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 with questions about what hardships were experienced during the Civil War and how the Civil War changed the lives of soldiers, women, and slaves.
• Explain that life on the battlefield and on the homefront was extremely harsh. Many died from disease and exposure.
• Review the general effects of the war.
  • Families and friends were often pitted against one another.
  • Southern troops became increasingly younger and more poorly equipped and clothed.
  • Much of the South was devastated at the end of the war (e.g., burning of Atlanta and Richmond).
  • Disease was a major killer.
  • Clara Barton, a Civil War nurse, created the American Red Cross.
  • Combat was brutal and often man-to-man.
  • Women were left to run businesses in the North and farms and plantations in the South.
  • The collapse of the Confederacy made Confederate money worthless.
• Review the effects of the war on African Americans.
  • African Americans fought in both the Confederate and Union armies.
  • The Confederacy often used slaves as naval crew members and soldiers.
  • The Union moved to enlist African American sailors early in the war.
  • African American soldiers were paid less than white soldiers.
  • African American soldiers were discriminated against and served in segregated units under the command of white officers.
  • Robert Smalls, a sailor and later a Union naval captain, was highly honored for his feats of bravery and heroism. He became a Congressman after the Civil War.
• Explain to students that the Civil War was a long and bloody conflict that tore the nation apart. Sectional differences over states' rights and the expansion of slavery into new states generated great hostility between the North and South. The war divided families, sometimes pitting brother against brother and father against son. Explain to students that to understand the war, they must examine it from varying perspectives. To introduce this idea, start by writing the following titles for the war on the board:
  • The War Between the States
  • The Second American Revolution
  • The Second War for Independence
  • The War Against Slavery
  • The Brother's War
  • The War of Northern Aggression
• Explain to students that the war was not called the "Civil War" until the 1870s, after it was over. Ask students to consider the varying titles above, which were used to describe the conflict. How does each title define what the North and South were fighting for? Which side would use each title? Why? Remind students that the North did not recognize the constitutional right of the South to secede, while the people in the South viewed themselves as a separate country.
• Explain to students that one way to discover how "ordinary" people felt about the war is to read their letters written during the conflict. Have students read letters from various individuals to discover firsthand some of the major concerns and conditions related to the war. Have students access such letters from the Web sites listed below, or print and distribute a selection of letters for students to use.
• Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War. http://www.civilwarletters.com/home.html.
• "Sullivan Ballou's Letter to His Wife." The Civil War Home Page. http://www.civil-war.net/pages/sullivan_ballou.asp. This site presents an emotional letter from a soldier on the battlefront in 1861.
• The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War. http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/.
• Explain the term persona (a character, or fictional identity, assumed by a writer in a narrative poem or story). After students have read a selection of these letters, have each student take on a persona and write his/her own letter from the perspective of that persona. Encourage students to use the textbook and other resource materials to write their letters. To assist students with the assignment, read a letter with the class, and analyze it as a whole group, using the questions included in the Civil War Letters worksheet. (NOTE: The ability level of your students may require modification of this activity: higher-ability students may be able to research and analyze letters independently, while lower-ability students may need a pre-selected set of letters to analyze as a whole-group activity.) For the Civil War Letters worksheet, CLICK HERE.
• Discuss with students the importance of photography during the Civil War. Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and others were trailblazers in wartime photography. These photographers, arriving with large wagons carrying all the necessary equipment, entered the battlefield and recorded the horrors of war up close. They provided for civilians the first real pictures of war, although sometimes they rearranged their subjects and used props to enhance their pictures. For more information related to Civil War photography, see the Library of Congress Web site, American Memory: Selected Civil War Photographs, at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html.
• Have students access the above Web site to analyze a set of photographs, or select a cross section of photos to display in an electronic presentation (e.g., PowerPoint). This Web site also provides a useful photographic analysis sheet.
• After students have examined a set of these photographs, discuss with them modern examples of photojournalism, such as photographs from September 11th or other contemporary events. Explain how such widely seen images can generate shared feelings about a particular event and how they are often responsible for creating shared thoughts about and memories of an event.

WEB SITES

http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html
American Civil War Home Page

http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/civilwar/cwar.htm
Civil War for Kids

http://www.civil-war.net/
Civil War Home Page

http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/index.html
A Nation Divided

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