United States History to 1877

Civil War and Reconstruction: 1860s to 1877

NOTE: The Virginia Board of Education adopted the revised 2008 History and Social Science Standards of Learning at the January 10, 2008, meeting. Full implementation of these documents is scheduled for the 2010-2011 school year, as outlined in Superintendent’s Memorandum Informational Number 49.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Begin the unit by asking students who the leaders of the Civil War were and how Abraham Lincoln's view of the nature of the Union differed from Robert E. Lee's.
• Explain that Lincoln and Lee were men who represented views of the nature of the United States that were very different, leading to an unavoidable conflict.
• Use graphic organizers available at http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/torganiz.htm (Score Graphic Organizers), http://teacherresourcecatalog.pwnet.org/docs/Reading.pdf (Reading Strategies for Content Teachers), or http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/ (ReadingQuest: Reading Strategies for Comprehension) to assist the students as they organize the following background information on the six key individuals.
• Introduce Abraham Lincoln.
• Provide the following background information. Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it." Lincoln thought secession was illegal and was willing to use force to defend federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy but four remained within the Union. The Civil War had begun. For more information, go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html.
• Include the following Information about Abraham Lincoln:
• Was President of the United States
• Opposed the spread of slavery
• Issued the Emancipation Proclamation
• Determined to preserve the Union -- by force if necessary
• Believed the United States was one nation, not a collection of independent states
• Wrote the Gettysburg Address that said the Civil War was to preserve a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
• Introduce Jefferson Davis.
• Provide the following background information. Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) was born, like Abraham Lincoln, in Kentucky. His family seems to have been of modest circumstances and soon moved to the newly opened southern frontier in Mississippi. Possessing great intelligence and imagination, Davis was educated at a number of institutions, including Transylvania University before entering West Point, from which he was graduated. Robert E. Lee was a fellow cadet. Davis was then elected to the U.S. Senate where he became a leading spokesman for southern rights. Although willing to accept the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, Davis argued the right of slavery to go into the territories, and he adamantly opposed the admission of California as a free state. Davis's stand proved too extreme for Mississippi in the aftermath of the Compromise of 1850. In 1851, in a complicated political maneuver, Davis stepped down as senator to run against a pro-compromise "Union" candidate for governor, and lost. Although he did not advocate immediate secession following Lincoln's election, Davis accepted his state's decision to leave the Union. With the formation of the Confederacy, he hoped for a high military position. When news arrived of his selection as provisional president of the Confederate States of America, his wife described him as "so grieved that I feared some evil had befallen our family." Davis, nevertheless, accepted the position. On February 18, 1861, Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederate States of America. For more information, go to: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000113.
• Information to cover about Jefferson Davis:
• Was president of the Confederate States of America
• Introduce Ulysses S. Grant.
• Provide the following background information. Lincoln appointed General Ulysses S. Grant as General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, the logical candidate for President in 1868. When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. However, Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms." For more information, go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ug18.html.
• Information to cover about Ulysses S. Grant:
• Was general of the Union army that defeated Lee
• Introduce Robert E. Lee.
• Provide the following background information. Robert E. Lee was an American soldier, general in the Confederate States army, and the youngest son of major-general Henry Lee, called "Light Horse Harry." He was born at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, on January 19, 1807, and entered West Point in 1825. Graduating four years later second in his class, he was given a commission in the U.S. Engineer Corps. In 1831 he married Mary, daughter of G. W. P. Custis, the adopted son of Washington and the grandson of Mrs. Washington. In 1836 he became first lieutenant, and in 1838 captain. In this rank he took part in the Mexican War repeatedly winning distinction for conduct and bravery. Little can be said of Lee's career as a commander-in-chief that is not an integral part of the history of the Civil War. His first success was the " Seven Days' Battle " in which he stopped McClellan's advance; this was quickly followed up by the crushing defeat of the federal army under Pope, the invasion of Maryland, and the sanguinary and indecisive battle of the Antietam. The year ended with another great victory at Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville, won against odds of two to one, and the great three days' battle of Gettysburg, where for the first time fortune turned decisively against the Confederates, were the chief events of 