Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Women in the Civil War: Ladies, Contraband, Spies
With this lesson, a collection of primary texts, including diaries, letters, and photographs help young scholars understand how women were affected by the Civil War. Students will explore, through reading a collection of documents, the...
Duke University
Duke University Special Collections Library: Alice Williamson Diary
"Wonder what it would have been like to have been 16 when the Union Army attacked?" Find out from this first hand account. Alice Williamson's diary and some background on her life is given at this site. Hyperlinks to additional information.
Digital History
Digital History: Children and the Civil War
Digital History tells the story of children's lives during the Civil War through their own words. The eight sections are titled: Child Soldiers, Conditions in the Contraband Camps, The Southern Homefront, the Northern Homefront, Near the...
Other
Historical Scene Investigation: Children of the Civil War
Students analyze engaging documents written by children of the Civil War. After studying the documents, they are to complete various tasks as if they were there.
Other
Library of Congress: Civil War Faces
A collection of well over 1,000 photographs of Union and Confederate soldiers from the Civil War, as well as some family members. Each photo is accompanied by a caption. Click on the 'Show more' link at the top of the page for additional...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Civil War, a Nation Divided
A wonderful resource using primary and secondary source materials to explore many facets of the Civil War from the war itself to its impact on the home front. Includes video and text downloads.
Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Historical Society: Surviving War: The Home Front
An online exhibition that looks at what life was like for Virginians under military occupation. Many of them became refugees rather than stay while Union troops invaded their lands, stealing crops, burning fields, and taking over homes.
Other
Teaching and Learning Through Chicago Collections: The Civil War in Art
This website allows us to explore a wide range of images and objects that depict or relate to the war between the Union and the Confederacy-the most deadly war in the history of the United States. Artists tried to depict the war using a...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: A War to End Slavery Webisode 6
A wonderful, interactive site covering many aspects of the Civil War. See photographs, primary sources, and find interesting tidbits about the war. Included are links to lesson plans, teacher guides, resources, activities, and tools.
Other
War Between the States: Life in Brooklyn in the Civil War
This resource provides information on the Civil War and Brookyln's involvement.
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Special Collections: American Civil War Manuscript Guides
A large repository of letters and diaries from both Union and Confederate soldiers, homefront letters, memoirs, and contemporary research files. Includes materials from the war years, 1861-1865, as well as materials from later periods...
The Newberry Library
Newberry Library: Home Front: The Visual Culture of the Civil War North
Lesson using primary resources examines the ways in which images shaped the meaning of the war for people at home and the meaning of the home during wartime.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Women in the Civil War
A collection of primary sources that explore women in the Civil War.
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: Benjamin Butler's New Orleans "Woman's Order"
How did women display their distaste and anger about the Union occupation of New Orleans? Read about how their behavior forced Gen. Butler's to issue orders on how they should be treated. From "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil...
Library of Congress
Loc: Civil War and Reconstruction
This site from the Library of Congress provides overviews of the South and North during the Civil War include soldiers' stories from both sides. There are primary documents on these topics as well as Freedmen and the Reconstruction.
PBS
Civil War: In the Classroom: Civil War Letters [Pdf]
A lesson plan using letters from soldiers and civilians in the Civil War to gain a greater understanding of this time in U.S. history.
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Women During the Civil War
Article that takes a look at the role of women in the South during the American Civil War especially in Georgia.
University of Pittsburgh
Center for American Music Library: Civil War Homefront
A great lesson plan using Stephen Foster's music and lyrics to show what life was like on the homefront during the Civil War.
Kidport
Kidport Reference Library: The Civil War
Here is a summary of the factors that led to the Civil War. You can also link to pages with photos on battles, forts, communication, hospitals, and more.
Other
Pdm: The Music of the American Civil War
A compilation of music from the Civil War era, including patriotic songs, songs of the homefront, as well as battlefield songs. Hear the songs and read the lyrics from "The Civil War Songbook."
Other
Voices and Choices: At Home: In a House Divided
During the Civil War, the first military draft occurs, and Philander King must decide whether to go to war, or do something else in order to provide for his family. Find out what he does, and decide whether or not it was the right...
Other
History Buff: How the South Gathered News During the Civil War
This article explains how Southern newspapers joined forces and established the Press Association as a way to cover the Civil War for these newspapers.
Library of Congress
Loc: Women in the Civil War: Ladies, Contraband and Spies
This instructional activity uses primary sources - diaries, letters, and photographs - to explore the experiences of women in the Civil War. By looking at a series of document galleries, the perspectives of slave women, plantation...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Southern Homefront
Life in the Confederacy during the Civil War was one of shortages. Read about the shortages of food, and the unstable currency which resulted in rampant inflation. Women's roles expanded in many fields. See what occurred when the draft...