come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the
people to be just no freedom at all. Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the
people, voted down? Plainly enough now: the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the
Dred Scott decision. Why was the court decision held up? Why even a Senator's individual opinion
withheld, till after the Presidential election? Plainly enough now: the speaking out then would have
damaged the perfectly free argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why the outgoing
President's felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming
President's advance exhortation in favor of the decision? These things look like the cautious patting
and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the
rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by the President and others?
We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we
see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different
times and places and by different workmen -- Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance -- and
when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill,
all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and
proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too
many or too few -- not omitting even scaffolding -- or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place
in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such a piece in -- in such a case, we find it
impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another
from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was
struck.
It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people of a State as well as Territory, were
to be left "perfectly free," "subject only to the Constitution." Why mention a State? They were
legislating for Territories, and not for or about States. Certainly the people of a State are and ought to
be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely
Territorial law? Why are the people of a Territory and the people of a State therein lumped together,
and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same? While the opinion of
the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the
concurring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits
Congress nor a Territorial Legislature to exclude slavery from any United States Territory, they all
omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a State, or the people of a State, to
exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had
sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State to exclude
slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the
people of a Territory, into the Nebraska bill; -- I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have
been voted down in the one case as it had been in the other? The nearest approach to the point of
declaring the power of a State over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than
once, using the precise idea, and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion, his
exact language is, "except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United
States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction." In what
cases the power of the States is so restrained by the United States Constitution, is left an open
question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the Territories, was left
open in the Nebraska act. Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we
may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the
United States does not permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may especially be
expected if the doctrine of "care not whether slavery be voted down or voted up," shall gain upon the
public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made.
Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States. Welcome, or
unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the
present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the
people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free, and we shall awake to the reality
instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State. To meet and overthrow the power of
that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation. That is what
we have to do. How can we best do it?
There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and yet whisper us softly, that Senator
Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which to effect that object. They wish us to infer all,
from the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty; and
that he has regularly voted with us on a single point, upon which he and we have never differed. They
remind us that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted.
But "a living dog is better than a dead lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion, for this work, is at
least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything
about it. His avowed mission is impressing the "public heart" to care nothing about it. A leading
Douglas democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of
the African slave trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has
not said so. Does he really think so? But if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to
prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. Can he possibly
show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And
unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to
reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as such, how can he
oppose the foreign slave trade -- how can he refuse that trade in that "property" shall be "perfectly
free" -- unless he does it as a protection to the home production? And as the home producers will
probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition.
Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday -that he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead,
and infer that he will make any particular change, of which he, himself, has given no intimation? Can
we safely base our action upon any such vague inference? Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent
Judge Douglas's position, question his motives, or do aught that can be personally offensive to him.
Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle so that our cause may have assistance
from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. But clearly, he is not now
with us -- he does not pretend to be -- he does not promise ever to be.
Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends -- those whose
hands are free, whose hearts are in the work -- who do care for the result. Two years ago the
Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the
single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of
strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and
fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud and pampered enemy.
Did we brave all then, to falter now? --now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and
belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail -- if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise
counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.
Civil War Program
Activity Sheet
Directions: Answer as many questions as you can in the time allowed. Do not watch the Free Life
Video (you can watch some of it)—it is 35 minutes long and you will miss the rest of your Civil
War Program.
Free Life Theater exhibit room
1
What does it mean to be a “free American?” Mr. Farrow Powell was a “free
American.”
2
What was the fugitive slave case about?
The Civil War exhibit room
3.
When did America’s Civil War begin?
___________
4.
How many Americans died in the Civil War?
______________
5.
Why did Southerners fight in the Civil
War?
6.
War?
Why did Northerners fight in the Civil
7.
What were the names of two famous local men who gave
speeches urging men to enlist in the Union army?
th
8. How many men from Mishawaka enlisted in the 9 Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment?
th
9.
How many men from South Bend enlisted in the 9 Indiana Volunteer Infantry
Regiment?
10. Who was Col. Norman Eddy?
11. Who was Schuyler Colfax?
12. What did men, who enlisted in the army, do at training camp?
13. What did soldiers typically do on Sundays?
Turn page over
14. Name two things a soldier carried. ____________________
______________________
15. What is hard tack? What do you think it tastes like?
16. Try and read one of the real letters a Civil War soldier wrote home. Who was the letter written to?
17. What is a housewife?
18. How many Indiana Civil War soldiers were killed in
battle? ________________
19. How many Indiana Civil War soldiers died of
disease? _________
20. What year did the Civil War end? ____________
Turn page over
Enhancement Activities
•
Have students draw or trace a map of the United States and put in the name of each
state that existed at the time of the Civil War.
•
Have students find out the year that each state joined the United States and make a
list, in chronological order, showing those dates.
•
Several Civil War songs are still sung today; for instance, “When Johnny Comes
Marching Home Again.” Have students research songs of the Civil War period and then, as
a group and with the aid of a music teacher, if possible, have them sing the songs for the
class.
•
Have students imagine they are soldiers in the Civil War. They should write several
letters home telling about various aspects of the war: the training, the battles, the camp,
and so on.
•
To help students understand the magnitude of Civil War casualties, have students
research the numbers of soldiers who fought and the numbers who were killed in various
wars. Students should make a chart comparing the number of U.S. participants and deaths
in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf
War. Have students use the information in the chart to figure out the percent of combatants
killed in each war.
•
If possible, show the movie Glory for your class. Have students write a review of the
movie, telling why they liked or disliked it and whether or not they recommend it to people of
all ages. You might also consider showing Gettysburg, Gone with the Wind, or
Andersonville.
•
Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States.
Have students work in groups and come up with as many statements as they can to support
the idea that Lincoln was a great president. The statements can include accomplishments
and/or beliefs. Students can share their statements when everyone has completed the
assignment. Is there consensus as to why Lincoln is considered great? You might consider
doing this project as a debate, one group debating Lincoln as a great president, and another
group arguing against Lincoln as a great president.
•
Have students choose one other president who they consider great. They should
write a few paragraphs supporting their viewpoint. Students can read their papers aloud. In
this way, the class will come to know the accomplishments of various presidents.
Topics for Discussion and Writing
To Stimulate Discussion or to Begin Your Discovery of the Civil War, you might
ask the following:
•
•
•
What do you already know about the Civil War?
What do you think you will learn?
What do you want to find out? Write down at least three of your questions.
Topics and Questions You Might Want to Consider for Discussion or Writing:

