1. Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Civil War By Catherine Clinton

2. Summary I just read Scholastic’s Encyclopedia of the Civil War by Catherine Clinton. This book is about the Civil War. It talks about why the Civil War happened. This book also tells why the Civil War happened to our country. The Civil War happened to our country because our president, President Lincoln, believed that slavery was not a good thing to do to people. While President Lincoln tried to save these people the people in the South got angry with Lincoln and war began. Finally, after many men and women lost their lives, the Civil War was finished. Children lost their parents and became orphans or they lost their life, women either lost their life, husband, or child. Men lost their life, wife, or children. The Civil War was a tragic and terrible thing that happened to our country.

3. Fact #1 Did you know that on April 19, 1861, Lincoln revealed his plan to prevent Southern ships from sailing, but the Confederates laughed, calling it a paper blockade because the U.S. Navy had only ninety ships and the South had 3,500 miles of coastline covered with ships?

4. Fact #2 Did you know that one country in Connecticut produced more firearms than all the Southern states combined? The North boasted 22,000 miles of railroad track, the South only boasted 9,000 miles of railroad.

5. Fact #3 Did you know that in July 1861, Lincoln appointed George B. McClellan head of the North’s principal field army? However, there was a problem! McClellan was supposed to try to get closer to Richmond, Virginia, but he did not. Instead, McClellan got more and more interested in drilling his troops than actually engaging in war.

6. Fact #4 Did you know that in the autumn of 1862, in the cornfields of Maryland, more Americans lost their lives in a single day of war than ever before and since?

7. Fact #5 Did you know that in 1864 General Ulysses S. Grant left Cold Harbor, Virginia with a new strategy to capture Petersburg? If Grant captured Petersburg then he could halt rail traffic and starve out Richmond.

8. Fact #6 Did you know that there was a constant cry for bread in the South, from the banks of the Shenandoah River in Virginia to the Mississippi delta in 1863?

9. Fact #7 Did you know that over the course of summer in 1864, Lincoln’s friends and advisors feared that even if he won the nomination of his own Republican Party, he could be defeated in the autumn election?

10. Fact #8 Did you know that in 1966 a civil rights act, which President Johnson tried to veto, granted former slaves citizenship?