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Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teachers: Women in the Civil War: Ladies, Contraband, Spies

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
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Primary
Duke University

Duke University Special Collections Library: Alice Williamson Diary

For Students 9th - 10th
"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.
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Unit Plan
Digital History

Digital History: Children and the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Activity
Other

Historical Scene Investigation: Children of the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
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Primary
Other

Library of Congress: Civil War Faces

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Civil War, a Nation Divided

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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.
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Website
Virginia Historical Society

Virginia Historical Society: Surviving War: The Home Front

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
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Unit Plan
Other

Teaching and Learning Through Chicago Collections: The Civil War in Art

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Unit Plan
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: A War to End Slavery Webisode 6

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
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Website
Other

War Between the States: Life in Brooklyn in the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides information on the Civil War and Brookyln's involvement.
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Primary
Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech: Special Collections: American Civil War Manuscript Guides

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Unit Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry Library: Home Front: The Visual Culture of the Civil War North

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
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Primary
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Women in the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of primary sources that explore women in the Civil War.
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Handout
Civil War Home

Home of the American Civil War: Benjamin Butler's New Orleans "Woman's Order"

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: Civil War and Reconstruction

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Civil War: In the Classroom: Civil War Letters [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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.
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Handout
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.

New Georgia Encyclopedia: Women During the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
Article that takes a look at the role of women in the South during the American Civil War especially in Georgia.
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Lesson Plan
University of Pittsburgh

Center for American Music Library: Civil War Homefront

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
A great lesson plan using Stephen Foster's music and lyrics to show what life was like on the homefront during the Civil War.
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Website
Kidport

Kidport Reference Library: The Civil War

For Students 3rd - 5th
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.
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Website
Other

Pdm: The Music of the American Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
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."
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Unit Plan
Other

Voices and Choices: At Home: In a House Divided

For Students 3rd - 8th
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...
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Handout
Other

History Buff: How the South Gathered News During the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
This article explains how Southern newspapers joined forces and established the Press Association as a way to cover the Civil War for these newspapers.
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Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Women in the Civil War: Ladies, Contraband and Spies

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Southern Homefront

For Students 5th - 8th
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...