American Civil War: 14 to 18 years
Websites
American Civil War Encyclopaedia A comprehensive encyclopaedia of the American Civil War. Each entry contains a narrative, illustrations and primary sources. The text within each entry is hypertexted to other relevant pages in the encyclopedia. In this way it is possible to research individual people and events in great detail. The sources are also hypertexted so the student is able to find out about the writer, artist, newspaper, organization, etc., that produced the material. So far there are sections on: Civil War Chronology, Famous Battles, Political Figures, Military Leaders. Organizations, Events and Issues, Soldiers, Women & the Civil War, Writers, Artists and Photographers:, Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
American Civil War: Dr. George H. Hoemann, assistant director for distance education and independent study at the University of Tennessee, has gathered together in one place hypertext links to the most useful identified electronic files about the American Civil War. The page opens a gateway to the Internet's multi-formatted resources about what is arguably the seminal event in American history. Not only was the War the occasion for the abolition of slavery, but by conflict's end the re-United States had emerged as a modern, industrialized power. The material is organised under the following headings: General Resources, Secession Crisis, Images of Wartime, Biographical Information, Histories and Bibliographies, Documentary Records, Local Studies, Battles & Campaigns, Rosters & Regimental Histories, Civil War Reenactors and Civil War Round Tables.
Abraham Lincoln's Assassination This excellent website provides a detailed account of Lincoln's assassination. Sections include Lincoln's Assassin, Eyewitness to History, Conspiracy Theories, The Military Commission and Picture Gallery. Produced by Roger Norton, a teacher of American history for 28 years, the website also includes a generous collection of links to other sources of information on this important event.
Civil War Photographs: The Civil War Photographs Collection contains 1,118 photographs. The photographs are by people such as Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, James Gardner, William Pywell, and George Barnard and include scenes of military personnel, preparations for battle and battle after-effects. The collection also includes portraits of both Confederate and Union officers, and a selection of enlisted men.
US Civil War Factbook: This website produced by Marcus Wendel includes a chronology of the US Civil War, as well as information on casualties, generals killed in battle, alternate names of the war, Confederate States of America, reviews of books on the topic and a message forum for discussions on the war.
Abraham Lincoln Online: This website contains everything you will ever want to know about Abraham Lincoln. Sections include News, Speeches, Books, Places, Resources, Students, Discussion and Frequently Asked Questions. An interesting feature is This Week in History that provides information about Lincoln's life in the week you view the website. There is also a Lincoln Quote of the Week.
American Experience: Ulysses S. Grant: The greatest hero of the Civil War, Grant was an ineffective president whose two terms in office were rocked by racial conflict and corruption scandals. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ulysses S. Grant website features activities for children of all ages. You can use maps, video clips, and text to determine your moves in "You're the General," an interactive game. You can also take a video tour of the Shiloh battlefield with a National Park Service ranger and a group of eighth graders from Michie, Tennessee.
American Civil War: This comprehensive account of the American Civil War is produced by Premier Internet. Sections include Timeline (9th February, 1861 to 4th May, 1865), Battles (chronological list), Documents (government papers, diaries, letters) Places (battlefields, cemeteries, forts, historic parks, monuments, museums), Music (recordings of civil war music), Discussion Forum and Links.
American Civil War Women: Ginny Daley has produced a directory website on the lives and experiences of women during the American Civil War. This includes diaries, letters, documents, photographs and prints and features the writings of Alice Williamson, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Rachael Cormany, Carrie Berry, Catharine Hunsecker, Alansa Rounds Sterrett and Nancy Emerson.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as America's 16th President just before the Civil War began. His life was ended by an assassin's bullet five days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered. This website, produced by Carole Bos, provides a clear account of the story. Chapter titles include: Assassination Plots, Warnings and Omens, Dreams of Death, To Kidnap a President, The Worst, Where were the Bodyguards?, No Hope, A Foiled Plot, Multiple Funerals, Booth's Capture and Death, Conspiracy Trial, Execution, Rest of the Story and the Last Word.
Andersonville: During the early stages of the American Civil War the federal government refused to negotiate the exchange of prisoners as it did not recognize the Confederacy as a nation. In July, 1862, General John Dix of the Union Army and General D. H. Hill met and agreed an exchange. They decided that the rate of exchange was one general for every 60 enlisted men, a colonel for 15, a lieutenant for 4 and a sergeant for 2. When Ulysses S. Grant became overall commander of the Union Army he brought an end to exchanges. Grant's decision resulted in a rapid increase in the number of prisoners and so it was decided to build Andersonville Prison in Georgia. It was to be the Confederate's largest prison for captured soldiers. By August, 1864, there were 32,000 Union Army prisoners in Andersonville. The Confederate authorities did not provide enough food for the prison and of the 49,485 prisoners who entered the camp, nearly 13,000 died from disease and malnutrition. This website provides an overview of the tragedy and includes several first-hand accounts of life in Andersonville.
Civil War Surgical Antiques: The heyday of American-made surgical instruments was from the 1840's to the 1890's and centered in the New York and Philadelphia areas. Prior to that time, most surgical instruments were made in Europe and imported to this country. Pre-1870 instruments were typically presented and sold in wood cases which were lined with velvet or a similar material. 1870 is when sterilization began and cased sets changed drastically afterwards to allow for sterilization of the various parts of the instruments. After 1880, the handles of the instruments were in general no longer made of ivory, wood, or other porous materials that could not stand chemical and heat treatments, thus the trend to use all metal instruments after that point. This website displayed are examples of amputation and surgical sets by some of the most famous American makers of the time. Of particular interest are those used in the Civil War.
