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"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves"
-Abraham Lincoln

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"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves"
-Abraham Lincoln

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Quotes; 6th Grade; Basic; This includes basic quotes of Abraham Lincoln through out his life. This is important because can look at the president at the time and compare it to his actions in the Civil War

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Abraham Lincoln Quotes (Author of The Gettysburg Address)

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551 quotes from Abraham Lincoln: 'Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.', 'Whatever you are, be a good one.', and 'Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?'

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Pictures; No reading level or grade level; These pictures provide insight into the war. It gives very brief descriptions but enough for readers to have a connection to the war. It is categorized by every year, before, and after the war.

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The Civil War, an epic nine-episode series by the award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and produced in conjunction with WETA, Washington, D.C., first aired in September of 1990 to an audience of 40 million viewers. The film is a comprehensive and definitive history of the American Civil War, and the recipient of 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmys and two Grammys.

Heralded as an unforgettable introduction to a four-year conflict fought in 10,000 places, The Civil War was five years in the making. The film vividly embraces the entire sweep of the war: the complex causes and lasting effects of America's greatest and most moving calamity, the battles and the homefront, the generals and the private soldiers, the anguish of death in battle and the grief of families at home.

Premiered on PBS: September 23, 1990

Aired Completely Restored on PBS: September 2015

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The Civil War | Ken Burns | PBS | Watch The Civil War | Ken Burns | PBS

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The Civil War, an epic nine-episode series by the award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and produced in conjunction with WETA, Washington, D.C., first aired in September of 1990 to an audience of 40 million viewers. The film is a comprehensive and definitive history of the American Civil War, and the recipient of 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmys and two Grammys.

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More Cruel Than War Poem by W.S. Hawkins

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More Cruel Than War Poem by W.S. Hawkins

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Poem; 9th grade; Proficient; It allows readers to connect emotionally to the fallen soldier. I believe this connection is important because it humanizes the people the who died and gives meaning to their lives

Your letter, lady, came too late,
For heaven had claimed its own;
Ah, sudden change—from prison bars
Unto the great white throne;
And yet I think he would have stayed,
To live for his disdain,
Could he have read the careless words
Which you have sent in vain.

So full of patience did he wait,
Through many a weary hour,
That o'er his simple soldier-faith
Not even death had power;
And you—did others whisper low
Their homage in your ear,
As though among their shallow throng
His spirit had a peer?

I would that you were by me now,
To draw the sheet aside
And see how pure the look he wore
The moment when he died.
The sorrow that you gave to him
Had left its weary trace,
As 'twere the shadow of the cross
Upon his pallid face.

"Her love," he said, "could change for me
The winter's cold to spring."
Ah, trust of fickle maiden's love,
Thou art a bitter thing!
For when these valleys, bright in May,
Once more with blossoms wave,
The northern violets shall blow
Above his humble grave.

Your dole of scanty words had been
But one more pang to bear
For him who kissed unto the last
Your tress of golden hair;
I did not put it where he said,
For when the angels come,
I would not have them find the sign
Of falsehood in the tomb.

I've read your letter, and I know
The wiles that you have wrought
To win that trusting heart of his,
And gained it—cruel thought!
What lavish wealth men sometimes give
For what is worthless all
What manly bosoms beat for them
In folly's falsest thrall!

You shall not pity him, for now
His sorrow has an end;
Yet would that you could stand with me
Beside my fallen friend!
And I forgive you for his sake,
As he—if he be forgiven—
May e'en be pleading grace for you
Before the court of Heaven.

To-night the cold winds whistle by,
As I my vigil keep
Within the prison dead-house, where
Few mourners come to weep.
A rude plank coffin holds his form;
Yet death exalts his face,
And I would rather see him thus
Than clasped in your embrace.

To-night your home may shine with light
And ring with merry song,
And you be smiling as your soul
Had done no deadly wrong;
Your hand so fair that none would think
It penned these words of pain;
Your skin so white—would God your heart
Were half as free from stain.

