Civil War Unit

This unit contains history, geography, language arts, handwriting, life skills, some science, some math, and art.

Vocabulary:

1. secede
2. abolishment
3. abolitionists
4. slave
5. slavery
6. agricultural
7. aristocratic
8. anarchy
9. sympathizers
10.  drill
11.  reveille
12.  insignia
13. sharpshooter
14.  skirmish
15.  vicinity
16. reinforcements
17.  unsanitary
18. anesthetic
19. contaminated
20.  emancipate
21. confederate
22. union
23. amendment

Civil War vocabulary worksheet to include.

Here are some note taking forms that I created to help guide them for the following areas.

People:

1. Jefferson Davis
2. Harriet Beecher Stowe
3. Dred Scott
4. John Brown
5. General Irvin NcDowell
6. General Pierre Beauregard
7. Rose Greenhow
8. General Thomas J. Jackson
9. George McClellan
10.  Jennie Hodgers
11. Kady Brownell
12.  Amy Clark
13.  Ulysses S. Grant
14.  David Glasgow Farragut
15.  John Magruder
16.  James E. B. Stuart
17.  Ambrose Powell Hill
18.  James Longstreet
19. Sally Tompkins
20. Mary Ann Bickerdyke
21. Dorothea Dix
22.  Braxton Bragg
23. William Rosecrans
24.  Joseph Hooker
25. Rear Admiral David Porter
26.  George Pickett 
27.  Alfred and William Waud
28. Edwin Forbes
29. Thomas Nast
30. Arthur Freemantle
31. Walt Whitman
32. Louisa May Alcott
33. Mark Twain
34. John Wilkes Booth
35. Brigadier General Stand Watie
36. Allen Jay
37. Sojourner Truth
38. Major General Philip Sheridan
39. Pauline Cushman
40. Belle Boyd

Biographies:

1. Harriet Tubman
2. Frederick Douglass
3. Abraham Lincoln
4. Robert E. Lee
5. Robert Small
6. William Tecumseh Sherman
7. Clara Barton
8. Mathew Brady

Events:

1. Attack on Fort Sumter
2. Battle of Bull Run
3. Battle of Shiloh
4. How the war divided families
5. Battle of the Monitor
6. The Anaconda Plan
7. The Seven Days’ Battles
8. Second Manassas
9. Hot air balloons used in the war
10.  Battle of Antietam
11.  Emancipation Proclamation
12. Battle of Fredericksburg
13.  Battle of Stones River
14.  Battle of Chancellorsville
15.  Battle of Gettysburg
16.  The Gettysburg Address
17. Battle of Chickamauga
18. Battle of Chattanooga
19.  Battle of the Wilderness
20.  Battle of Spotsylvania
21. Cold Harbor
22. Atlanta Falls
23. Battle of Franklin
24. Memorial Day
25. The end of the war
26. The underground railroad
27. Kansas enters union

Reference books:

1. The civil war for kids by Janis Herbert
2. Mr. Lincoln’s camera man, Matthew Brady by Roy Meredith
3. Visual Dictionary of the Civil War by John E. Stanchak
4. Civil War Days: American Kids in History by David C. King (culture)
5. Outrageous Women of Civil War Times by Mary Rodd Furbee
6. Civil War Cooking: The Union by Susan Dosier

Read a louds:

1. A light in the Storm, A Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin by Karen Hesse (Dear America series)
2. I thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly, The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl by Joyce Hansen (Dear America Series)
3. John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry by Brendan January (specific event)
4. Civil War Poetry and Prose by Walt Whitman (literature)
5. Brady by Jean Fritz (historical fiction)
6. Moon Over Tennessee: A Boy’s Civil War Journal by Craig Crist-Evans
7. If you Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine (culture)
8. Outrageous Women of Civil War Times by Mary Rodd Furbee
9. Audio of Gettysburg Address

1^st-3rd book list:

1. Young Frederick Douglass: Fight for freedom by Laurence Santrey (biography)
2. Harriet Tubman: The road to freedom by Rae Bains (biography)
3. Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad by Marlene Targ Brill (biography)
4. Robert E. Lee: Brave Leader by Rae Bains (biography)
5. Clara Barton: Solider of Mercy by Mary Catherine Rose (biography)
6. Civil War on Sunday by Mary Pope Osborne
7. Civil War Sub: The Mystery of the Hunley by Kate Boehm Jerome
8. Dred Scott Decision by Brendan January (specific event)
9. Abraham Lincoln Lawyer, Leader, Legend by Justine and Ron Fontes

4^th-6th book list:

1. Underground Railroad by R. Conrad Stein (specific event)
2. Emancipation Proclamation by Brendan January (specific event)
3. Lee and Grand at Appomattox by MacKinlay Kantor (specific event)
4. Go Free or Die: A Story About Harriet Tubman by Jeri Ferris (biography)
5. Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom by Margaret Davidson (biography)
6. Abraham Lincoln by James Daugherty (biography)
7. William Sherman: Union General by Henna Remstein (biography)
8. Robert E. Lee, Young Confederate by Helen Monsell (biography)
9. From Slave to Civil War Hero by Michael Cooper (biography)
10. Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross by Helen Boylston (biography)
11. Among the Camps by Thomas Nelson Page (historical fiction)
12. Two Little Confederates by Thomas Nelson Page (historical fiction)

7^th – 9^th book list:

1. This Hallowed Ground by Bruce Catton (overview)
2. Underground Railroad: Life on the Road to Freedom by Ellen Hansen (specific event)
3. Eyes and Ears of the Civil War by G. Allen Foster (specific event)
4. Harriet Tubman by Bree Burns (biography)
5. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (biography)
6. Virginia’s General: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War by albert Marrin (biography)
7. Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (historical fiction)
8. Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (historical fiction)
9. Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln  (literature)
10. Union Reader: As the North Saw the War by Richard B. Harwell (culture)
11. Confederate Reader: How the South Saw the War by Richard B. Harwell (culture)
12. Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freeman

10^th – 12^th book list:

1. This Hallowed Ground by Bruce Catton (overview)
2. Causes of the Civil War by Kenneth M. Stampp (specific events)
3. Spies of the Confederacy by John Blakeless (specific events)
4. Day Lincoln was Shot by Jim Bishop (specific event)
5. Long Remember by MacKinlay Kantor (historical fiction)
6. Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce (historical fiction)
7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (literature)
8. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832-1858 by Don E. Fehrenbacher (literature)
9. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writing 1859-1865 by Don E. Fehrenbacher (literature)
10. Life of Lincoln by William Henry Herndon (biography)
11.  Lee of Virginia by Douglas Southall Freeman (biography)
12. The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans by Charles Royster

Reference Websites:

Timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s life

American Civil War timeline

American Civil War (tons of information)

Civil War Weapons (also has other links on bottom of page)

The American Civil War Social Studies for kids

Women of the Civil War

Civil War Photos

Poetry and Music of the war

Flags of the war

The Civil War home page

Civil War Coloring Book

Civil War clipart

Confederate clipart

Civil War clipart

The Civil War Archive

Ongoing Activities:

1. timeline – include events, battles, people *history
2. vocabulary *language arts
3. notebook *history/language arts
4. Map of battles – use a map of the U.S. to mark where the battles of the Civil War occurred. Civil War map   *geography
5. Civil War worksheets 

Any books that are not assigned to a specific week should be read by student when time allows or used as reference.