American Civil War: The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict ever fought in America, resulting in 600,000 deaths through battlefield casualties, disease and exposure. In just two day's combat at Shiloh in April 1862, more men fell than in every previous American war combined. Other great battles - the Seven Days, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, the Crater and Franklin to name but a few - all exacted a terrible price in death and human misery. The conflict was a tragedy because like in our own civil war 240 years before, brother fought brother and father fought son. Britain and France came close to entering the conflict on the side of the Confederacy. However, astute diplomacy by the North combined with the South's obstinate refusal to abolish slavery – an institution loathed by Britain and banned within the empire for many years – ultimately sealed the doom of the fledgling Confederate States, outnumbered, outgunned and out produced by the industrial North.
Major Sullivan Ballou: People world wide are touched by the tenderness that reaches out across 150 years in the farewell love letter that Major Sullivan Ballou wrote to his wife during the American Civil War. Major Ballou was a volunteer soldier who served in the Second Rhode Island Regiment of the Union Army. Prior to the war he was an attorney and a rising politician in his native state, a doting father to two young sons and a husband in love with his young wife. On duty near Washington D.C., he had a premonition that he would not survive the next battle. He wrote his family how much he loved them and promised to look after them from the afterlife, where he hoped to be reunited with them one day. He was mortally wounded in that battle and died a week later, never seeing them again. The website tells some of their story.
Civil War Zone: This website is organized under the following headings: Battle Orders (a collection of notable battles and campaigns fought during the Civil War), Biographies (brief biographies of the most distinguished generals of the Civil War), Chronology (a compilation of various noteworthy historical events listed in a day by day format), Documents (a collection of famous writings and speeches including such documents as the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation) and Songs (lyrics from songs from Union and Confederate Camps).
Shermans March: Final Revenge: They say that history is written by the victors. This is one small, yet significant, piece of America's Civil War history that the victors would have preferred not to have been told. It is not a story of glorious battles and thousands of dead and wounded on bloody fields of valor. It is the story of how in times of war horrendous and militarily unjustified things can happen to defenseless civilians and private property. February 17, 1865, is singularly the most important day in the history of South Carolina and Columbia, the states capital. The first hand accounts of soldiers and civilians, who were part of this tragedy, paint a clear picture of events and motivations unfettered by historical interpretation and explanations.
Civil War in Miniature: A collection of quizzes on the American Civil War. Subjects covered include Battles and Strategies, Cavalry, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, Southern Confederacy, General James Longstreet, General Lee's Lieutenants, Tough Men and Tough Women, Person, Place or Things. The website also contains a good chronology, information on the contribution made by individual states and an excellent section on Civil War terms.
Letters Home: These letters are part of a collection written by Newton Robert Scott of the 36th Infantry, Iowa Volunteers. Most of the letters were written to Scott's neighbourhood friend Hannah Cone, in their home town of Albia, Monroe County, Iowa, over the three year period that he served as Company A's clerk. Scott's letters to Hannah are filled with rich details of the war and the living conditions in the Union camps in Mississippi, Missouri, Iowa and Arkansas.
Abraham Lincoln Papers: The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents. The collection is organized into three "General Correspondence" series which include incoming and outgoing correspondence and enclosures, drafts of speeches, and notes and printed material. Most of the 20,000 items are from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. Treasures include Lincoln's draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, his March 4, 1865, draft of his second Inaugural Address, and his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest. The Lincoln Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln's Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president.
Civil War Photographs: Over 1,000 Civil War Images, Photographs and Cartes de Visites including Army Life, United States and Confederate Government Officers, Union and Confederate Generals and Soldiers, Civilians, Battle Field Photos, Casualties, Infantry Units, Cavalry Units, Artillery Units, Engineering Units, Navy Units and Vessels, Prisoners, Hospitals and Doctors, Factories, Quartermaster and Lincoln Assassination Conspirators.
Robert E. Lee Historical Preservation Site: Robert E. Lee is one of the most interesting characters of American history. He opposed the Civil War, yet was offered command of the Union and the Confederate armies. He opposed slavery, but ended up commanding the Confederate army. History will remember him as one of the worlds most significant military figures, yet he spent the last years of his life as an educator, turning down lucrative business opportunities resulting from his notoriety. Robert E. Lee personified the ideals of Duty, Honor, and Country, yet was a pivotal figure in a war that almost destroyed the Nation.
Calvin Shedd and the American Civil War: Calvin Shedd, a carpenter from New Hampshire, enlisted in the Seventh Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers and served the Union Army during the Civil War from 1862 - 1863. During this period Shedd wrote 53 letters to his wife and three young daughters about military life in Key West, Fort Jefferson and St. Augustine, Florida. These documents convey the extraordinary circumstances that life in the Union Army offered one New Hampshire solider during the early years of the Civil War. The website includes a biography of Shedd and photographs of people mentioned in the text.
Educational Websites
Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Virtual Library,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Learn History, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, Teach It, Science Active, Geography IST, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Universal Teacher, English Teaching, English Online, History Learning Site,
History on the Net, Black History, Greenfield History, School History, HistoryWorld, I Love History,
E-HELP, Ed Podesta Blog, Macgregorish History, Historiasiglo20, Sintermeerten, ICT4LT |
News and Search
Guardian Unlimited, Times Online, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times,
Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, New Scientist, Google News, Channel 4, ZDNet,
Google, Excite, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AOL Search, Hotbot, Metacrawler, Netscape, Ask, Search,
Go, Looksmart, Dogpile, Raging Search, All the Web, Kartoo, Search Engine Watch, About
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