Teaching the Civil War with Technology

Posted under Miscellaneous, Websites

Clara Barton is one of the most famous women in American history. So while in 4th grade, it came time for my daughter to do a report on a famous person from history, she chose Clara. What was even more fun was that she wanted to do a slide show of pictures about Clara as she gave her oral report. So, she searched the web for pictures and information about Clara and then I showed her how to load them into iPhoto and how to make a slide show. It was a lot of fun working on this with her and we both learned a good bit about Clara and iPhoto, Garageband and iTunes.

So, I thought I would take her oral report and share some of it in a blog post, along with some of the photos, information and links about Clara that Sarah found.

Clara was born in 1821 in New Oxford, Massachusetts. My parents are Sarah Stone Barton and Capt. Stephen Barton. I have two brothers named David and Stephen and two sisters named Sarah and Dorothy (or Dolly).

This is a picture of the home where Clara was born.

Growing up Clara was a shy girl and enjoyed riding her horse. One day when David was out working on the barn roof he fell and broke his arm. The doctor told Clara that he may die, but she made a wish that he would not and cared for him for several weeks and her wish came true.

Clara’s brother and sister grew up to become teachers. In 1850, Clara became a teacher in this one-room schoolhouse. She earned praise when she refused to physically punish students. Clara liked to think that she left a mark on each school in which she taught, organizing the classroom and drafting lesson plans.

In 1861 when the civil war began I followed the troops taking care of the wounded soldiers. Clara and other women would care for the wounded soldiers by giving them food, bandaging their injuries and writing letters for them to their families.

During the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, Clara saw many wounded and dying soldiers everywhere she walked. They were in barns, in cornfields and even in the Dunker Church. These pictures show some of the wounded soldiers from the Battle of Antietam that she nursed back to health.

Although it is widely believed that Clara was set up on the Joseph Poffenberger farm on the north end of the battlefield, according to Ranger Mannie Clara was actually at the Samuel Poffenberger farm, a little more to the east. This is a modern photograph of the Samuel Poffenberger farmhouse, which is where she stayed for a week or so.

There is a monument at the Antietam National Battlefield to Clara that says:

Beginning in 1870, Clara spent 10 years organizing the American National Red Cross, which was officially incorporated in 1882. Under my leadership the Red Cross assisted with relief efforts following disasters like floods, forest fires, and earthquakes.

Thanks to Ranger Mannie from Antietam National Battlefield, Ranger Smith from Gettysburg Battlefield and Mr. Joe Korber of the 119th New York Field Music and The Sykes Regulars for information on Clara, photos and music for this presentation.

So, that was the bulk of her report. A few points to consider: 1) Sarah’s school has very little in terms of technology so it was great for her to show the other kids, 2) This provided me a change to help Sarah learn how to research a topic on the Internet, 3) I made sure that she asked permission to use photos and music for her presentation that were not in the public domain and 4) her class got to see a great presentation using technology.

A few more quick photos.
This is Sarah at the Clara Barton monument

and

Here is Sarah, holding her Junior Ranger certificate and badge, with Ranger Mannie.

Additional photos and information about Clara are available on the web at these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Barton
http://www.civilwarhome.com/bartonbio.htm
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm072.html
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/27barton/27barton.htm
http://www.clarabarton.org/

Updated from the old blog:  Check out Sarah’s new project Civil War Sallie who recently visited the Clara Barton home and wrote a two-part blog post on her visit.  Check out Part 1 and Part 2

Posted under Famous People, Primary Sources

I have to admit right up front that I am not a big user of YouTube.   I have viewed some clips that people have sent me but I’m not a regular user. That being said, someone sent me a link the other evening to a video of a Civil War Fife & Drum group playing and I thought, “hmm, how can this be used in the classroom”?

So, I started doing some searches on YouTube for Civil War related videos and came up with some interesting results that I thought I would share. These videos are a unique way to show clips of various topics on the Civil War to your classes that may otherwise be inaccessible. The following is a list of a few videos and how you may want to integrate them into your classroom.

Fife and Drum: Here is a nice video of the Excelsior Brigade Fifes & Drums playing a medley of several tunes. This video provides a pretty good view of the corp playing. Take notice of the drummers and ask your students if any of them are drummers in a band. There are four snare drums and a bass drum. How about those fifers? Loud and clear over top of the drums and there are only two of them.

Antietam: The following videos were created by a park ranger from the Antietam National Battlefield. This ranger also has a blog entitled My Year of Living Rangerously which I really enjoy reading. The first video is from the 2006 Antitem Artillery Weekend and it shows pictures and video clips of how cannons are loaded and fired. The next video shows the 27th Virginia, a Civil War reenacting group, demonstrating how soldiers would load and fire their muskets as a unit.

Gettysburg: Simply doing a search in YouTube for the word Gettysburg yields pages and pages of videos. These videos range from school projects to vacation videos. There are several that show brief tours of the battlefield or are slide shows of the monuments. I found a few with clips from different movies including Gettysburg, ones of ghost tours and one of a GNMP tour guide.

