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"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history."
Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1862
Introduction:
The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, from Valverde, New Mexico, and
Tullahoma, Tennessee, to St. Albans, Vermont, and Fernandina on the Florida coast.
More than 3 million Americans fought in it, and over 600,000 men, 2 percent of the
population, died in it.
American homes became headquarters, American churches and schoolhouses sheltered
the dying, and huge foraging armies swept across American farms and burned American
towns. Americans slaughtered one another wholesale, right here in America in their own
cornfields and peach orchards, along familiar roads and by waters with old American
names.
The Civil War has been given many names: the War Between the States, the War Against
Northern Aggression, the Second American Revolution, the Lost Cause, the War of the
Rebellion, the Brothers’ War, the Late Unpleasantness. Walt Whitman called it the War
of Attempted Secession. Confederate General Joseph Johnston called it the War Against
the States. By whatever name, it was unquestionably the most important event in the life
of the nation. It saw the end of slavery and the downfall of a southern planter aristocracy.
It was the watershed of a new political and economic order, and the beginning of big
industry, big business, big government. It was the first modern war and, for Americans,
the costliest, yielding the most American causalities and the greatest domestic suffering,
spiritually and physically. It was the most horrible, necessary, intimate, acrimonious,
mean-spirited, and heroic conflict the nation has ever known. (ww.pbs.org.civilwar/war/).
Task
Here is a partial list of topics you might want to consider for your projects. Some of
these project ideas will be well known to you, others you may need to research a little to
find out if you want to select it. Once you select a project topic, you are expected to stay
with it for the entire time we do this assignment.
You must have a project topic selected by next class period. Remember, once a
project topic is selection, it cannot be selected by any group. We also will be selecting
groups that day, so you will want to think of one or two other students you would like to
work with.
Feel free to see me for more information. I also will consider any topic you might
want to pursue that is NOT on this list, but you will want to check with me first before
you start.
Topics include:
Underlying causes of the Civil War
Fort Sumter
Bull Run (Manassas)
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Little Round Top
Role of Slavery in the Civil War (abolitionist movement)
Comparing Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis
“Billy Yank and Johnny Reb”: Ordinary Soldiers in the Civil War (Elisha Hunt Rhodes
and Sam Watkins?) Check http://www.vcsc.k12.in.us/staff/mhutchison/ice2000/billy.htm
for more information on this.
Comparing Grant and Lee
Grant and Lee at Appomattox
Ironclad ships
Battle of Antietam
Comparing Confederate Generals (Jackson, Stuart, Longstreet, etc.) to Union Generals
(McClellan, Burnside)
Civil War Medicine
Emancipation Proclamation
Peninsula Campaign
Women in the Civil War (Clara Barton, Mary Chestnut, “Mother” Bickerdyke)
Civil War Photography
Battle of Gettysburg
Pickett’s Charge
Daily life in a Northern Town/City compared to that in a Southern Town/City
Siege of Vicksburg
Wilderness Campaign
Prison Camps (ex. Andersonville, Elmira, Rock Island)
Importance of the Mississippi River
Sherman’s March
Lincoln Assassination
Impact of the war on black rights and civil rights
Battle of Shiloh
New inventions (warfare) in the Civil War
Civil War espionage
The Importance of Blockade Runners
The Anaconda Plan
The Gettysburg Address
Role of Native Americans
Lincoln’s Suspension of Habeas Corpus
Conscientious Objectors (Shakers & Quakers)
Northern Draft Riots
The Civil War in Art
Process
Your project should include the following,
Each student group will develop a presentation about a subject covered in The Civil War
series. The presentation should be a MINIMUM of three minutes in length. Any creative
format is acceptable. Think outside the box.
Each of you are required to submit:


A one-page synopsis (a summary) of the importance and significance of the topic
addressed in the presentation. Include information that you found most
interesting. Also include your opinion of how well your group worked to create
this presentation. Do you think the work was evenly divided?
At the end of the presentation, the group must include a work-cited page (hard
copy)listing all the sources the group used in the presentation. (Web-based
resources, images must include the URL. At a minimum, the group should use
and cite at least four sources, including a book/magazine. Use noodletools.
