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From April 12, 1861, to April 9, 1865, three million Americans fought in over 10,000 battles and skirmishes in the north and south of America. More than 620,000 soldiers died. Never before or since have Americans fought Americans in formalized war.

American cities were ravaged, homes were destroyed, farms were burned, and the death toll was huge and devastating. In one day at the battle of Antietam, more men were killed than on any other day in the history of our country. The total deaths from the Civil War were almost as many as the deaths in all other American wars combined. If the same percentage of today's population was killed, it would be the equivalent of five million deaths.

Southern states wanted the right to decide, on an individual basis, on the constitutionality of each law as it passed through congress. Southern states were strong proponents of strong state governments and for having the federal government play a smaller role in state affairs. And then there was the issue of slavery. Slavery had existed in the North, as well as the South, since the begining of colonial times. However, the North, with its strong industrial base, had a lesser need for slaves. In most northern states, slavery had been outlawed after the American Revolution. The economy of the South was based on agriculture. The southern states felt that they needed the institution of slavery in order to work their huge farms to supply the cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar of a growing nation as well as overseas demands. The issue of slavery expanding or not expanding into new states that were joining the union was also a major issue.

Places To Go

The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out about the Civil War.

Gettysburg National Military Park
Travel to the site of one of the pivotal military campaigns of the Civil War. In June and July of 1863, there were a series of battles in the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Beaufort National Cemetery
Visit this cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina. President Abraham Lincoln established this cemetery in 1863 as the final resting place for soldiers who lost their lives in the war between the states. There are over 7,500 Civil War soldiers buried there, including 4019 unknown Union soldiers and 117 known confederate soldiers. On May 29, 1989, nineteen Union soldiers of the all black Massachusetts 55th Infantry, whose remains were found on Folly Island, South Carolina in 1987, were buried here with full military honors.

Fort Sumter
Travel to Fort Sumter, South Carolina. "The first engagement of the Civil War took place at Fort Sumter on April 12 and 13, 1861. After 34 hours of fighting, the Union surrendered the fort to the Confederates. From 1863 to 1865, the Confederates at Fort Sumter withstood a 22 month siege by Union forces. During this time, most of the fort was reduced to brick rubble. Fort Sumter became a national monument in 1948."

Stratford Hall Plantation
Visit the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. You can take a virtual tour of the plantation and learn about its history and archaeology. Choose the "Just for Kids" section to find a colonial crossword, a plantation wordsearch, and more.

Rock Island Civil War Camp
Virtually travel to this Confederate prison camp in Illinois. During the 20 months that the camp was in operation, 1964 Confederate soldiers died and were buried in an adjacent cemetery.

Museum of the Confederacy
Virtually visit this museum in Richmond, Virgina containing collections of military, political, and domestic artifacts and art associated with the period of the Confederacy from1861 to1865. The museum complex consists of a modern museum building and the restored historicWhite House of the Confederacy.

The Valley of the Shadow
Virtually visit two communities at the time of the Civil War, one northern and one southern. This website contains an archive of thousands of sources for the period before, during, and after the Civil War for Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records. Students can explore every dimension of the conflict and write their own histories, reconstructing the life stories of women, African Americans, farmers, politicians, soldiers, and families.

Florence National Cemetery
Travel to this national cemetery in Florence, South Carolina.The cemetery was created when a plantation owner named James H. Jarrott allowed Civil War dead to be buried in trenches on his property near the Florence Confederate Stockade.The first burial took place on September 17, 1864, and the cemetery was established as a National Cemetery in 1865. Original interments were made in two seperate burial grounds, one containing approximately 2,322 remains.Interments in the larger burial grounds were made in 16 trenches. All of these dead are listed as unknown. "One of the five "known" interments in the trenches is that of Florena Budwin who disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Union Army in order to follow her husband, a captain from Pennsylvania. Her husband was killed and Florena was captured. Her identity was finally discovered in the prison stockade at Florence, where she remained to help nurse the prisoners until she became ill and died on January 25, 1865. She is believed to be the first female service member to be buried in a National Cemetery."