I'd rather be my comrade dead
Than you in life supreme;
For yours the sinner's waking dread,
And his the martyr's dream!
Whom serve we in this life we serve
In that which is to come;
He chose his way, you—yours; let God
Pronounce the fitting doom.

Poem 16

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1. March into Virginia, Ending in the First Manassas by Herman Melville

2. Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe

3. Luther's Hymn by John Greenleaf Whittier

4. Shiloh: A Requiem by Herman Melville

5. Barbara Frietchie by John Greenleaf Whittier

6. Kearny at Seven Pines by Edmund Clarence Stedman

7. The Pride of Battery B by Frank H. Gassaway

8. The Battle Autumn of 1862 by John Greenleaf Whittier

9. Fredericksburg by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

10. The Angel of Marye's Heights by Walter A. Clark

11. Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

12. Stonewall Jackson's Way by John Williamson Palmer

13. The Colored Soldiers by Laurence Dunbar

14. The Charge of Pickett's Brigade by Anonymous

15. The High Tide At Gettysburg by Will Henry Thompson

16. Gettysburg by James Jeffrey Roche

17. Lincoln at Gettysburg by Bernhardt Paul Holst

18. Robert Gould Shaw by Paul Laurence Dunbar

19. Sheridan's Ride by Thomas Buchanan Read

20. The Dying Soldiers by Anonymous

21. At Appomattox by Carl Holliday

22. O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman

23. More Cruel Than War by W.S. Hawkins

24. Robert E. Lee by Julia Ward Howe

25. The Blue and the Gray by Francis Miles Finch

26. A Nameless Grave by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1. Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
The forest-field of Shiloh-
Over the field where April rain
Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain
Through the pause of night
That followed the Sunday fight
Around the church of Shiloh-
The church so lone, the log-built one,
That echoed to many a parting groan
And natural prayer
Of dying foemen mingled there-
Foemen at morn, but friends at eve-
Fame or country least their care:
(What like a bullet can undeceive!)
But now they lie low,
While over them the swallows skim,
And all is hushed at Shiloh.

2. The Pride of Battery B

by Frank H. Gassaway. This poem is a "gem of the purest ray serene.'" It recounts an incident of the late civil war. A little orphan child, a war waif, adopted by a battery of the Southern troops, is so distressed by the failure of the tobacco supplies of her whilom guardians, that she escapes from her tent, and, crossing to the enemy's entrenchment, begs a supply from the Yankee soldiers. The latter send her back well supplied with the weed so dear to the soldier's heart, and during the rest of the engagement the gunners on the Yankee side refuse to direct their shells in the vicinity of the child's detachment. This poem has enjoyed remarkable popularity, and has been widely copied in England and elsewhere.

South Mountain towered on our right, far off the river lay,
And over on the wooded height we held their lines at bay.
At last the mutt'ring guns were stilled; the day died slow and wan;
At last the gunners' pipes were filled, the Sergeant's yarns began.
When,-as the wind a moment blew aside the fragrant flood
Our brierwoods raised,-within our view a little maiden stood.

A tiny tot of six or seven, from fireside fresh she seemed
(Of such a little one in heaven one soldier often dreamed).
And, as we stared, her little hand went to her curly head
In grave salute: "And who are you?" at length the Sergeant said.
"And where's your home?" he growled again. Shelispedout,"Who is me?
Why, don't you know? I'm little Jane, the Pride of Battery 'B.'
My home? Why, that was burned away, and pa and ma are dead,
And so, so I ride the guns all day along with Sergeant Ned.
And I've a drum that's not a toy, a cap with feathers, too,
And I march beside the drummer boy on Sundays at review;
But now our 'bacca's all give out, the men can't have their smoke,
And so they're cross-why, even Ned won't play with me and joke,
And the big Colonel said to-day-I hate to hear him swear-
He'd give a leg for a good pipe like the Yanks had over there
And so I thought when beat the drum and the big guns were still,
I'd creep beneath the tent and come out here across the hill,
And beg, good Mister Yankee men, you'd give me some tobac;
Please do-when we get some again I'll surely bring it back.
Indeed I will, for Ned-says he-if I do what I say,
I'll be a general yet, maybe, and ride a prancing bay."
We brimmed her tiny apron o'er; you should have heard her laugh
As each man from his scanty store shook out a generous half.
To kiss the little mouth stooped down a score of grimy men,
Until the Sergeant's husky voice said "'Tention, squad and then
We gave her escort, till good night the pretty waif we bid.
And watched her toddle out of sight-or else 'twas tears that hid
Her tiny form-nor turned about a man, nor spoke a word,
'Till after while a far, hoarse shout upon the wind was heard!
We sent it hack-then cast sad eye upon the scene around,
A baby's hand had touched the tie that brothers once had bound.
That's all-save when the dawn awoke again the work of hell,
And through the sullen clouds of smoke the screaming missiles fell;
Our General often rubbed his glass and marveled much to see
Not a single shell that whole day fell in the lines of Battery "B."