Here are many resources to help you with your research. (Note: These are
selected resources to assist you in developing your projects. Of course, you will
want to do your own research using print and video resources, as well as webbased searches.
Civil War resources
Fort Sumter resources:
Use this link for information regarding the personal account of Major Robert
Anderson, Union commander who surrendered Fort Sumter in April 1861.
Use this link for information regarding the personal account of General G.T.
Beauregard, who was the Confederate commander who captured Fort Sumter.
Use this link for general information about the capture of the fort, as well as other
links you might want to use for a project.
This link will take you to the National Parks Service Fort Sumter page.
"Billy Yank and Johnny Reb" (Ordinary Soldiers in the Civil War):
One good resource for the life of an ordinary soldier are the memoirs of Daniel
Crotty, who was a soldier in the Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry.
Sam Watkins was a Confederate soldier who wrote a book about his experiences
during the war called "Company Aytch: A Sideshow of the Big Show". His memoirs
can be found here. (Watkins's experiences are chronicled in The Civil War.)
Union soldier Elisha Hunt Rhodes, along with Watkins, is featured prominently in
The Civil War. No real web-based memoirs of his experiences exist, so a web page with
some of his diary entries was created for this project. (Note: all entries for this web page
were used from the companion book for The Civil War, (Ward, Burns, Burns) and are all
works are cited on the page. Also, check a lesson prepared for the The Civil War web
site that wasn't used.
You can find many "life stories" of many Civil War era persons (both military and
civilian), at the Life Stories of Civil War Heroes web site.
Letters by Civil War Soldiers:
This lesson included on The Civil War web site highlights letters sent home by
ordinary soldiers during the war. It's written by Joan Brodsky Schur.
Battle of Antietam:
This is the link for the PBS Civil War series Battle of Antietam lesson. The lesson
includes various links to sites about the battle and the aftermath.
Union's Grand Strategy:
This is the link for the PBS Civil War series "Grand Strategy" (map) lesson. The
lesson includes links about how the Union considered they would subdue the
Confederacy.
Emancipation Proclamation:
This link will take you to the "Emancipation Proclamation" section of the Abraham
Lincoln Papers online exhibit in the Library of Congress.
This link will take you to the "transcription" of the Emancipation Proclamation
located on the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) web page. (You
can also click on the pages located on the side of the transcript page in order to see the
proclamation as written in President Lincoln's own handwriting.
This link will take you to the Emancipation Proclamation Page located on the
American Memory (Library of Congress) web site. (The site includes further information
about the Proclamation. The entire Abraham Lincoln Papers site on American Memory
has many resources you might want to use for a variety of projects.)
Gettysburg Address and Battle of Gettysburg:
This link will take you to the Library of Congress web page for the two different
drafts of the Gettysburg Address (the Hay and the Nicolay versions).
This link will take you to the Library of Congress's Gettysburg Address web page.
This link will take you to the text of the invitation sent to Lincoln by David Willis to
give "a few appropriate remarks" at the consecration of the Gettysburg Military
Cemetery.
This link will take you to the Gettysburg National Military Park (National Park
Service) web page.
This link will take you to a proposed lesson for The Civil War series web page which
includes Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Little Round Top.
Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts:
This lesson involves a letter by the commanding officer of the all black regiment to his
wife describing the burning of the town of Darien, Georgia.
Civil War Music:
This link is for the lesson for the PBS Civil War series which compares various
northern and southern songs. (Includes lyrics for songs as well as MIDI files to allow
students to hear the music.)
Andersonville Prison:
This site is a student-created site of the war crimes trial of Henry Wirz, commandant
of the Andersonville (Georgia) Prison Camp. Wirz was the only person (on either side)
convicted and executed for "war crimes".
Sherman's March to the Sea:
This site is the lesson for the PBS Civil War series that uses correspondence from
General William Tecumseh Sherman to General US Grant.
Surrender at Appomattox:
This "Eyewitness" site gives details of the surrender at Appomattox.