Week 1

Books:  Dred Scott Decision by Brendan January (specific event) 1^st-3^rd

             Causes of the Civil War by Kenneth M. Stampp (specific events) 10^th-12^th

 John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry by Brendan January (specific event) aloud                                               

             Emancipation Proclamation by Brendan January (specific event) 4^th-6th

             Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln (literature) 7^th-9th

Activities: Civil War cause and effect worksheet *history/language arts

Emancipation Proclamation draw and write notebook page *language arts

Have the kids make recruiting posters for the Union and Confederate armies.  They should list reasons on the poster to join the army. *art/history

People:  Dred Scott, Jefferson Davis, John Brown

Week 2

Harriet Tubman: The road to freedom by Rae Bains (biography) 1^st-3^rd

Go Free or Die: A Story About Harriet Tubman by Jeri Ferris (biography) 4^th-6^th

Harriet Tubman by Bree Burns (biography) 7^th-9^th

Activities: Have the kids study these maps of Harriet Tubman’s routes to freedom.  Select different starting points for them and then have the kids figure out how many miles slaves had to travel to make it to freedom.  They could also try to figure out how long it would take someone to travel the route. *math/geography

Biography: Harriet Tubman *language arts

People: George Pickett, Brigadier General Stand Watie, Major General Philip Sheridan *language arts

Copy work:  Harriet Tubman quotes *language arts/handwriting

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

Lord, I'm going to hold steady on to You and You've got to see me through.

I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.

I can't die but once.

Week 3

Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad by Marlene Targ Brill (biography) 1^st-3^rd

Underground Railroad by R. Conrad Stein (specific event) 4^th-6^th

Underground Railroad: Life on the Road to Freedom by Ellen Hansen (specific event) 7^th-9^th

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (literature) 10^th – 12th

If you Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine (culture) aloud

Activities: Make a North Star safe quilt instructions found in Civil War for kids *life skills

Take a virtual trip on the Underground Railroad. 

Copy work:  Copy the lyrics to the song “Follow the Drinking Gourd” *language arts/handwriting

People: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Braxton Briggs, Rear Admiral David Porter *language arts

Week 4

Young Frederick Douglass: Fight for freedom by Laurence Santrey (biography) 1^st-3^rd

Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom by Margaret Davidson (biography) 4^th-6^th

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (biography) 7^th-12th

I thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly, The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl by Joyce Hansen (Dear America Series) aloud

Activities: Civil War Word search

Civil War Symmetry activity *math

Biography: Frederick Douglass

People: Edwin Forbes, Thomas Nast, Allen Jay

Copy work:  Quotes from Frederick Douglass

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.

Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.

Week 5

Abraham Lincoln Lawyer, Leader, Legend by Justine and Ron Fontes

1^st-3^rd

Abraham Lincoln by James Daugherty (biography) 4^th-6^th

Life of Lincoln by William Henry Herndon (biography) 10^th-12^th

Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freeman 7^th -9^th

Activities: 10 questions about the Civil War worksheet

Make a diorama of an event in Abraham Lincoln’s life.

Biography: Abraham Lincoln

People: Ulysses S. Grant, George McClellan

Copy work: Famous quotes of Abraham Lincoln

Week 6

Civil War on Sunday by Mary Pope Osborne 1^st-3^rd

Among the Camps by Thomas Nelson Page (historical fiction) 4^th-6^th

This Hallowed Ground by Bruce Catton (overview) 7^th -12^th

Activities: Morse code messages and model Fort Sumter flag instructions in Civil war days American kids in history

People: General Irvin NcDowell, General Pierre Beauregard, General Thomas J. Jackson

Copy work: Pick a poem or song from this site to copy for your notebook.  I recommend picking one from each side.