3. Fredericksburg

The increasing moonlight drifts across my bed,
And on the churchyard by the road, I know
It falls as white and noiselessly as snow...
'T was such a night two weary summers fled;
The stars, as now, were waning overhead.
Listen! Again the shrill-lipped bugles blow
Where the swift currents of the river flow
Past Fredericksburg: far off the heavens are red
With sudden conflagration: on yon height,
Linstock in hand, the gunners hold their breath:
A signal-rocket pierces the dense night,
Flings its spent stars upon the town beneath:
Hark!- the artillery massing on the right,
Hark!- the black squadrons wheeling down to Death!

4. "There they march, warm-blooded champions of a better day for man. There on horseback among them, in his very habit as he lived, sits the blue-eyed child of fortune, upon whose happy youth every divinity had smiled"

- William James
Excerpt from the oration at the unveiling of the Shaw Monument.

5. What shall we say? Was it at last defeat
That leader of the weary army gained?
When those two knights of North and South did meet
Upon that final field with blood so stained,
Was one the vanquished, one the victor there?
O patriots, no; on that sad day of peace
There was no sign of conquest anywhere,
But only two great hearts content to cease
The strife and live at peace, the battle done.
And who was greater of the twain that day?
Ah, ask not that. One lost, the other won;
Each followed his ideal all the way.
It matters little if we win not goals,
But much how goals are kept before our souls.

6. A Nameless Grave

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"A Soldier of the Union mustered out,"
Is the inscription on an unknown grave
At Newport News, beside the salt-sea wave,
Nameless and dateless; sentinel or scout
Shot down in skirmish, or disastrous rout
Of battle, when the loud artillery drave
Its iron wedges through the ranks of brave
And doomed battalions, storming the redoubt.
Thou unknown hero sleeping by the sea
In thy forgotten grave! with secret shame
I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burn,
When I remember thou hast given for me
All that thou hadst, thy life, thy very name,
And I can give thee nothing in return.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Chorus:
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty,
He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Chorus

Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
The forest-field of Shiloh-
Over the field where April rain
Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain
Through the pause of night
That followed the Sunday fight
Around the church of Shiloh-
The church so lone, the log-built one,
That echoed to many a parting groan
And natural prayer
Of dying foemen mingled there-
Foemen at morn, but friends at eve-
Fame or country least their care:
(What like a bullet can undeceive!)
But now they lie low,
While over them the swallows skim,
And all is hushed at Shiloh.

The Pride of Battery B

by Frank H. Gassaway. This poem is a "gem of the purest ray serene.'" It recounts an incident of the late civil war. A little orphan child, a war waif, adopted by a battery of the Southern troops, is so distressed by the failure of the tobacco supplies of her whilom guardians, that she escapes from her tent, and, crossing to the enemy's entrenchment, begs a supply from the Yankee soldiers. The latter send her back well supplied with the weed so dear to the soldier's heart, and during the rest of the engagement the gunners on the Yankee side refuse to direct their shells in the vicinity of the child's detachment. This poem has enjoyed remarkable popularity, and has been widely copied in England and elsewhere.