This link is for the PBS Civil War series lesson on Lee and Grant at Appomattox.
Other Civil War links
Check out the Civil War Preservation Trust website. The CWPT does a great job of
protecting Civil War battlefields and related sites, and the site also has a large number of
related resources you can use for your project.
This link will take you to the National Archives and Records Administration Exhibit:
American Originals, Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
This link will take you to the National Archives and Records Administration Exhibit
on Women Soldiers in the Civil War.
This link will take you to Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library (Lincoln Papers) in the Library
of Congress web site.
This link will take you to "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song": Sheet Music About Lincoln,
Emancipation, and the Civil War. (From the American Memory site, Library of
Congress.)
This link will take you to Professor Bernie Dodge (San Diego State University)'s
American Civil War Home Page.
This link will take you to the American Memory, Library of Congress Civil War
Treasures from the New York Historical Society, which includes stereographic views,
recruitment posters, drawings and writings of soldiers.
This link will take you to the Civil War Cartoons site (from the American Studies
Department of the University of Virginia).
This link goes to the "Valley of the Shadows" web page from the University of
Virginia. This University of Virginia project analyzes the Civil War through the eyes of
residents of two counties, one Northern, the other Southern (Augusta County, Georgia,
and Franklin County, Pennsylvania). The project includes photographs, census
information, newspapers, letters, diaries, and other pertinent information that brings the
war to a personal level to these two areas.
This link will take you to the Hargrett Rare Map Collection (Civil War Maps).
This link will take you to Cyndi's Civil War list, with a substantial number of good
resource links.
This link will take you to the American Civil War web page, including several pages
of photos, battle information, Civil War re-enactor websites, regimental history,
biographies of major persons in the conflict, as well as other information.
This link will take you to the "Selected Civil War Photographs" page from American
Memory, Library of Congress which includes a compendium of photographs from the
Print and Photography Section of the Library of Congress. Pictures are separated by
year, and include works of Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardiner. Photos include sets
from several battles, including Gettysburg, Vicksburg, the Wilderness Campaign, as well
as sets involving the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the “Grand Review” of
the Army of the Potomac, and views after the fall of the Confederate capital of
Richmond.
This link will take you to The American Civil War web site (different than the one
mentioned above), which contains a varied number of resources, including a chat room
(registration required), links to Civil War “web rings”, biographies of various leaders, a
calendar which students can see what happened on that date in Civil War history, as well
as concise capsule views of various battles and various events that occurred during the
war years.
Other related links of interest
Catch a "sneak peek" at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and
Museum, which opened in 2003.
Visit the Abraham Lincoln Home National Historic Site, located in Springfield,
Illinois.
The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site is located near
Hodgenville, Kentucky.
The Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home National Historic Site is located near
Vincennes in Spencer County, Indiana (Lincoln City).
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a National Parks Service database
with a great deal of information about Civil War combatants, as well as National
Parks Service Civil War Historic Sites.
Abraham Lincoln Online
Alton, Illinois in the Civil War (where Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed)
Lincoln Collection, Illinois State Historic Library
Lincoln's New Salem Historic Site
DUE DATE: _____________________________
Civil War Project Evaluation Form
Group members:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Project subject:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Class Period:__________________
Evaluation Criteria:
1. Completed Portfolio: (Includes hard copy of resources used, submitted notes
sheet.) (15 points total)
_________________ points awarded.
2. Length of presentation: (Does the presentation last AT LEAST three minutes;
with three minutes as the absolute minimum?) (15 points total)
_________________ points awarded.
3. Creativity: (What the group did to create a unique project. This includes
creative use of pictures, other forms of media, etc.) (15 points total)
_________________ points awarded.
4. Following of presentation requirements: historical accuracy and other
requirements as spelled out in the project requirement sheets.) (30 points total)
_________________ points awarded.
5. Group presentation: (How the group presents their project) (5 points total)
_________________ points awarded.
6. Final Evaluation Score (Addition of 1 through 5 above.) (80 points total.)
Group points grade:_______________________
Comments regarding project:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
(Adapted from:
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/civwarmh.php)