One of the causes of the Civil War was the issue of
slavery.o
Students: Do you think that today there is a conflict so deep that it could
cause this country to go to war against itself again? Explain.
 Some of your students may have never visited other regions of the country.
o
Students: Have students who have lived in or visited a different part of the
country and tell the class about the differences between that area and your own.

Throughout the history of the United States, some people have argued that the
states should have more power than the national government.
o
Students: Do you think the national government had the right to outlaw
slavery, for instance? What about outlawing drugs? Outlawing certain types
of guns?

Young people fought in the Civil War and young people are still fighting in
conflicts around the world (i.e., Afghanistan, Africa and Israel).
o
Students: What effect do you think a war has on the young people who
fought it? (remember Vietnam?) How is the effect of war on young people
different from the effect of war on older soldiers? How is the effect of war on
young people different from the effect of war on young civilians? Explain.

About 10 to 20 percent of the soldiers in the Civil War were under the age of 18
when they enlisted.
o
Students: Under what circumstances would you enlist in the army? What
would the war have to be about? Do you think children under 18 should ever fight
in a war? Explain.

The Civil War was the first war in history to be documented in photographs.
During World War II, war news came over the radio and on news reports at the
movies. Today, we see wars being fought as they happen, via television.
o
Students: What do you think are the different effects of seeing a war on
TV, seeing it in photographs, reading about it in newspapers, and hearing about
it on the radio? What are the advantages and disadvantages to the general
public of each?
•
Pacifists believe that wars should not be fought under any circumstances.
In Indiana, the religious group called the Quakers refused to fight in the Civil War
(well, some of them, anyway).
o
Students: Do you think pacifists have a right not to fight in wars? Why do
you suppose they believe as they do? Do you believe that their point of view
could help put an end to all wars?
Assessment
After you attend the Northern Indiana Center for History’s Civil War Program, you
may want to find out how much your students have learned about the Civil War.
Here are some ideas for you to consider.

At the end of your study of the Civil War, students should have the opportunity to
share their personal views of the topic. Listen for signs of growth and increased
knowledge.
• o
Are students motivated to share what they have learned?
• o
Have they applied critical thinking skills to the investigation of the topic
and the issues raised?
•
Have students keep records of the topics they investigate and the theme-related
work they do.
•
Have students keep a portfolio of the work they created during the study of the
Civil War. Consider putting these on display in your room or school.
.........................................