Teaching the Civil War with Technology

The above illustration by Thomas Nast is entitled “Christmas Eve, 1862″ and is from an 1862 issue of Harper’s Weekly.  On the right side of the illustration is a Civil War soldier on duty sitting next to a fire on a cold night.  In addition to holding his musket, he is holding a photo of his family.  Behind him are other soldiers sitting next to a tree and standing guard.  On the left side is his wife, kneeling in prayer with their children “nestled all snug in their beds.”

Look closely in the upper left portion of the illustration and you can see Santa (complete with reindeer) getting ready to head down the chimney.  In the upper right Santa is delivering presents to soldiers in the field.  All the while, the Civil War is raging below them in the form of both a land and a sea battle.  And in between, the hardships of war, graves of fallen soldiers.

So, on this Christmas Eve, let us pause to remember those families who have loved ones serving in our military and pray for their safe return home.

Merry Christmas.

Posted under Primary Sources

Civil War infantry soldiers, Union and Confederate, carried what was known as a musket. These muskets came in numerous varieties and flavors, however for the purpose of this post, we will discuss only the more common models.

1861 percussion rifle-musket

The Model 1861 Springfield Musket was the standard and most widely used rifle-musket of the Civil war. The musket was manufactured by the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts at a cost of approximately $18 as well as a number of other private contractors. It is estimated that approximately 1 million of these muskets were made during the Civil War.

The Model 1861 was quite accurate featured a rifled bore, parts that could be interchanged and percussion cap ignition system The musket weighed about 9lbs and was 58″ in length and fired a .58 caliber lead minie ball.

Enfield rifle

In order to meet the demands of suppling the armies with weapons, both Union and Confederate governments imported large quantities of weapons from England. The most common was the British Model 1853 Enfield rifle-musket which was similar to the Model 1861 Springfield in that it weighed about 9lbs, and fired a .577 caliber minie ball. This musket was said to be accurate at 1,000 yards. There were approximately 400,000 of these weapons used by both sides during the course of the war although they were more common in the South.

An important factor in selecting the Enfield was that the .58 caliber bullet used in the Springfield model by both Union and Confederate forces was interchangeable with the .577 Enfield.

The lead minie ball

The standard bullet used during the Civil War for both the North and South was the minie ball. French army Captain Claude Minie created this conical shaped lead bullet that had a hollowed out bottom in 1848. The bottom was hollow because after the bullet was rammed into the bore of the musket, it packed better into the powder charge and once fired, the bottom would expand into the grooves of the barrel (rifling). This process caused the bullet to spin as it traveled down the barrel thus making it more accurate. Think of it like a quarterback throwing a football. A quarterback puts a spin on the football in order to make it fly farther and more accurately. These bullets could travel a half-mile or more, and the average soldier could hit a target at 300 yards.

Neither side anticipated the impact that the minie ball would have on the battlefield. The minie-ball forced commanders to fight defensive battles rather than traditional frontal assaults. Since the bullet was made from soft lead, when it entered the body and struck a bone, it would flatten out and shatter the bone thus inflicting more damage. There are even reports from Gettysburg of trees dying from lead poisoning from being shot so many times.

The Civil War Preservation Trust has a nice table on its page that shows the differences in accuracy from smoothbore muskets to rifled-muskets.

The average Civil War Solder could load and fire his musket 3 times per minute (in 9 distinct steps). If the soldier were to fire non stop for 30 minutes, how many shots would he have fired? What about a company of 100 men? Or a regiment of about 750 men?

Check out this photo of how two bullets hit each other in midair on the Civil War Photos blog.

Until next time…

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References:

Minie ball photo credit: http://www.relicman.com/images/MM357.jpg

http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarweapons.htm

http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/soldierlife/webguns.htm

Woodhead, Henry, ed., Echoes of Glory: Arms And Equipment Of The Union and Echoes of Glory: Arms And Equipment Of The Confederacy. Morristown, N.J.: Time-Life Publishers, 1991

Posted under Primary Sources

In this season of elections, I thought it would be interesting to share a website on Civil War era elections.

Harper’s Weekly has created a website for researching historical elections from 1860 to 1912. According to the website, the Presidential Elections page features political cartoons from several different digital resource centers such as Harper’s Weekly, the Library of Congress and Vanity Fair. The website also “provides explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era’s major issues, and other valuable information.”

Let’s take a moment to explore the 1860 election between Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell. First, each election contains four sections: Overview, Cartoons, Biographies and Events. From here you can learn about the events leading up to to the 1860 election, how the Democratic party split, the Union Constitution Convention, the Republican Convention and the Campaign.

One of the greatest part of this site for teachers are the political cartoons. Let’s look at one and see how you can use it in your classroom.

The above image shows Abe Lincoln as a rail-splitter and is intended to appeal to the average voter. Before giving your students the full description of the cartoon, ask them to tell you what they see, what do they think is going on in the cartoon, what does the little child represent and why are the words “Democratic Party” listed on the rail?

