This set of lesson plans usages the American Battlefield Trust to evaluate the American Civil War from the beginning to reconstruction

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.

This 3 min video examines some of the technological advancements and how they were used by both sides, until the Union was able to gain the upper hand.

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?

This is a collection of short videos and biographies on Union and Confederate leaders during the Civil War.

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.

In this lesson students analyze a single photograph from the Library of Congress collection Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints. Using the skills developed, students then find and analyze other images. Conclusions reached will allow students develop links between the Civil War and American industrialization.

This lesson plan has students look at the photos produced during the civil war and make inferences based on what they can see.

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.

This lesson plan outlines a way that students can have a mock Constitutional convention. They will read and discuss the four plans of government proposed at the convention and discuss the points that were compromised to create the U.S. Constitution.

Students will be able to analyze various primary sources, identify key elements of those sources, and make a reasonable claim based on their analysis of the sources. Students will be able to create an evidence-based argument, based on primary sources that interpret George Washington’s views of Native American tribes and the land they occupied.

In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills in U.S. history, students watch video dramatizations that tell the story of the Spanish explorers who arrived in the Americas with Columbus and introduced European, African, and Asian plants and animals to the Western Hemisphere. Students explore how the Columbian Exchange impacted life on both sides of the Atlantic. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and engagement activities.