South Mountain towered on our right, far off the river lay,
And over on the wooded height we held their lines at bay.
At last the mutt'ring guns were stilled; the day died slow and wan;
At last the gunners' pipes were filled, the Sergeant's yarns began.
When,-as the wind a moment blew aside the fragrant flood
Our brierwoods raised,-within our view a little maiden stood.

A tiny tot of six or seven, from fireside fresh she seemed
(Of such a little one in heaven one soldier often dreamed).
And, as we stared, her little hand went to her curly head
In grave salute: "And who are you?" at length the Sergeant said.
"And where's your home?" he growled again. Shelispedout,"Who is me?
Why, don't you know? I'm little Jane, the Pride of Battery 'B.'
My home? Why, that was burned away, and pa and ma are dead,
And so, so I ride the guns all day along with Sergeant Ned.
And I've a drum that's not a toy, a cap with feathers, too,
And I march beside the drummer boy on Sundays at review;
But now our 'bacca's all give out, the men can't have their smoke,
And so they're cross-why, even Ned won't play with me and joke,
And the big Colonel said to-day-I hate to hear him swear-
He'd give a leg for a good pipe like the Yanks had over there
And so I thought when beat the drum and the big guns were still,
I'd creep beneath the tent and come out here across the hill,
And beg, good Mister Yankee men, you'd give me some tobac;
Please do-when we get some again I'll surely bring it back.
Indeed I will, for Ned-says he-if I do what I say,
I'll be a general yet, maybe, and ride a prancing bay."
We brimmed her tiny apron o'er; you should have heard her laugh
As each man from his scanty store shook out a generous half.
To kiss the little mouth stooped down a score of grimy men,
Until the Sergeant's husky voice said "'Tention, squad and then
We gave her escort, till good night the pretty waif we bid.
And watched her toddle out of sight-or else 'twas tears that hid
Her tiny form-nor turned about a man, nor spoke a word,
'Till after while a far, hoarse shout upon the wind was heard!
We sent it hack-then cast sad eye upon the scene around,
A baby's hand had touched the tie that brothers once had bound.
That's all-save when the dawn awoke again the work of hell,
And through the sullen clouds of smoke the screaming missiles fell;
Our General often rubbed his glass and marveled much to see
Not a single shell that whole day fell in the lines of Battery "B."

Fredericksburg

The increasing moonlight drifts across my bed,
And on the churchyard by the road, I know
It falls as white and noiselessly as snow...
'T was such a night two weary summers fled;
The stars, as now, were waning overhead.
Listen! Again the shrill-lipped bugles blow
Where the swift currents of the river flow
Past Fredericksburg: far off the heavens are red
With sudden conflagration: on yon height,
Linstock in hand, the gunners hold their breath:
A signal-rocket pierces the dense night,
Flings its spent stars upon the town beneath:
Hark!- the artillery massing on the right,
Hark!- the black squadrons wheeling down to Death!

Stonewall Jackson's Way

Up from the South, at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste to the chieftain's door,
The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.

And wider still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon's bar;
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,
Making the blood of the listener cold,
As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
With Sheridan twenty miles away.

But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good, broad highway leading down:
And there, through the flush of the morning light,
A steed as black as the steeds of night
Was seen to pass, as with eagle flight;
As if he knew the terrible need,
He stretched away with his utmost speed.
Hills rose and fell, but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away.

Still sprang from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust like smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster.
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.

Under his spurning feet, the road
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed,
And the landscape sped away behind
Like an ocean flying before the wind;
And the steed, like a barque fed with furnace ire,
Swept on, with his wild eye full of fire;
But, lo! he is nearing his heart's desire;
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away.

The first that the general saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;
What was to be done? what to do?-a glance told him both.
Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath,
He dashed down the line, 'mid a storm of huzzas,
And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because
The sight of the master compelled it to pause.
With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
By the flash of his eye, and his red nostril's play,
He seemed to the whole great army to say:
"I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day."

Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan!
Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high
Under the dome of the Union sky,
The American soldier's Temple of Fame,
There, with the glorious general's name,
Be it said, in letters both bold and bright:
"Here is the steed that saved the day
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,
From Winchester-twenty miles away!"