You can then follow up by reading them the complete description: “In order to appeal to average voters, Republicans emphasized the poor, hardworking origin of their candidate through the myth of Abraham Lincoln as a rail-splitter. This cartoon in the Wide-Awake Pictorial plays on that image by joking that the last rail he split is th Democratic Party in 1860, which divided into the Northern and Southern Factions.”

Then, have your students think about presidential campaign ads or commercials they have seen recently. Do any of those ads try to appeal to the average voter by making the candidate look like every hardworking American? I think so and can name a few but let me know what your students come up with as you review these cartoons.

Until next time….

Posted under Lesson Ideas, Primary Sources, Websites

Since I have posted on The Gettysburg Address in the past, I thought I would share this USA Today headline article about a “new” image of Abe Lincoln at Gettysburg being found at the Library of Congress.

The story discusses how an amateur historian was looking at photographs of the famous Gettysburg Address and found Lincoln in his famous top hat riding a horse to the speaker’s stand.

You can read the entire article HERE.

Here is a close up of the photo from the article showing what appears to be Lincoln

Photo from USA Today.

I have posted before about using photographs in your classroom. The historian in the article had researched the events around the Gettysburg Address and was simply looking at photographs and made a terrific discovery. You and your students can do the same thing in your classroom. Who knows, you may be the one to find the next photo of Lincoln or other famous Civil War figure.

Researchers advocate instructional approaches that engage students in the processes of doing history (Friedman, 2005). This process includes building historical knowledge through the use of primary sources, conducting historical inquiry, and encouraging students to think historically. As part of this process, students must be active learners, by seeking answers rather than waiting for them when engaging in the analysis of primary sources. The reason for this is that the process of engaging in historical thinking is more than simply absorbing information; instead it requires seeking out answers to questions (Friedman, 2005). While viewing a primary source, students will examine the historical document and then construct a narrative based on that document. Through the process of constructing this narrative, students have begun to develop inquiry skills that they will be able to use throughout their life (Wineburg, 2001). According to VanSledright (2002), children as young as seven and eight years old are capable of thinking historically.

Good luck and have fun exploring those photos.

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References:

Friedman, A. (2005, May). Using digital primary sources to teach world history and world geography: Practices, promises, and provisions. Journal for the Association of History and Computing, 8, Retrieved October 2005, from http://mcel.pacificu.edu/jahc/JAHCVIII1/articles/friedman.htm#037

VanSledright, B. (2002). In search of America’s past. New York, NY: Teacher’s College Press

Wineburg, S. (2001). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Posted under Famous People, Primary Sources

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (also on Twitter @phmc) launched a new website dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the role Pennsylvania played in that war.  In addition to the new website, the commission also announced that there will be a Pennsylvania Civil War Road Show.  According to a press release, the Road Show will be “a traveling museum experience based in a 53-foot tractor trailer that will bring interactive exhibits and unique programming to all 67 counties in the state from 2011 to 2015.”

According to Barbara Franco, the Executive Director for the PHMC, “The Pennsylvania Civil War 150 commemoration is far more than a formal remembrance. It is a collection of stories brought to life that are as epic as the fields at Gettysburg or as small as the struggles of a soldier’s wife working to survive her husband’s absence on a Pennsylvania farm. Through these stories, Pennsylvania Civil War 150 will renew interest and engagement in our state’s heritage.”

The new (and very interactive ) website is packed with information for you and your students to learn about Pennsylvania’s role in the Civil War.  They have broken the website into four distinct sections:  Understanding, The War, Through People and Then and Now.

Under the section on Understanding, the website provides some excellent information related to understanding the cause and events leading up the the Civil War.  The TIMELINE section shows events beginning in 1780 with PA Abolishing Slavery up to 1877 (Compromise of 1877).  This section also provides pictures and a narrative of various primary sources related to a particular year.  The Understanding section also provides information on Pennsylvania’s Role, the Home Front, Slavery, and the Role of Religion.

Within the WAR section of the website, visitors can learn about Battlefields and Tactics along with the Weaponry and Uniforms of Civil War soldiers.

The THROUGH PEOPLE section of the website contains some outstanding stories from Pennsylvanians on how they experienced the Civil War.  There are stories of Children, prominent politicians like Governor Curtain, and stories of women and other civilians.  This section has some great photographs of the individuals that can easily be used to start a classroom conversation.

The Then and Now section provides some brief snapshots into how various things such as Industry & Commerce, Government and Politics and Media and Communications (check out the photo).

In addition to all of the stories, photographs, bibliographic references and primary sources, the website offers ways for you and your students to participate in the discussion and to share your stories.  You can also Experience the Civil War through an an interactive map along with a great collection of artifacts.  These resources provide more great opportunities for teachers and students to explore and discuss.

Finally, there is a terrific section dedicated to resources for Teachers.  This section provides some great links to resources and lessons for teaching the Civil War which are aligned to the Pa State History Standards.

Check out the full PRESS RELEASE

So, take some time and explore this great new resource.  There is more to come with this website so be sure to check back often for new resources.

Posted under Lesson Ideas, Primary Sources, Websites