The Civil War The ap instructional strategies discussed below for Chapter 14 of American



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Chapter 14:

The Civil War




The AP instructional strategies discussed below for Chapter 14 of American

History: A Survey focus especially, but not exclusively, on the following themes developed by the AP U.S. History Development Committee: American Identity, Politics and Citizenship, Slavery and Its Legacies in North America, and War and Diplomacy. This chapter, as well as the primary documents selected below, follow the content guidelines suggested for the eleventh topic in the AP Topic Outline The Civil War.

Top-Ten Analytical Journal.

Defining the chapter terms in their journals will help students better understand:


  • The reasons why all attempts to reach a political compromise failed in 1860 and 1861.

  • The unique problems faced by the newly inaugurated President Lincoln, and his use of executive powers to solve them up to July 4, 1861.

  • The many interpretations of the causes of the Civil War advanced by historians.

  • The ways in which the Confederate States of America compared with the United States in manpower, natural resources, finances, industrial potential, and public support.

  • Congressional legislation passed once southern members were no longer a factor.

  • The considerations involved in President Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and its reception in the North, in the South, and in Europe.

  • The basic structure of the government of the Confederate States of America, how it differed from that of the United States, and how it dealt with the vital question of states' rights.

  • The efforts of presidents Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to act as commanders-in-chief under their respective constitutions.

  • How other nations, particularly England and France, viewed the struggle, and how their courses of action affected the outcome.

Each of the terms below contributes to a comprehensive understanding of how and why the South left the Union and how the government of the United States responded to secession; how both sides mobilized for war; and how the North won the Civil War. As your students define these terms, encourage them to demonstrate why each person, event, concept, or issue is important to a thorough understanding of this chapter.



Secession


Confederate States of America

Crittenden Compromise

Fort Sumter

Homestead Act

Morrill Land Grant Act

National Bank Acts

Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad Companies

Greenbacks

National Draft Law

New York City Draft Riots

Habeas Corpus

Ex parte Milligan


Copperheads

Election of 1854

Confiscation Acts

Emancipation Proclamation

U.S. Sanitary Commission

Confederate Conscription Act

General George McClellan

General Ulysses S. Grant

General Robert E. Lee

Ironclads

King Cotton diplomacy

Repeating weapons

Antietam

Gettysburg

William T. Sherman

March to the Sea



Appomattox Courthouse
Getting students started on their journals. Remind students that they must analyze and synthesize their understanding of these terms in two ways:


  • by creating “Top-Ten” lists of their own within their journals at the end of each chapter; and

  • by justifying in their journal why their terms are essential to an understanding of “The Civil War.”



Journal entry example. Following is an example of how students might describe “repeating weapons” and the importance of the term to an overall understanding of “The Civil War.”
Repeating weapons. Some of the new technologies produced during the Civil War transformed the way that soldiers fought in the field. Among these new technologies were the repeating weapons: Samuel Colt’s repeating pistol, Oliver Winchester’s repeating rifle, and Richard Gatling’s revolving machine gun. These weapons made fighting in formation obsolete and forced armies to build fortifications and trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire.

Free-Response Questions.





  1. Analyze the differences and similarities between the Union and the Confederacy in terms of their wartime goals, political systems, the methods used to finance the war and recruiting troops, war strategy, and the economic and social effects of the war.


Some things to look for in the student response.


  • Possible thesis statement: When compared, the Union and Confederate governments adopted similar legal, financial, and military strategies. The North and South differed, however, in terms of their wartime goals and the economic consequences of the war.




  • Goals. Their goals were very different. Union sought initially to reunify the states and by 1863, to reunify the states in a nation free of slavery. The Confederacy sought to retain its independence as a nation free from Union political, social, economic, and ideological control.




  • Political systems. Their constitutions were similar, with the two exceptions being that the Confederacy stated that individual states were sovereign and sanctioned slavery. Moderate leaders dominated the Confederate and Union governments throughout the war. Davis, unlike Lincoln, was not a successful president largely because he failed to provide a genuinely national leadership.




