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The Nations Comes Apart – The American Civil War
Background for Teacher:
The Civil War is the central event in America's historical consciousness. While the Revolution of
1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it
would be. The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the
United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a
sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were
created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the
world.
Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of
slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of
625,000 lives--nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country
has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the
Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in
1914.
The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over
the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become
states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform
pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and
formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and
most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it
would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer
United States into several small, squabbling countries.
Source: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-waroverview/overview.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
Source 1: African American Slaves - Five Generations On Smith's Plantation, Beaufort, South
Carolina; Library of Congress, 1862
Source 2: John Brown in Kansas - Painted by John Steuart Curry (American, Dunavant, Kansas
1897–1946 Madison, Wisconsin)
John Brown was a radical abolitionist (wanted the end of slavery) who believed in the
violent overthrow of the slavery system.
Source 3: Image and Table of 1860 Presidential Election – Learn NC
Source 4: Political Cartoon – Punch (a magazine based in London, England) / 8 November 1856
Source 5: United States / Confederate States of American Map – 1861
http://www.mapshop.com/classroom/HISTORY/US/Southern-Secession-1861.asp
Source 6: General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan - May 1861
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: g3701s
cw0011000)
Source 7: The battlefield of Gettysburg, photograph by Timothy O’Sullivan, July 1863.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8184-7964-A DLC)
Source 8: The Emancipation Proclamation – January 1, 1863
http://library.ship.edu/c.php?g=21521&p=126217
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by
President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. In a single stroke, it changed the federal legal status
of more than 3 million enslaved persons in the designated areas of the South from "slave" to "free."
Source 9: The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry (Exact month and date of image are not
known, but picture was taken in 1864. Chicago Historical Society, ICHi-07784
The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry was the first Northern black volunteer regiment
enlisted to fight in the Civil War. Its accomplished combat record led to the general
recruitment of African-Americans as soldiers. They ultimately comprised ten percent of
Union Army and Navy. The Fifty-fourth’s successful campaign for equal pay also
signaled a move toward racial justice in the military. - See more at:
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/fifty-fourth-massachusetts-infantry-18631865#sthash.gctVn9L1.dpuf
Source 10: Atlanta, Georgia – Circa 1864 / Photograph by George N. Barnard
Sherman’s army left Atlanta in ruins in November 1864 and marched to Savannah, the
famous “March to the Sea.
Source 11: Image of Richmond, VA – Early April, 1865. Library of Congress
The Richmond and Petersburg Railroad depot near Eighth and Byrd streets
after the evacuation fire of 1865.
Source 12: Painting of General Robert E. Lee’s Surrender to U.S. Grant (April 9,
1865) / Painting by Tom Lovell, April 1965
Document Source Analysis Sheet
Source or Text
Source 1:
Image of African American
slaves in SC
Source 2:
Painting of John Brown in
Kansas.
Source 3:
Image and Chart of 1860
Presidential Election
Source 4:
Political Cartoon
What do you see (what did you
see at first and what do you see
after viewing this source again)?
What else would you like
to know about this image?
Hashtag this Image
Source 5:
Image of Secession Map
Source 6:
Image of Anaconda Plan
Source 7:
Image of the Battle of
Gettysburg
Source 8:
Image of Emancipation
Proclamation
Source 9:
The Fifty-fourth
Massachusetts Infantry
Source 10:
Atlanta, George Image after
Sherman’s March to the
Sea
Source 11:
Image of Richmond, VA
early April 1865
Source 12:
Painting of Lee’s Surrender
at Appomattox