What shall we say? Was it at last defeat
That leader of the weary army gained?
When those two knights of North and South did meet
Upon that final field with blood so stained,
Was one the vanquished, one the victor there?
O patriots, no; on that sad day of peace
There was no sign of conquest anywhere,
But only two great hearts content to cease
The strife and live at peace, the battle done.
And who was greater of the twain that day?
Ah, ask not that. One lost, the other won;
Each followed his ideal all the way.
It matters little if we win not goals,
But much how goals are kept before our souls.

A Nameless Grave

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"A Soldier of the Union mustered out,"
Is the inscription on an unknown grave
At Newport News, beside the salt-sea wave,
Nameless and dateless; sentinel or scout
Shot down in skirmish, or disastrous rout
Of battle, when the loud artillery drave
Its iron wedges through the ranks of brave
And doomed battalions, storming the redoubt.
Thou unknown hero sleeping by the sea
In thy forgotten grave! with secret shame
I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burn,
When I remember thou hast given for me
All that thou hadst, thy life, thy very name,
And I can give thee nothing in return.

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27 Great Civil War Poems | DiscoverPoetry.com

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A list of 27 of the most famous poems about the Civil War. Use the built in (free) MemoryTyper app to memorize a favorite. This list includes poems about such topics as Gettysburg, Shiloh, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee.

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Pictures; no reading level or grade level; This gives the reader background knowledge into the election and the division of states prior to the civil war.

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Lincoln Home National Historic Site --Locate 2

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(Courtesy Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Information for the creation of Map 4 was obtained from the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization website at http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu.)

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Speech grade; Advanced; This is the actual Emancipation Proclamation Abraham Lincoln write. It may difficult but the text itself gives vocabulary words and guided reading questions. The article is interactive.

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This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

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Article; 8th grade; Proficient; The article begins with a brief overview of slavery. It moves into how slavery was affected by Civil War.

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When Europeans first colonized the North American continent, the land was vast, the work was harsh, and there was a severe shortage of labor. White bond servants, paying their passage across the ocean from Europe through indentured labor, eased but did not solve the problem. Tensions between settlers and former indentured servants increased the pressure to find a new labor source. Early in the seventeenth century, a Dutch ship loaded with African slaves introduced a solution-and yet paradoxically a new problem-to the New World. Slaves proved to be economical on large farms where labor-intensive cash crops, such as tobacco, sugar and rice, could be grown.

By the end of the American Revolution, slavery became largely unprofitable in the North and was slowly dying out. Even in the South the institution was becoming less useful to farmers as tobacco prices fluctuated and began to drop. Due to the decline of the tobacco market in the 1760s and 1770s many farmers switched from producing tobacco to wheat, which required less labor leading to surplus of slaves. However, in 1793 northerner Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin; this device made it possible for textile mills to use the type of cotton most easily grown in the lower South. The invention of the cotton gin brought about a robust internal slave trade. As the lower South became more established in cotton production the region required more slave labor, which they received from upper South slaveowners looking to offload their surplus of slaves. In 1808, the United States banned the international slave trade (the importation of slaves), which only increased the demand for domestically traded slaves. In the upper South the most profitable cash crop was not was not an agricultural product but the sale of human lives. Although some southerners owned no slaves at all, by 1860 the South's "peculiar institution" was inextricably tied to the region's economy and society.

Torn between the economic benefits of slavery and the moral and constitutional issues it raised, white southerners grew more and more defensive of the institution. They argued that black people, like children, were incapable of caring for themselves and that slavery was a benevolent institution that kept them fed, clothed, and occupied, and exposed them to Christianity. Most northerners did not doubt that black people were inferior to whites, but they did doubt the benevolence of slavery. The voices of Northern abolitionists, such as Boston editor and publisher William Lloyd Garrison, became increasingly violent. Educated blacks such as escaped-slave Frederick Douglass wrote eloquent and heartfelt attacks on the institution and spoke on abolitionist circuits about their experience enslaved.