My favorite is from the 2006 Remembrance Day ceremonies in Gettysburg. This video shows a great representation of the different types of uniforms that both Union and Confederate soldiers would have worn.  There are several fife and drum groups shown (including members of Camp Chase Fifes and Drums around the 5min mark) and even a brass band. Best of all is starting at about 5:25 of the movie you can hear a great fife and drum group playing the tune Garry Owen. That group is made up of fifers and drummers from reenactors including yours truly.

As a follow up to this, there is a video of the Gettysburg Address from the ceremony as well.

So, as you can see, there are many videos out on YouTube for viewing. Try some different searches for different battlefields and see what you can come up with to share with your students.  Hopefully it’s not blocked by your school filter.

Until next time…

Posted under Lesson Ideas, Videos

I had to write a short story for my literature class so I decided to write about Clara Barton at the Battle of Antietam.  Hope you enjoy reading my story.

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It was September 17, 1862 and in the small town of Sharpsburg, Maryland a major battle of the Civil War was taking place.  Soldiers on both sides were being killed and wounded by the thousands.  The surgeons were running around trying to help, but they were quickly running out of supplies.  The lead surgeon for the Union, Dr. Mannie, was getting desperate for supplies and people to help with the wounded.  The wagons with his much needed supplies were mile away from the battlefield.  He was so desperate that he was actually bandaging wounded soldiers with cornhusks from the nearby cornfield. Dr. Mannie did not know what to do to help the wounded.  He sent word to General McClellan who was the commander of the Union troops.

Dr. Mannie said, “I do not have enough supplies to care for the wounded.  Please help.”

But General McClellen was busy directing his troops in the battle and told the doctor that he would have to find his own solution.  Dr. Mannie ordered some of the medical soldiers to go to farmhouses and in town to obtain bandages and any medical supplies they could find. Around midday, a young woman arrived on the battlefield to help Dr. Mannie.  Her name was Clara Barton, and she brought with her a wagon filled with bandages and other medical supplies.  Clara had spent several days traveling with her wagon full of supplies and even passed the army’s wagons and reached the battlefield ahead of the army’s wagons.  Dr. Mannie quickly set out to give these much needed supplies

When the supplies had been handed out, Clara asked Dr. Mannie, “How can I help?”

Dr. Mannie had not heard of a woman helping on a battlefield but he was thankful for any help.  Dr. Mannie said, “You can help bandage and give water to the wounded.”

Clara quickly went to work, and as the artillery blasted and bullets flew all around her, Clara brought food and water to wounded soldiers.  Many of the men were so weak they could not hold up their head, so Clara would hold them in her arms and help them drink.  While holding one wounded soldier in her arms, she felt her sleeve move and noticed a small bullet hole in her dress.  A bullet had gone thru her sleeve and killed the soldier she was holding.

That night, Dr. Mannie had another problem.  He did not have enough lanterns to provide light for the surgeons.

Dr. Mannie sent another note to General McClellan and said, “Please send all available lanterns so the surgeons can treat the wounded.”

Dr. Mannie was again denied help from the commander and was left on his own.  Clara heard of Dr. Mannie’s problem and quickly went to her wagon and came up with lanterns.  The grateful surgeons quickly went back to work by the light of their new lanterns.

At the end of the day, over 20,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or were missing on that day in September 1862.  Dr. Mannie, with help from Clara Barton and her supply wagon were able to treat the wounded, but even those supplies were quickly running out.  Finally, after days of waiting, the army supply wagons arrived at the battlefield and Dr. Mannie was relieved to see them.
He went over to Clara and said, “Thank you, I could not have done it without your help.  You were an angel of the battlefield.”

Clara smiled and said, “Thank you, but it was the least I could do for these poor men who died here.”

After that, Clara got into her wagon and started the journey to Washington, D.C. for more supplies.

Posted under Famous People, Lesson Ideas, Miscellaneous

Ever wonder how newspapers during Civil War covered the battles? Are your doing any research into an aspect of the Civil War and need a great primary source? Well, the Son of the South website has digitized versions of Harper’s Weekly online for your review. According to the website, they have “over 7,000 pages of original Civil War content, and is full of incredible photographs, original illustrations, and eye-witness accounts of the defining moments of this Historic Struggle.” They have even organized the information based on each year of the war, different battles, generals, slavery, medicine and the Lincoln Assassination. How can you use this collection in your classroom?

• Have students use this as research for a paper or report
• Have students create their own newspaper with accounts of a battle
• Have students read the July 18, 1863 and the “First Report from Gettysburg” and ask why did it take 17 days to get information out in the paper?
• Have students review and reflect on the ads in the papers
• Have students review and reflect on the cartoons in the paper and what impact they may have had on attitudes toward the War.
• Check out the sketch of the Maryland Battery at Antietam, then have students research where the Maryland Battery was located at on the Antietam Battlefield. You may even want to contact an Antietam park Ranger or two? (talk about Subject Matter Experts!)
  

Let me know your thoughts on how you can use this great resource. Until next time…happy reading!

Posted under Lesson Ideas, Primary Sources