Civil War: Resources

Myriad resources exist for teaching about the Civil War. Some of those I recommend include:

• Teaching with Documents about the Civil War: National Archives and Records Administration
• Civil War Related Weblinks: U.S. Civil War Center, Louisiana State University
  
• Civil War Animated: http://www.civilwaranimated.com/
• Eric Langhorst Podcast: Langhorst merges history, teaching, and technology in this incredible podcast. He has a particular interest in Civil War history so many of his episodes reflect the era.
• Civil War Bullet Poem Project
• Civil War Reproduction Set
  
• Interview with Tom Wheeler: Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails
• Civil War Traveler Tours Podcast: This podcast introduces several location of major events, particularly battles, from the time of the Civil War.
• Photos from the Civil War: This blog includes and links to several sites with pictures from the Civil War (including drummer boys and black soldiers)
• Panoramas of Historic Sites: This resource from HistoryBuff.com includes audio- and video-based panoramic presentations about important events in American history. Many of the available panoramas relate to the Civil War era.

Civil War: Resources (Focus—Drummer Boys)

The National Council for Social Studies Middle Level Learning Journal included an article in their May/June 2009 (vol. 35) edition (p. M15) titled Drummer Boys: Creating Historical Fiction and Studying Historical Documents. The article includes a handout identifying relevant online resources for studying Civil War drummer boys. It lists several websites including primary sources and a description of each site and its educational relevance. You can find those websites listed and linked below; to access the complete article and site descriptions, please access the original article (Note: You must be an NCSS member to access this archived publication).

• Camp Life: Gettysburg National Military Park, National Park Service
• Child Soldiers in the Civil War: Digital History
• Civil War Drummer Boys: eMINTS National Center
• The Union Army Uniform: Memorial Hall Museum of Deerfield
• The Civil War through a Child's Eye: American Memory, Library of Congress
• Johnny Clem: Ohio History Central

A Civil War Bulletin Board

After seeing this bulletin board example in the April 2008 edition of OAH Magazine of History, I saw the potential for modifying it for use when teaching about wars. What a wonderful way to have students learn from while creating a bulletin board!

Listening to the Voices: Using a Child's Perspective to Teach the American Civil War to Adolescents (Delise Sanders)

I recommend this slideshow presentation delivered by Delise Sanders at the National Council for History Education Conference in 2008. The conference slides overview information of interest to adolescent learners and include suggestions for integrating Civil War content into classroom activities.