  • Financing the war. Differences largely prevailed in this category. The South began with several difficulties: a small and unstable banking system with little to lend, wealth that was primarily invested in non-liquid assets such as slaves and land, and a society that was not used to paying significant taxes. The Confederate Congress initially tried to requisition funds from the states with little success, and was forced to pass an income tax in 1863. Neither effort produced much revenue. Like the Union, the Confederacy issued paper currency. However, not only did it produce more than two times that of the Union, it also failed to establish a uniform currency system. This led to widespread inflation.




  • Recruiting troops. Both sides originally called for volunteers, but within less than a year, enlistments declined. Both sides eventually resorted to conscription acts, with the Confederacy taking the lead in April 1862 by drafting all white males between 18 and 35 for three years. The Union passed a similar law in March 1863. Both sides allowed a draftee to avoid service if he could pay for a substitute. The Confederacy also exempted one white man on each plantation with 20 or more slaves. Both sides were hesitant to recruit African Americans. Union troops gradually admitted blacks that largely served as laborers for the Union forces. Only at the very end of the war did the Confederacy authorize the conscription of slaves, but the war ended before this took place.




  • Fighting the war. Wartime strategy is what divided the Confederacy, largely because of the states’ rights advocates who tried to obstruct any effort Davis and his government made to centralize decision-making authority. Nonetheless, the Confederate government successfully centralized in important areas and in so doing, became more like the Union.




  • Economic effects of the war. The southern economy was all but destroyed by the war. Its overall production of goods declined by more than a third, while in the North, production increased somewhat. Because most of the fighting occurred in the South, its land and infrastructure were virtually destroyed. It lost most of its slave labor force during the war.




  • Possible conclusion: While the South believed it was very different from the Union from which it had seceded, the Confederate government adopted similar legal, financial, and military strategies used by Lincoln and the Republican Congress. Differences, however, were apparent in terms of the goals of and economic consequences for both the North and the South.

2. Discuss the role transportation played in the outcome of the Civil War.


Some things to look for in the student response.


  • Possible thesis statement: The ability to transport troops and needed supplies, as well as military communication, played a large role in the outcome of the Civil War.




  • Railroad transportation. Railroads made possible the transportation of large numbers of troops and their supplies. At the beginning of the war, the North had a better transportation system than the South, with twice as much railroad track and better-integrated lines than the South. The South had less lines, trains that were not very reliable, and a system that had already begun to deteriorate by the beginning of the war.




  • River transportation. The Union navy was able to navigate the western rivers and thus, successfully transported supplies and troops that attacked Confederate strong points. The South had no significant navy.




  • Union blockade strategy. The blockade of the southern coast and the eventual seizing of southern ports succeeded in keeping needed food supplies from the South. Although the southern economy depended on agriculture, it was primary based upon profitable single crops. Thus, the blockade denied necessary food supplies to citizens and soldiers alike.




  • Possible conclusion: When the Civil War began, the North had the advantage in terms of transportation systems. It had twice as many railroads and a better-integrated rail system, it had a strong navy and naval presence both in the Atlantic Ocean and on the western rivers. This advantage helped the North win the war.

3. To what extent did the politics of emancipation free the slaves?


Some things to look for in the student response.


  • Possible thesis statement: The politics of emancipation gradually paved the way to free the slaves.




  • Politics of emancipation. Little agreement existed in the Congress on the issue of slavery. The Radical Republicans wanted to abolish slavery immediately. Conservatives favored a more gradual approach and less disruptive process than immediate and absolute abolition. President Lincoln initially sided with the conservatives. Congress took a tentative step early in the war with the Confiscation Act of 1861, which declared that all slaves used to support the Confederate military effort would be considered free. In early 1862, Congress freed all slaves in the District of Columbia and the western territories and compensated slave owners. In July 1862, the Radical Republicans backed the second Confiscation Act that freed the slaves of those who assisted and supported the Confederacy and authorized the president to employ African Americans in the Union Army.




