Civil War Letters

One of the reasons that we know so much about the Civil War is due to the letters, diaries and journals that soldiers on both sides wrote and kept. More common people than ever before were educated, and they wrote about their experiences and feelings, hopes and fears.

The Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) was fought on July 21, 1861. Sullivan Ballou of Rhode Island, a major in the Union army wrote this letter to his wife one week before the fighting. He died in the first few minutes of the battle. J.W. Reid was a Confederate soldier from South Carolina. He survived the war.

1. What was Sullivan Ballou's motivation to volunteer and fight from the Union? Cite two quotes from the letter to back up your response.

2. After Ballou's death, his widow, Sarah, was left to raise two sons by herself. If you were in her position, would you support or oppose continuing the war? Why or why not?

3. In your opinion, which of the two letters was closer to that of a typical Civil War soldier? Why?

Using Math in History class?

Use your resource page to answer these questions about the Civil War:

1. What was the difference in the free population of the North and the South in 1860? Why do you think that the enslaved population was not included in this count?

2. Of the four categories, in which one did the Union have the biggest advantage? How do you think the South could make up for their disadvantage in that category?

3. Which of these categories do you think would have the biggest effect on the war? Why?

4. Despite the overwhelming Northern economic advantages, Southerners were generally optimistic about their chances of achieving their war goals. Explain why you think that was true.

Border States: Which side would you choose?

Kentucky was one of the border states that had divided loyalties for both the Union and Confederate causes. Although Kentucky eventually sided with the Union, many Kentuckians fought on the Rebel side.

What follows are proclamations made by the commanders of the Union and Confederate forces in Kentucky. Read both quotes, and then summarize at least two main ideas from each quote. Which one do you think is more persuasive, and why?

[The flag of the United States] has streamed in triumph at the mast-head of our ships, and in many a bloody field has cheered the American armies on to victory. It has waved in every breeze on land and upon the sea, and in the strong hands of our fathers who bore it aloft, it has never, lo, never dishonored. Around it have clustered the dearest hopes of every friend of human liberty in every clime, and who doubts the last shriek of freedom will rend the skies, if it shall fall forever....[t]hough others may hate and curse the land that gave them birth, the brave and loyal sons of Kentucky will never strike with parricidal hands the State that has nutured them.

--Colonel Curren Pope, Commander, 7th Kentucky Infantry

To the People of Southeastern Kentucky:
The brigade I have the honor to command is here for no purpose of war upon Kentuckians, but to repel those Northern hordes who, with arms in their hands, are attempting the subjugation of a sister Southern State.... Their government has laid heavy taxes on you to carry on this unnatural war, one object of which is openly avowed to be to set at liberty your slaves, and the ensuing steps in which will be to put arms in their hands and give them political and social equality with yourselves.

The honor of your wives and daughters, your past renown, and the fair name of your posterity forbid that you should strike for Lincoln and the abolition of slavery against those struggling for the rights and independence of your kindred race.

Strike with us for independence and the preservation of your property, and those Northern invaders of your soil will soon be driven across the Ohio.

--General Felix Zollicoffer, Confederate Army

Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Senate Campaign

Lincoln campaigned against Stephen Douglas for the US Senate seat from Illinois in 1858. Although he lost the election, Lincoln became a national figure in the fight against slavery. Here are three of his most famous quotes from that campaign. Put the quotes in your own words:

1. "Slavery is found in the selfishness of man's nature -- opposition to it, in his love of justice."

2. "The doctrine [idea] of self government is right -- [However,] when the white man governs himself, that is self-government. When he governs himself and also governs another man .... that is despotism."

3. "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be desolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect that it will cease [to end] to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

4. "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

(Special Note: The old Illinois state Capitol building, pictured to the right, is where Lincoln made his "house divided" speech in 1858. It is also where Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President, 149 years later in 2007)

Horace Mann and American Education

1. Why is Horace Mann sometimes called the "Father of American Education"?

2. If Mann were alive today, what three things (and why) would he change about our schools to make them better?

Soldier Letter from the Mexico-USA War

Click on the link to a letter  from a soldier in the Mexico-USA War published in the periodical "Yankee Doodle."  As you read the letter, respond to these 4 questions:

1. In the first paragraph, what did the writer expect from going to war?

2. In the second paragraph, what did the writer find instead?

3. In the third paragraph, what advice would the writer expect from his mother, and what did he think of that advice?

4. In the forth paragraph, what was going to happen next?

5. What was in the letter that surprised you? Was anything missing from the letter that you expected to be there?

Health and Illness in Early Factories

According to the text, many workers in the mills got sick and were injured on the job or in inadequate housing provided by the mill owners. Was that true? We can use a primary source document, a page from the hospital log at Lowell, Massachusetts, to find out. Click on a transcript of the hospital log to answer the question:

1. What were the diseases and illnesses that afflicted the workers on the hospital log? In simple terms, what kind of disease or illness was it? How many people were suffering from each disease or illness? Were the diseases or illnesses related to work or life at the mill? Why or why not?