Lesson Plan The Battle of Gettysburg through Union and Confederate Eyes 5 Click here to download this two-lesson unit.
Spotlight on: Primary Source Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863 Government and Civics In 1621, settlers in Massachusetts celebrated what has come to be regarded as the first thanksgiving in the New World. On October 3, 1789, George Washington issued a proclamation creating the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Patriotic Postal Covers: "Lincoln & Davis in 5 Rounds," 1861 Art Patriotic postal covers are an important part of the material culture of the Civil War era. People often collected these covers in special keepsake albums. Such decorative envelopes were used as advertisements and to promote various...
Spotlight on: Primary Source A political cartoon of Grant and Lee, 1864 Art, Government and Civics During the first three years of the Civil War, a series of Union generals led the Army of the Potomac against Confederate General Robert E. Lee with little success. In March 1864, Abraham Lincoln appointed General Ulysses S. Grant...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Poem on a Civil War death: "Only a Private Killed," 1861 Literature Approximately 3.5 million men served in the Union and Confederate military during the Civil War. Recent scholarship indicates that at least 750,000 men died. Lewis Mitchell of the 1st Minnesota Volunteers was one of those men. On...
Spotlight on: Primary Source William Cullen Bryant opposes the protective tariff, 1876 Economics, Government and Civics During the Civil War, the United States needed to raise funds urgently. It did so by raising the tariff, which taxed goods imported from other countries. In the days before the national income tax, the United States depended on the...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The service of Medal of Honor recipient Dr. Mary Walker, 1864 Government and Civics A graduate of Syracuse Medical College, Mary Walker served as a doctor during the American Civil War and was the only female acting assistant surgeon in the Union Army. In April 1864, Walker was captured by the Confederates in...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Abraham Lincoln's last letter to his wife, 1865 Government and Civics This letter, written as the Union captured the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, demonstrates Lincoln’s active, hands-on commitment as commander in chief of the armed forces as well as his devotion to his family. It reads...
Spotlight on: Primary Source "The President is murdered," 1865 At 10:13 p.m. on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC, President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln, unconscious and bleeding, was rushed...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The Fort Pillow Massacre, 1864 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ "Among the stories of the stormy days of the Republic, few will longer be remembered than the heroic defense and almost utter annihilation of the garrison of Fort Pillow." —Mack J. Leaming, April 1893 On April 12, 1864, fifteen...