  • Emancipation. As the Radical Republicans gained more momentum in Congress, President Lincoln shifted with the political tide. In September 1862, he announced that he intended to use his war powers to issue an executive order that would free all the slaves in the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation was formally signed on January 1, 1863. By the war’s end, two Union slave states had abolished slavery, as had three Confederate states occupied by Union forces. Then, in 1865, Congress approved and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery in all parts of the United States.




  • Possible conclusion: The politics of emancipation paved the way to freedom and led to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, because emancipation only freed the slaves in the Confederacy, its initial effect was limited. It did, however, have great symbolic success, because it announced that the war was now being fought not only to save the Union, but also to eliminate slavery. It also served as an important tool in the freeing of slaves as the North began to occupy the South towards the war’s end.



Historians, Historical Detection, and DBQs
The following ­­­ DBQ and its supportive primary documents will help students gain a better understanding of causations and consequences of the Civil War on both the North and the South. Remind your students that when scoring the AP exams, the readers will expect to see a coherent essay that includes two required components: key pieces of evidence from all or most of the documents and a well-organized narrative drawing on knowledge from textbook readings and classroom discussion.

DBQ: Drawing from the documents below, analyze the role slavery played in the Union’s fighting of the Civil War.
Documents:
1. Excerpt from “ButlerLetter” from General Benjamin Butler to Lieutenant General Scott, May 27, 1861. (B-99 1861, Letters Received Irregular, RG 107 {L-77}, National Archives and Records Administration.)
“Sir…Since I wrote my last dispatch the question in regard to slave property is becoming one of very serious magnitude. the inhabitants of Virginia are using their negroes in the batteries, and are preparing to send their women and children South. The escapes from them are very numerous, and a squad has come in this morning to my pickets, bringing with them their women and children. Of course these cannot be dealt with upon the theory on which I designed to treat the services of able bodied men and women who might come within my lines, and of which I gave you a detailed account in my last dispatch. I am, in the utmost doubt what to do with this species of property. Up to this time I have had come within my lines men and women with their children-entire families-each family belonging to the same owner. I have therefore determined to employ, as I can do very profitably, the able-bodied persons in the party, issuing proper good for the support of all, and charging against their services the expense of care and sustenance of the non laborers, keeping a strict and accurate account as well of the services as of the expenditures, having the worth of the services and the cost of the expenditures determined by a board of survey, hereafter to be detailed. I know of no other manner in which to dispose of this subject and be questions connected therewith. As a matter of property to the insurgents it will be of very great moment, the number I now have amounting, as i am informed, to what in good times would be of the value of sixty thousand dollars. Twelve of these negroes, I am informed, have escaped from the erections of the batteries on Sewell's Point, which this morning fired upon my expedition as it passed by out of range. As a means of offense, therefore, in the enemy's hands, these negroes, when able-bodied, are of the last importance. Without them the batteries could not have been erected, at least for many weeks. As a military question, it would seem to be a measure of necessity to deprive their masters of their services. How can this be done? As a political question and a question of humanity, can I receive the services of the father and mother and not take the children: of the humanitarian aspect I have no doubt. Of the political one I have no right to judge. I therefore submit all this to your better judgment; and as these questions have a political aspect, I have ventured-and I trust I am not wrong in so doing-to duplicate have parts of my dispatches relating to this subject, and forward them to the Secretary of War. . .”
2. Excerpt from “Englishman to Lincoln,: Letter from Englishman, Martin T. Tupper to Abraham Lincoln, May 13, 1861. (At the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Digital image courtesy of the American Memory Project, Library of Congress.)
“While Governments and diplomatic servants must necessarily keep a prudential silence, even as to sympathy and counsel, it may not be quite unbecoming nor unwelcome if a private English Gentleman . . . steps out of the conventional ranks, with a hearty and unpresumptuous expression of Goodwill towards the great American Union, and honest admiration of Abraham Lincoln. Our sympathies in England are all with you, and the North: we abhor the treason of those Southerners, and the bad cause for which they fight . . . Yes, Sir, as you have yourself wisely said, Armed Secession is treason,  and must be visited as such. . . I think,  and my judgement is that of the great majority of Englishmen,  that your firmly calm defensive position is the only wise one to adopt. Leave them to themselves. Let the vixen wife who deserts a good husband's home repent, if she may, in bitter destitution, -- but do not seek to force back the bad bargain by restitution of conjugal rights. Stop the supplies; let their universal crime of slave dealing work its own cure as it must and will . . In one thing especially, our people have a deep interest  no less than 4,000,000 Englishmen live from Cotton, and this complicates the question as to stopping the supplies. Our Flag must cover the cargo of honest traders; and so long as we do not pay in contraband of war, but by peace-goods or in money, the interests of humanity demand that Trade be not suddenly or seriously interrupted. Within 2 years, our cotton supplies will have been secured from Africa, Asia, and Australia, and then the treacherous South will have lost her best customer for ever . . But I seem to see the South soon punished by their own black and white brigandage. Davis and his co-traitors lynched by their own slaves, and ultimately a few wretched Republics colonizing the Gulph and fighting with each other in an independent anarchy. You could not hold them as conquered provinces, even if they were worth this winning. America must be content to have fewer stars upon her banner,  but those of a brilliancy untarnished by the tears of Slaves . . . And now, my Dear Sir, accept, as from Man to Man, this private letter of (I trust) a welcome sympathy . . .”