Anti-slavery proponents organized the Underground Railroad to help slaves escape north to freedom. Although fictionalized, Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 immensely popular novel Uncle Tom's Cabin opened northerner's eyes to some of the horrors of slavery and refuted the southern myth that blacks were happy as slaves.

In reality, treatment of slaves ranged from mild and paternalistic to cruel and sadistic. Husbands, wives, and children were frequently sold away from one another and punishment by whipping was not unusual. In 1857 the United States Supreme Court in the decision Dred Scott v. Sandford ruled that all blacks, whether free or enslaved, lacked the rights to citizenship and thus could not sue in federal court. The Supreme Court took their decision a step further by deeming that Congress had in fact exceeded its authority in the earlier Missouri Compromise because it had no power to forbid or abolish slavery in the territories. The Supreme Court also ruled that popular sovereignty, where new territories could vote on entering the union as a free or slave state, lacked constitutional legitimacy. Thus, slaves had no legal means of protesting their treatment. Due to the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, and other earlier slave uprisings, Southerners feared servile insurrection above all else but this was rare. Instead as a form of resistance slaves would pretend illness, organize slowdowns, sabotage farm machinery, and sometimes commit arson or murder. Running away for short periods of time was common.

The outbreak of the Civil War forever changed the future of the American nation and perhaps most notably the future of Americans held in bondage. The war began as a struggle to preserve the Union, not a struggle to free the slaves but as the war dragged on it became increasingly clear to President Abraham Lincoln the best way to force the seceded states into submission was to undermine their labor supply and economic engine which was sustaining the south-slavery. Many slaves escaped to the North in the early years of the war, and several Union generals established contraband policies in the southern land that they conquered. Congress passed laws permitting the seizure of slaves from rebellious southerners as the rules of war allow for the seizure of property and the United States considered slaves property. On September 22, 1862, following the strategic Union victory at Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln presented the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

This document decreed that, by the power of the United States armed forces, all slaves in states that were still in rebellion one hundred days after January 1, 1863 would be "thenceforward and forever free." Furthermore, Lincoln established an institution through which free blacks could join the U.S. Army, an unprecedented level of integration at that time. The United States Colored Troops (USCT) served on many battlefields, won numerous Medals of Honor, and ensured eventual Union victory in the war.

On December 6, 1865, eight months after the end of the Civil War, the United States adopted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed the practice of slavery.

Sources

Patricia L. Faust, ed., Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War, (Harper Perennial, 1991)

John S. Bowman, ed., Encyclopedia of the Civil War, (Dorset Press, 1992)

Bruce Catton, The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War, (Bonanza Books, 1982).

Further Reading

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A Brief History of Slavery in the United States

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The outbreak of the Civil War forever changed the future of the American nation and perhaps most notably the future of Americans held in bondage.

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Pictures; 8th grade; Basic; It portrays cartoons of the presidents and their arguments. It gives a description of the cartoon and how the audience it was intended for reacted.

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Song; 8th grade; Advanced; The song was supposed to encourage young men to fight. It was encouraging for the Union to win the war and free the slaves. It was written by Julia Ward Howe.

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Video; 8th grade; No reading; The video goes into a general over view of the civil war. It goes over general and advantage of the north and south.

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The Civil War, Part I: Crash Course US History #20

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Video; No reading; 6th grade; Gives a definition and examples on why the civil war broke out because of slavery. It allows students to visualize using maps and other drawings. The speech is simple yet explanatory. The professor describes other arguments that had been used before and explain why it was slavery.

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Was the Civil War about Slavery? | PragerU

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Colonel Ty Seidule clarifies the true causes of the Civil War, debunking myths about states’ rights and slavery.

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Letter; 9th grade; Advanced; This is a letter of a soldier to his wife. He has this internal struggle of wanting to be with her, but he know he has to fight for his country. This is part of book of Civil War Stories.

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Letter to Sarah Ballou, a Letter by Sullivan Ballou.

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2 Maps That Show the Civil War Was About Slavery

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2 Maps That Show the Civil War Was About Slavery

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Article and Map; 9th grade; These maps give an overview of slavery and where it was more dominant in the south. In the reading it briefly describes why it was heavily populated in some areas and others not.

