Brian Riley Vacaville Unified School District Vacaville, California Civil War Voices A Lesson In Historical Empathy Brian Riley Vacaville Unified School District Vacaville, California

Historical Empathy This lesson looks at the lives of soldiers who fought in the Civil War through their own words. I have chosen passages I believe reveal an accurate representation of the life of a Civil War soldier. Also, the lesson makes no distinction between Union and Confederate soldiers; although there were some significant differences you can articulate, in general their experiences were close to the same.

Objectives: Students will… be able to examine primary sources to discover what life was like as a Civil War soldier, use those primary sources to answer questions about the lives of Civil War soldiers, and create a display that represents that Civil War soldier experience.

Historical Investigative Question How can the stories, written in their own words, impact our understanding of Civil War soldiers?

This lesson asks students to answer three key questions: Why did men and women fight in the Civil War? What was their personal experience as soldiers? How did the war effect them when it was over and they went home?

Getting Started

Looking at Historical Motivations

A Closer Look at The Civil War

Voices of The Civil War

Analyzing Primary Sources

Reconciliation by Walt Whitman, 1866 1 Word over all, beautiful as the sky, 2 Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost, 3 That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, 4 and ever again, this soil’d world; 5 For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead, 6 I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin – I draw near, 7 Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.

An In-depth Comparison

Recognizing Bias

Culminating Project