1863. In the autumn Lee fought a war of maneuver against General Meade. The tremendous struggle of 1864 between Lee and Grant included the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor and the long siege of Petersburg , in which, almost invariably, Lee was locally successful. But the steady pressure of his unrelenting opponent slowly wore down his strength. At last with not more than one man to oppose to Grant's three he was compelled to break out of his Petersburg lines (April 1865). A series of heavy combats revealed his purpose, and Grant pursued the dwindling remnants of Lee's army to the west. Headed off by the federal cavalry and pressed closely in rear by Grant's main body, General Lee had no alternative but to surrender. At Appomattox Court House, on April 9, 1864, the career of the Army of Northern Virginia came to an end. Lee's farewell order was issued on the following day, and within a few weeks the Confederacy was at an end. For more information, go to: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/About%20the%20General.htm.
• Information to cover about Robert E. Lee:
• Was leader of the Army of Northern Virginia
• Was offered command of the Union forces at the beginning of the war but chose not to fight against Virginia
• Opposed secession, but did not believe the union should be held together by force
• Urged Southerners to accept defeat at the end of the war and reunite as Americans when some wanted to fight on
• Introduce Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.
• Provide the following background information. Born in what is now the state of West Virginia, in the town of Clarksburg, Thomas Jonathan Jackson possessed a strong military background at the outbreak of the Civil War. His training in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, recognition as a hero in the Mexican War, and his experience as an instructor at the Virginia Military Institute justified Jackson's rank of brigadier general at the first major battle of the Civil War near Manassas, Virginia. Upon that field, General Bernard E. Bee proclaimed, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall," and a legend as well as a nickname was born. Jackson's military feats had elevated him to near mythical proportions, in both North and South, when in the midst of one of his most brilliant maneuvers, he was mistakenly shot by his own men on the night of May 2, 1863, at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Confederate army commander Robert E. Lee decided that his indispensable and most capable subordinate should recuperate in a safe place well behind friendly lines. He selected Guinea Station as the best location for Jackson because of its proximity to the railroad to Richmond and its familiarity to the wounded general. For more information, go to: http://www.nps.gov/frsp/js.htm.
• Information to cover about Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson:
• Was a skilled Confederate general from Virginia
• Introduce Frederick Douglass by providing the following background information. Douglass was a black anti-slavery orator and editor of The North Star and later Frederick Douglass' Paper. Also consistently spoke for equal rights, and campaigned against lynching in the south after the Civil War. He escaped from slavery in Baltimore, MD, in September 1838. Settling in New Bedford, MA, and working as a laborer, he was soon a vocal participant in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church there. For more information, go to: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539.html.
• Information to cover about Frederick Douglass:
• Was a former slave who escaped to the North and became an abolitionist
• Give each student a Civil War Biographies worksheet, which examines the positions and contributions of eight major figures of the Civil War. Have students work individually or in small groups to complete the chart, using the Internet, textbooks, and other resources. For a copy of the Civil War Biographies worksheet, CLICK HERE.
• Below is a list of useful Web sites for researching this information:
• From Revolution to Reconstruction. Biographies. http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/
• The Presidents of the United States. The White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents
• "Thomas J. Jackson." The Civil War Home Page. http://www.civilwarhome.com/jackbio.htm
• Civil War History. eHistory. Ohio State University. http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/index.cfm
• After completing the chart, lead students in brainstorming a set of 20 yes-or-no questions that could be asked to establish the identity of any of the eight subjects. Steer students away from obvious questions. Have them write their questions on the Civil War: "Who Am I?" worksheet. For a copy of this worksheet, CLICK HERE.
• Assign each student an identity by writing the name of a major Civil War figure on an index card and taping the card to the back of the student. The student is not to know the identity of his/her assigned person, but the remainder of the class should know. Ask each student to circulate around the room and play "Civil War: Who Am I?" by asking other individuals the 20 yes-or-no questions from his/her worksheet.

WEB SITES

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html
Abraham Lincoln

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000113
Jefferson Davis

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ug18.html
Ulysses S. Grant

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/About%20the%20General.htm
Robert E. Lee

http://www.nps.gov/frsp/js.htm
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539.html
Frederick Douglass

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