The American Vision: Modern Times © 2008

Chapter 3: The Civil War and Reconstruction

Web Lesson Plans

Introduction
Students have read about the battles of the Civil War. In this activity students will analyze the impact of the war by reading actual letters of Union and Confederate soldiers.

Lesson Description
Students will use information from the Images of Battle Web site to read first-hand accounts of the Civil War and its impact. Students will read actual letters of Union and Confederate soldiers that give details of battles, of interactions within the cities, of caring for the wounded and dead, and of their reasons for fighting the war. Students will then answer four questions and apply this information by writing a poem that a soldier might have written after hearing that the war was over.

1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the experiences on the Civil War battlefields.
2. Students will be able to use this knowledge to write a poem that a Civil War soldier might have written after hearing that the war was over.

1. In the First Battle of Bull Run, the Confederate troops were outnumbered more than 2 to 1, yet they defeated the Union troops. The soldier related that the hills on which they fought hid the fact that there were so few Confederate soldiers. He stated that if the Northern troops had perceived their advantage, they would have advanced more confidently and forcefully.
2. One soldier described a hospital as "crowded with groaning men, some undergoing the agonies of amputation." Buildings were converted into hospitals—houses and a university hall are mentioned. One writer reported that whiskey soothed the pain of a gunshot wound. Several letters mentioned that the circumstances of war sometimes forced soldiers to abandon their fallen comrades. The letters described fields thick with corpses.
3. When Union soldiers marched down the streets of Frederick, Maryland, citizens rushed to their windows to wave and cheer for the Yankee soldiers. The Rebels, anxious to prove the South's might, seized the opportunity to attack the Yankees right before the spectators. One soldier told a story about how Yankees in Fredericksburg, Virginia, pillaged every building, including the churches.
4. A Confederate soldier relayed his anger at the North's treatment of his mother. He referred to the North's "wicked undertaking." The letters indicate that the Southern soldiers felt that they were defending their rights and that they resented Northern oppression. The Northern soldiers made references to freeing enslaved people. Both mentioned their devotion to God.
5. Students' poems will vary.