  1. Excerpt from “First Confiscation Act,” August 6, 1861. (An act to confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary Purposes, 37th Congress, Session I, 6 August 1861.)

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if, during the present or any future insurrection against the Government of the United States, after the President of the United States shall have declared, by proclamation, that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the marshals by law, any person or persons, his, her, or their agent, attorney, or employ, shall purchase or acquire, sell or give, any property of whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ the same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in aiding, abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws, or any person or persons engaged therein; or if any person or persons, being the owner or owners of any such property, shall knowingly use or employ, or consent to the use or employment of the same as aforesaid, all such property is hereby declared to be lawful subject of prize and capture wherever found; and it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the same to be seized, confiscated, and condemned…”


4. Excerpt from “Second Confiscation Act,” July 17, 1862. (Act of July 17, 1862, Public Law 37-160, 12 STAT 589, suppressing insurrection, punishing treason and rebellion, and seizing and confiscating the property of rebels.)
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person who shall hereafter commit the crime of treason against the United States, and shall be adjudged guilty thereof, shall suffer death, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; or, at the discretion of the court, he shall be imprisoned for not less than five years and fined not less than ten thousand dollars, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free . . .And be it further enacted, That if any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States, or the laws thereof, or shall give aid or comfort thereto, or shall engage in, or give aid and comfort to, any such existing rebellion or insurrection, and be convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by the liberation of all his slaves, if any he have; or by both of said punishments, at the discretion of the court . . . And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such person found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves . . And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States is authorized to employ as many persons of African descent as he may deem necessary and proper for the suppression of this rebellion, and for this purpose he may organize and use them in such manner as he may judge best for the public welfare. . .”

5. Illustration of a Watch Meeting, December 31, 1862. (Heard & Moseley, "Watch meeting, Dec. 31, 1862 -- Waiting for the hour," 1863. Courtesy of the Library of Congress American Memory Project, ID: LC-USZC4-6160 DLC.)




  1. Excerpt from “Emancipation Proclamation,” January 1, 1863. (Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863 (Final Emancipation Proclamation, Official Copy). At the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.)

" . . on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom . . . And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. . . And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service . . .”


7. “Draft Riots,” Engraving of the New York City Draft Riots, July 1863. Located on the Primary Source Investigator CD-ROM.

