A quick post today just to share a resource that I found. I was doing some research for another blog post and came across this great collection of lesson plans related to the Civil War.
The collection is from Fitchburg State College and is called Teaching American History Program : Lesson Plans and Teaching Ideas for Sectionalism, Civil War and Reconstruction
Enjoy!
Posted under Lesson Ideas
This post was written by fifer1863 on July 6, 2010
Thanks to the Wig-Wags Blog for posting this interesting article on The Civil War’s Last Veterans, Wives and Stats to bring us even MORE statistics to ponder. Yippee!!
According to the post, the following table comes from Fact Sheet: America’s Wars by the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs:
Civil War (1861-1865)
Total U.S. Servicemembers (Union)…………..2,213,363
Battle Deaths (Union)………………………………140,414
Other Deaths (In Theater) (Union)………………..224,097
Non-mortal Woundings (Union)…………………..281,881
Total Servicemembers (Conf.) ………..1,050,000
Battle Deaths (Confederate) ………………74,524
Other Deaths (In Theater) (Confed.) (note 3, 4)……59,297
Non-mortal Woundings (Confed.) ……………..Unknown
Discussion questions for your class:
Now let’s add in some additional figures from the same website:
America’s Wars Total
U.S. Military Service During War…………….41,891,368
Battle Deaths………………………………………….651,022
Other Deaths (In Theater)………………………….308,797
Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater)………….230,279
Non-mortal Woundings…………………………..1,431,290
Living War Veterans…………………………….17,484,000
Living Veterans (War & Peacetime)…………23,532,000
Based on this table ask your students:
Don’t you just love math. 
Until next time….
Posted under Lesson Ideas
This post was written by fifer1863 on June 28, 2010
The Gettysburg Cyclorama, officially known as the “Battle of Gettysburg” Cyclorama, is a 360 degree circular painting that depicts Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863. According to the Gettysburg National Military Park, it’s one of the last remaining cycloramas in the United States.
The Gettysburg Cyclorama was created by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux. Starting in 1882, Philippoteaux spent several weeks sketching the battlefield in order to accurately depict the climatic charge. Philippoteaux also had the opportunity to interview several veterans of the battle in order to obtain their thoughts on how the battle transpired.
Over the next 18 months, Philippoteaux and his assistants created the massive work and finally the “Cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg” opened in Chicago in 1883. He then went on to paint a second version to be shown in Boston in 1884 again to tremendous acclaim. This Boston version of the painting would eventually come to reside in Gettysburg in 1913. The National Park Service in Gettysburg purchased the painting and placed it in the visitor in 1962. The Gettysburg Cyclorama is 359 feet long, 27 feet high and weighs an estimated 3 tons.
Currently the Gettysburg Cyclorama is undergoing restoration and will be moved to the new visitor center in 2008.
Thanks to the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation, you can download hi-res TIFF images of the painting and restoration project. These hi-res images allow you to zoom in and see parts of the painting in great detail, including some of the damage and the on-going restoration.
Ideas for the classroom:
These are just a couple of ideas. What ideas do you have for integrating this into your classroom?
Until next time…
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References:
Heiser, J. (2005, Dec). The gettysburg cyclorama. Retrieved July 17, 2007, from Gettysburg National Military Park Web site: http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettcyclo.htm
Posted under Lesson Ideas, Miscellaneous
This post was written by fifer1863 on June 22, 2010
The following is by far one of the best Civil War related websites for educators that I have seen.
MrNussbaums.com’s Civil War Page contains a wealth of activities and resources including:
Let’s take a look at a few of these pages in more detail.
The Interactive Battles Map allows students to click on the name of a battle and it will pop up a brief description of the battle on the right side of the page. The map also shows Union vs. Confederate states, which side won a particular battle and more.
The People of the Civil War page provides some great information on many of the major players of the war including Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Harriet Tubman and Matthew Brady.
The Civil War Activities page includes “reading comprehension exercises, cloze reading exercises, sentence surgeons, word searches, jigsaws, crossword puzzles and much more.”
Be sure to take some time to explore this site and I’m sure you will want to share it with your class.
Until next time…
Posted under Lesson Ideas, Websites
This post was written by fifer1863 on June 5, 2010
As you know, my daughter has her Civil War Sallie project that is traveling around teaching and learning about the Civil War. Well, my son CJ has created his own project named Patriot Pete. As the newest member of the Follow Me Project family, Patriot Pete was created to get kids to learn more about how we as Americans show our patriotism and support our armed forces while teaching about using technology.
Pete is traveling around looking for classrooms, famous American landmarks, military bases, and other places around the country that are important to our history. He would love to come visit you in order to learn more about patriotism while sharing his experiences on his blog and Flickr page.
Please go and check out Pete’s home page and if you teach about some aspect of patriotism, live or work on or near a famous American landmark, military base or museum I hope you can sign up to have Pete come visit you.
Posted under Lesson Ideas, Miscellaneous, Websites
This post was written by cwptedu on March 31, 2010