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Last week's tragic shooting spree in Charleston has prompted a movement to remove symbols of the Confederacy from public buildings across the South. And that has prompted some people to deny that the Civil War was about slavery.

Obviously, any conflict has multiple causes. But the evidence is overwhelming that slavery was the primary issue that drove the South to secede from the Union. One way to see this is to look at the geography of secession.

This map shows the percentage of local populations that were slaves in 1860:

Slavery was most common in areas where conditions were suitable for large-scale cotton plantations. These areas included southern Alabama, much of Georgia, and South Carolina.

Other areas, shown in yellow in the map, had a lot fewer slaves. For example, the mountainous regions of West Virginia and eastern Tennessee weren't suitable for large cotton plantations, so they had fewer slaves. Slavery was also less common in northern Alabama than farther south.

Kentucky and Missouri had a lot fewer slaves than states farther south. They decided to remain in the Union.

Now look at this map showing how counties in the South voted on secession at the beginning of the Civil War:

Comparing the two maps shows a pretty clear pattern. The regions that voted against secession were generally those that had the fewest slaves. Anti-secession sentiment was so strong in West Virginia that people there formed their own state that stayed in the Union. Eastern Tennessee was a hotbed of Unionist sympathies. In northern Alabama, there were "yeoman farmers mixed with large slaveholders in the river bottoms and fertile plains," producing a population that was split between Unionist and Confederate sympathies.

The parts of the South that relied most heavily on slave labor were the ones that were most eager to secede. The Civil War was about slavery.

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37 maps that explain the Civil War

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2 maps that show the Civil War really was about slavery

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Last week's tragic shooting spree in Charleston has prompted a movement to remove symbols of the Confederacy from public buildings across the South. And that has prompted some people to deny that the Civil War was about slavery. Obviously, any conflict has multiple causes.

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Poem; 8th grade; Proficient; The poem allows the reader to read the emotions about a slave who is being taken back. These are people and these types of poem humanize them.

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African American Poetry during the Civil War

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Letter; 10th grade; Advanced; The letter provides students with the ability to understand Abraham Lincoln and his decisions. This letter advises the general to not think to highly. This speaks to Abraham Lincoln's character.

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Civil War: A Defining Moment in U.S. History

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Civil War: A Defining Moment in U.S. History

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Article; 7th grade; Basic; It describes not only the even that happened, but it describes how everybody was affected during the civil war. It describes how essential slavery was to the war.

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Newsela | Civil War: A Defining Moment in U.S. History

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Presidential and Radical Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War

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Presidential and Radical Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War

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Article; 8th grade; Proficient; Every thing that happened after the civil war especially with the slaves is explained. Students get a brief description of the events that followed the war and how people had to adjust to the new life with new laws.

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Newsela | Presidential and Radical Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War

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Three new changes to the Constitution gave African-Americans more rights after the Civil War: the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.

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Article; 8th grade; Proficient; Student may look at these "fun facts" and try to understand the situation Lincoln was in and how his decisions were affected by his own opinions and especially his surroundings.

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Newsela | 5 things you may not know about Lincoln, slavery and emancipation

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A Free Man's Letter to a Former Slave Owner

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A Free Man's Letter to a Former Slave Owner

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Letter; 9th grade; Advanced; This letter is written from a prior slave who sarcastically wrote to his prior slave owner who asked if he could go back and work for him. This letter shows what happened once the slaves were freed. There was no one left.

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Newsela | Primary Sources: A Free Man's Letter to a Former Slaveowner, 1865

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Freed slave sends letter to former "master" in 1865.

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Article; 9th grade; Proficient; This article applies new world issues. The Civil war is needed to be taught differently. This allows students to apply the Civil War to their current daily lives.

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Newsela | 150 years later, battle lingers over how textbooks explain Civil War

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Speech; 8th grade; Proficient; This speech has a different tone. It is somber because of the many lives lost. He explains all the lives that were lost.

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Newsela | Famous Speeches: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address