8. Illustration in Harper’s Weekly of the 4th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, April 19, 1866. Located on the Primary Source Investigator CD-ROM.
Possible evidence:


  • Slaves in the military effort. As indicated in Butler’s letter, Union Generals faced tremendous challenges early in the war, not the least of which was how to handle runaway slaves fleeing north to join the Union effort. He is uncertain what to do: can he “deprive their masters of their services?” Can  or should  he use the services of the mothers and fathers, but not their children? The Union was also concerned about the use of slaves for “insurrectionary” support of the Confederate army. Thus, Congress passed the first Confiscation Act in August 1861, which confiscated all slaves used for such purposes. In the second Confiscation Act passed less than a year later, slaves of anyone who committed treason against the United States or who was involved in any “rebellion or insurrection” against the United States “shall be declared and made free…” Furthermore, the Act authorized the President to employ freed slaves in “the suppression of this rebellion.”




  • Foreign sympathy for the Union. President Lincoln received the letter from Martin Tupper early in the war, a letter that expressed “sympathy” for the northern cause and opposition to the South’s decision to secede, as well as to their dependence upon slavery. He stated that within two years, England’s cotton supply would “have been secured from Africa, Asia, and Australia and then the treacherous South will have lost her best customer for ever.” He counseled Lincoln that American would have to learn to “be content to have fewer stars upon her banner” and praised the idea that the stars would be “of a brilliancy untarnished by the tears of Slaves.”




  • Role of free slaves in abolition efforts. The illustration of the “Watch Meeting” shows a group African Americans and white abolitionists anxiously waiting for the pronouncement of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was enacted at midnight. The illustration is an example of how whites and blacks worked together during the war for emancipation.




  • Domestic turmoil in the union over the draft laws. In July 1863, New York City witnessed four days of violent rioting in reaction to both the new Union draft laws and the Emancipation Proclamation. The city had a large number of working class whites, many of whom were Irish, who competed with free blacks for the lowest and most dangerous jobs. During the riots, angry white mobs attacked draft offices, industrial buildings, a few elite landmarks, and, New York's black residents. Rioters were angry about being forced to fight a war for a group of people whom many believed to be barely human. This engraving depicts a mob lynching of an African American in the streets of New York and demonstrates the degree of racism in the urban north, as well as anger about any effort of economic equality for free slaves.




  • Role of emancipation in the Union goals. While the Union entered the War initially with the primary goal of reuniting the North and South, two years later it added a new goal  reuniting the Union under a nation in which slavery would be abolished. A precedent was set in April 1862 when Congress passed a law that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and paid former slave owners $300 in compensation for their loss of property. This was the first time federal power had been used to emancipate slaves. The Harper's Weekly illustration depicts a large gathering of African Americans in Washington, DC on the fourth anniversary of emancipation. The Emancipation Proclamation became the formal vehicle of emancipation when it declared that slaves in the Confederate states “henceforward shall be free.” It also declared that the U.S. government, including the “military and naval authorities” must “recognize and maintain” the freedom of the slaves, and that the freed slaves would be “received into the armed services of the United States.” The fact that emancipation was limited only to the slaves in the Confederacy and did not include those living within Union lines indicates that Lincoln was still trying to limit the negative political repercussions of such a decision.



Creative Extensions.
1. Before reading Chapter 14, have students examine “The Process of Secession” map on p. 369, or take them to the computer lab and have them spend some time on the interactive version of this map available in the OLC, Chapter 14. Based upon what they have learned in previous chapters about the divisions between the North and the South, stimulate a discussion on the following questions: Why were the states in the Deep South the first to secede? Why didn’t Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia secede immediately with the Deep South? Why didn’t Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maryland secede? How do you think the failure of the Border States to secede will affect the outcome of the Civil War?


