Social Studies/History - Civil War Sites

Antietam on the Web
http://aotw.org/ 
The Battle of Antietam fought on September 17, 1862 near the small town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. It began in 1997 as a small personal project but it has grown well beyond that, both as an exercise in history research and as a Web project. Here's what you'll find: Frequently Asked Questions; Discussion Forum; Battle Overview; Battle Maps; Participant Search Tool; images; Articles & Exhibits (including eyewitness accounts and other primary source material); Special Subjects; Official Reports (by many of the officers for the Maryland Campaign of 1862); and a keyword search tool.

Camp Life: Civil War Collections from Gettysburg
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/gettex/
Step back in time, and try to imagine yourself a soldier in the Civil War. Where do you sleep? How do you pass the time? What personal items did you bring from home? Camp Life reveals the daily life of both Union and Confederate soldiers with an online exhibition of common everyday items. Learn what a "housewife" is, and why infantrymen were only issued half a tent. By focusing on these simple, useful items, the Gettysburg National Military Park gives us unique insight into the life of a Civil War soldier.

Civil War at the Smithsonian
http://civilwar.si.edu/home.html
The Smithsonian in Washington D.C. looked through it archives, and in some cases, its own history as an institution, and created this online resource about the Civil War. Digitized images cover slavery and abolition, the weapons and leaders of the war, and the life and culture of the times.

Civil War: What Do You See?
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/civilwar/civilwar.html
The Library of Congress explores the photography of the Civil War with this interactive picture. The photograph is divided into six sections. Each section has questions associated with the picture. After viewing the six sections and answering the questions, click the Ahead button at the bottom to view the answers.

Gettysburg Address
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/
It was on November 19, 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln gave his now famous "Gettysburg Address" at the consecration of the Civil War cemetery there. Here on the Gettysburg Address Web site, you can explore the documents from that event. The site is divided into four main sections, with two links to more of Lincoln’s papers.

Images of the Civil War
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/cwimages/tellingStory/flash.html
Students can become involved in the telling of the story of the Civil War. This excellent digital resource allows students to actually design their own movie by choosing a narration, an audio track, and images. This online source will definitely pique the interest of students by allowing them to create a storyline through primary sources that reveal personal details of the soldiers who fought in the conflict.

Papers of Jefferson Davis
http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/
We remember Jefferson Davis as the ill-fated president of the Confederacy, and history has boxed him into that context. However this Rice University site provides a broader picture, offering many of his private letters and public speeches. Of particular interest is the chronology of his life after the Civil War.

Trace The Course Of The Battle Of Gettysburg
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/44gettys/44gettys.htm

Ulysses S. Grant Homepage
http://www.mscomm.com/~ulysses/
Learn more about General Ulysses S. Grant, a military figure during the Civil War, as well as the 18th President of the U.S. This is one of the largest American Civil War websites on the Internet.

Valley of the Shadow
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/
This is a good site for the study of the Civil War. Students will have access to primary documents from many sources, including: census and veteran records, letters and diaries, newspapers, and church records. This Project explores life during pre-Civil War, the War years, and the aftermath from the perspective of two communities: August County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Students can then compare views and sentiments between North and South soldiers through letters and diaries. The Animated Theater Battle Map is of particular interest.

Wet with Blood
http://chicagohistory.org/wetwithblood/
View and learn about the Chicago's Historical Society artifact, Mary Todd Lincoln's cloak, which was worn during the Lincoln assassination. Click on the book to turn from one fascinating page to the next.