Nebraska’s PBS Station presents a series of short videos aimed at helping students understand the basic concepts of local and national government. From the unique Nebraska Unicameral, to the branches of Federal government, to the process of how an idea becomes a law through the legislative process, Civics 101 is a video collection produced to remind viewers how our government foundations came to be and how they continue to shape the operation of local and national government.

Explore a gallery of Civil War artillery, ordnance, and military supplies. The Civil War was fought in 10,000 locations across the United States. More than three million men fought in battle, and more than 600,000 lost their lives to injuries and disease.

Explore a gallery of images of drum corps and bands of the Civil War era. Regimental bands consisted mostly of brass and percussion instruments. They served an important purpose during the Civil War by playing at recruitment rallies, boosting morale among soldiers, and playing songs that weary soldiers would march to as they prepared for battle.

Explore images of the battlefield of Antietam. On September 17, 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Maj. General George McClellan faced off in a battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War, with 22,720 men killed, wounded, or missing after 12 hours of fighting. The battle was considered a draw from a military perspective, but the Union declared victory. On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves in the south were free.

Explore images of the city, Confederate defenses, and ruins from the battle that took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The City of Atlanta fell to Union forces, commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman, in July of 1864. The fall of Atlanta was a blow to the Confederate Army and a critical victory for the North and Abraham Lincoln, who used the momentum of the win to fuel his reelection campaign.

Explore images taken in Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War. The first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, on April 12, 1861. Many battles took place in South Carolina during the war, but Charleston suffered particularly, when the Union Army, under commander General William T. Sherman, passed through on its March to the Sea.

View images of the battle of Fort Sumter and ruins of the Fort, which Confederate forces took. The Battle of Fort Sumter took place on April 12, 1861, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Fort Sumter is considered to be the site of the first shots fired during the war. After Abraham Lincoln was elected to the presidency, southern states attempted to secede from the Union in protest over what they saw as a threat to states’ rights, particularly in the opposition the new president and northern states had to slavery.

Explore images of the fallen city of Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. General Ulysses S. Grant tried unsuccessfully to capture Richmond for nearly a year before he took the city on April 2, 1865. The battle would be a crippling defeat for the South, and led to Robert E. Lee's surrender to Grant one week later on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.

The Civil War (1861-1865) is America’s bloodiest war to date. It cost close to 1,100,000 casualties and claimed over 620,000 lives. These lesson plans and videos are based on History Detectives episodes that examine a variety of artifacts—a weapon, an early photograph, a letter, a piece of pottery—highlighting African-American involvement in the Civil War. They offer students opportunities to research and create paper or interactive biographical posters, delve into the intersection of military and social history, and survey slave art and culture.

Explore images taken from Civil War-era hospitals. The sheer number of wounded and ill soldiers tested the medical community during the Civil War and challenged doctors and nurses to find ways to treat the thousands of injured, sick, and maimed. Homes, churches, and any viable structure near battlefields would be converted into field hospitals. Many soldiers died of diseases during the war, such as dysentery, pneumonia, typhoid and more. Hospitals began to assess and separate the injured into categories, from mortally wounded to treatable and needing surgery. This form of triage is still used today.

View a gallery of images of Confederate and Union Army regiments, troops, and infantry from Pennsylvania to Georgia, Virginia to Massachusetts. From 1861-1865, more than three million men fought in the American Civil War, and over 600,000 lost their lives in battle.

Learn how journalists reported on slavery and military conflict during the Civil War. We'll look at six primary sources from the Civil War and explore the techniques journalists on both sides used to spread the news and their opinions: What role did cartoons and photography play in swaying public sentiment? Who got to report on the news and how did their perspective affect their reporting?

In this lesson, students will use one of the major tools of a historian: personal letters. These primary source materials provide firsthand evidence of events and information on the perspective, cognition, values, and attitudes of the person writing the letter. Students will read several letters from individuals who lived during the Civil War and analyze their content. Furthermore, students will formulate a character description of someone who lived during the Civil War and, in pairs of letter-writing correspondents, write one another letters concerning a major event during the war.

Examine how the horrors of the Civil War battlefield forced medicine in America to evolve from a crude practice to a profession grounded in science, in these videos from Mercy Street and The Good Stuff: Time Capsule. Utilizing video and discussion questions, students learn about how medical innovations like the triage system, limb amputations, and general hospitals saved thousands of lives, changed Americans’ expectations regarding healthcare and laid the groundwork for later scientific discoveries of the 19th century. For more resources from Mercy Street, check out the collection page.

This activity shows students how both in the North and in the South, music was used extensively during the Civil War to rally troops and the public. Different versions of familiar songs, in which both sides borrowed each other’s tunes or lyrics, are presented. It was not uncommon for each side to serenade the other, or for battle to stop while an impromptu concert was held. Singing an “altered rendition” of one side’s favorite song was often done to poke fun at the enemy. Students will examine lyrics of “Battle Cry of Freedom” and “Dixie” with versions from both sides, and make conclusions about the lyrics. Student questions provided here can be used for general class discussion or individual assessment. Answers to the questions are included.

This inquiry kit features Library of Congress sources, including songs and photographs, focusing on the music of the American Civil War.

Women played a significant role in the Civil War. They served in a variety of capacities, as trained professional nurses giving direct medical care, as hospital administrators or as attendants offering comfort. Although the exact number is not known, between 5,000 and 10,000 women offered their services. For more resources from Mercy Street, check out the collection page.

Winter, 1865: the final stages of General Sherman’s bloody march through the south. On February 17th, the capital city of Columbia, South Carolina lies squarely in the General’s crosshairs. In a last-ditch effort to protect the vital railroad hub and the thousands of terrified refugees packing city streets, Confederate soldiers destroy the remaining bridge over the Broad River. The reprieve is temporary. In less than 12 hours Sherman’s men will cross the river and bring destruction to the birthplace of the Secessionist south. Nearly a century and a half after these dramatic events, David Brinkman of Columbia, South Carolina, believes a long-standing marker commemorating this history has missed the mark. History Detectives host Elyse Luray goes to Columbia to examine the evidence and see if this discovery will redraw the maps of the Civil War.

The steamship Sultana exploded without warning one night in 1865, killing 1,800 people. Was the disaster a result of Civil War sabotage? For additional background and information use the History Detectives Evaluating Abraham Lincoln lesson plan.

How do we remember the Civil War? Whose stories are told in the art and memorials from and about the time period? In this resource students will examine works of art from and relating to the Civil War era. Students will also learn about the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts, an all-Black regiment, and compose a written response to a cause they are passionate about.