Week 7

Robert E. Lee: Brave Leader by Rae Bains (biography) 1^st-3^rd

Robert E. Lee, Young Confederate by Helen Monsell (biography) 4^th-6^th

Virginia’s General: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War by Albert Marrin (biography) 7^th-9^th

Lee of Virginia by Douglas Southall Freeman (biography) 10^th-12th

Activities: Make a housewife sewing kit, homemade butternut dye, and do playing general activity instructions in Civil War for kids

Biography: Robert E. Lee

People: Rose Greenhow, Kady Brownell, John Magruder,

Week 8

William Sherman: Union General by Henna Remstein (biography) 4^th-6^th

The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans by Charles Royster 10^th-12^th

Civil War Poetry and Prose by Walt Whitman (literature) a loud

Union Reader: As the North Saw the War by Richard B. Harwell (culture) 7^th-9th

Activities: How about making a variety of food that a Union soldier might have eaten.  We are going to make cherry cobbler, Irish stew, johnnycakes, and gingerbread.  The recipes can be found in Civil War Cooking: The Union by Susan Dosier *life skills

Biography:  William Sherman

People: David Glasgow Farragut, Joseph Hooker, William Rosecrans

Week 9

Clara Barton: Solider of Mercy by Mary Catherine Rose (biography) 1^st-3^rd

Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross by Helen Boylston (biography) 4^th-6^th

Outrageous Women of Civil War Times by Mary Rodd Furbee parts 1&2 a loud

Activities: Make a makeshift stretcher and battlefield bandages instructions in The Civil War for Kids.

Do the cost of war math exercise 

Biography:  Clara Barton

People: Sojourner Truth, Louisa May Alcott, Jennie Hodgers,

Copy work: Clara Barton quotes

May be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.

Economy, prudence, and a simple life are the sure masters of need, and will often accomplish that which, their opposites, with a fortune at hand, will fail to do.

What could I do but go with them Civil War soldiers, or work for them and my country?

An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness.

Week 10

Eyes and Ears of the Civil War by G. Allen Foster (specific event) 7^th- 9^th

Spies of the Confederacy by John Blakeless (specific events) 10^th-12^th

Outrageous Women of Civil War Times by Mary Rodd Furbee parts 3&4 a loud

Activities: Create a code instructions found in Civil War for kids

Have the kids read excerpts from a doctor’s journal during the Civil War. 

Then discuss the tools, ways, and conditions that the doctor worked with. *science

People: Pauline Cushman, Belle Boyd, Dorothea Dix

Week 11

Moon Over Tennessee: A Boy’s Civil War Journal by Craig Crist-Evans a loud

Two Little Confederates by Thomas Nelson Page (historical fiction) 4^th-6^th

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (historical fiction) 7^th-9^th

Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce (historical fiction) 10^th-12^th

Activities: make a Civil War drum you could use this for science by discussing how the drum makes sound

Biography:  Robert Small

People: James E. B. Stuart, Ambrose Powell Hill, James Longstreet

Week 12

Brady by Jean Fritz (historical fiction) read a loud

Civil War Sub: The Mystery of the Hunley by Kate Boehm Jerome 1^st-3^rd

Lee and Grand at Appomattox by MacKinlay Kantor (specific event) 4^th-6^th

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (historical fiction) 7^th-9^th

Long Remember by MacKinlay Kantor (historical fiction) 10th-12^th

Activities: Civil War Challenge worksheet

Do signaling with wigwag activity from The Civil War for kids.

Also try the in deep water activity from the civil war for kids. *science

People: Sally Tompkins, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Arthur Freemantle

Week 13

A light in the Storm, A Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin by Karen Hesse (Dear America series) read a loud

From Slave to Civil War Hero by Michael Cooper (biography) 4^th-6^th

Confederate Reader: How the South Saw the War by Richard B. Harwell (culture) 7^th-9^th

Day Lincoln was Shot by Jim Bishop (specific event) 10^th-12^th

Activities: Pretend you are a soldier writing a letter home to your family.  Make berry ink instructions found in the Civil War for kids.  Also make aged paper.

Make woodcut prints and tell a story with pictures instructions found in The Civil War for kids

Biography:  Mathew Brady

People: Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Alfred and William Waud

Week 14 & 15

Finish up any activities or notebook pages that are incomplete.

People: John Wilkes Booth