  1. After reading Chapter 14, show students excerpts pertaining to the New York City Draft Riots from New York: A Documentary Film by Ric Burns. To learn more about this film, go to the PBS website at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/series/index.html) The approximately 20-minute segment located toward the end of Episode 2, “Order and Disorder: 1825-1865,” provides excellent information about the New York City Draft Riots. Then, show students the segments of the riots that are visually portrayed in the popular motion picture, The Gangs of New York. Using information about the Draft Riots learned in their textbook and in these excerpts, stimulate a class discussion based upon the following questions: How did the interpretation in Gangs compare and contrast with Burns’ interpretation, as well as what you read in your book? Who were the primary victims of the riots? How was this both a class and a race riot? Why do you think most Americans have never heard about the Draft Riots, the most violent in our nation’s history? Why were they called the “Draft Riots”?

3. Stage a classroom debate on any one of the following:


Resolved: Slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War.

Resolved: Grant was a better general than Lee.

Resolved: Lincoln’s reputation as the “Great Emancipator” is exaggerated.

Resolved The Civil War was inevitable.

Resolved: The Civil War was a rich man’s battle and a poor man’s fight.

Resolved: The Civil War transformed the North from an agrarian to an industrial society.
4. Have the students write an essay in which they briefly explain the debate about the causes of the Civil War. Ask them to explain which historical arguments they find to be most and least convincing. Finally, ask them to assume the character of one Union or Confederate leader and have them argue for or against the “irrepressible conflict” argument.
5. Challenge your class to learn more about the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts infantry  the African-American unit popularized in the movie, Glory. After showing the movie in class, create research groups assigned to examine the following and report their findings to the class:



  • The historical accuracy of the film.

  • The life and career of the unit commander, Robert Gould Shaw.

  • The history of the Shaw memorial  the original located in Boston and a replica located in the Smithsonian.

  • The experiences of African-American soldiers who fought with the North.




  1. Ask students to write a letter from any of the following perspectives:




  • Jefferson Davis explaining how and why the South seceded.

  • An American defending the Civil War to a foreigner.

  • Abraham Lincoln after signing the Emancipation Proclamation.

  • An African-American soldier fighting in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry.

  • A Union nurse at Gettysburg.

  • A Northern prisoner of war at Andersonville.

  • A Southern soldier preparing for Pickett’s Last Charge.

  • Robert E. Lee as he was preparing to surrender the Confederate Army.

7. Assign a three-day, in-class project during which all the students will work in one of four groups to learn more about the following domestic legislation that the Republican Party passed during the war:




  • Homestead Act

  • Morrill Land Grant Act

  • Pacific Railroad Act

  • National Bank Acts

Each group must explain the exact provisions of the act, how their act supported the Republicans’ aggressive nationalist program to promote economic development, why they think southern Democrats may have opposed their act, and the long-term effects of their act on the United States as a whole.




  1. Divide the class into six groups as follows:




    • women nurses involved in the war

    • northern and southern women war spies

    • free African Americans involved in the war

    • slaves who fought in the war

    • Jayhawkers

    • Quantrill’s raiders

Each group will explore the roles their people played in the war and determine how their experiences either helped or hindered the war efforts in the North and the South. Groups will elect two spokespersons to present their findings to the class.


9. Enlist your students in an effort to make the Civil War more accessible to eighth graders. Have them write and illustrate a book that tells the story of the Civil War through the eyes of both a northern and southern soldier. When the book is completed, arrange with a local eighth grade teacher to have several of your students bring the book to their class and read it aloud.


  1. Invite students to watch any of the following five movies at home either with their families or with a group of friends from class: Glory, Gods and Generals, The Red Badge of Courage, Cold Mountain, or Gettysburg. Or have them watch all or parts of the Ken Burns documentary, The Civil War. Then, have them answer the following:




  • What does this production tell you about the Civil War, especially the involvement of ordinary soldiers, both black and white?

  • Do you think this film was a realistic portrayal of the Civil War? Why or why not? Be specific.

  • In your opinion, is this movie of any real use to understanding this period in American history? Be specific about how and why  or why not.






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