Point Lookout
Travel to Point Lookout in Maryland, a federal prison camp for Confederates.The camp was near to the battlefields in the east and therefore became the largest Union prison. The camp was established after the Battle of Gettysburg to incarcerate Confederate prisoners. The camp was in operation two years, July 1863 to June1865. "Because of the topography, drainage was poor, and the area was subject to extreme heat in the summer and cold in the winter. This exacerbated the problems created by inadequate food, clothing, fuel, housing, and medical care. As a result, approximately 3,000 prisoners died there over 22 months. It is estimated that a total of 52,264 prisoners, both military and civilian, were held prisoner there. Although it was designed for 10,000 prisoners, during most of its existence it held 12,600 to 20,000 inmates." The dead Confederate soldiers are now honored by a huge obelisk which stands over their mass grave.

U. S. Smallpox Hospital - Minton House
Virtually visit this historic home in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. During the Civil War, it was used as a military smallpox hospital. Have students research the toll that smallpox and other diseases had on the soldiers in the war.

Stonewall Jackson
Meet Stonewall Jackson, one of the most famous of the Confederate Civil War generals.  His real name was Thomas Jonathan Jackson. Before the war, he was a teacher at the Virginia Military Institute. He died in 1863 as a result of "friendly fire" when his own 18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment fired on him by mistake.

United States Colored Troops in the Civil War
Meet and learn about the African-American men and women who served in the Civil War.

George Brinton McClellan
Get to know George Brinton McClellan. He was one of the Union generals in the Civil War. In 1864, he was the Democratic candidate for president and ran against Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln won reelection by a substantial majority. In his later years, McClellen was governor of New Jersey.

Civil War Women
Meet women during the War Between the States. Read these primary source manuscript which document women's lives and experiences in the Civil War.

Dorothea Lynde Dix
Get to know Dorothea Lynde Dix. She was in charge of all nursing services for the Union army. She was also a social reformer and worked for human treatment of the mentally ill.

George Armstrong Custer
Chat with George Armstrong Custer. He is remembered for his infamous role in the Battle of Little Big Horn. But he was also a Civil War soldier. Because of his efforts in the Civil War, he became the youngest American officer to ever become a general.

Margaret Mitchell
Get to know Margaret Mitchell and find out about her book, Gone With the Wind, the popular story about the Civil War and reconstruction periods in Georgia. It's one of the most popular novels in the history of American publishing.

Belle Boyd
Make the acquaintance of Belle Boyd. She was a female Confederate spy. She smuggled guns and ammunition across the border to the armies in the south and provided information to Stonewall Jackson about Union activities in the Shenandoah Valley. She may have carried Confederate messages from Jefferson Davis to Confederate sympathizers in the north.

The Emancipation Proclamation
From the National Archives, read through the Emancipation Proclamation. President Abraham Lincoln issued it on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Eyewitness : The American Civil War
Learn about the Battle at Antietam, the surrender at Appomattox, the death of President Lincoln, and more.

The History Place : The U.S. Civil War 1861-1865
Read through a timeline of the Civil War beginning in November1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln and ending in December 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment was passed, officially abolishing slavery.

The American Civil War Homepage
From this megasite, search through hundred of links and resources relating to the Civil War.

Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Read full text of the of the constitution of the Confederates States of America.

U.S. Casualties in the Major Wars
Compare the casualties in the Civil War to other United States wars. Twice as many Americans died in the Civil War as did in World War I. Note that the figures given for the Civil War only include the Union army. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to add on the Confederate deaths.

Raising the Civil War Gunboats
Learn about the gunboats of the Civil War.

Historic American Sheet Music : 1850 to 1920
Search this Library of Congress site for Civil War songs. When Johnny Comes Marching Home was written in 1863 by Louis Lambert.

Virtual Field Trips are teacher and student-created tours of curricular topics. (You can learn how to use this UEN Virtual Field Trip tool created by UEN for Utah educators).

•  The Angles at Antietam

Lesson Plans/Webquests

• A Nation Divided Webquest
• Civil War
• Eve of the Civil War: Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South
• Eve of the Civil War: People and Places in the North and South
• We Must Not Be Enemies: Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
• A Nation Divided
• Life During the War Between the States
• In the Cause of Freedom
• While Battles Raged
• The American Civil War

• Blashfield, Jean F. Mines and Minie Balls : Weapons of the Civil War. New York : Franklin Watts, c1997.
• Children in the Civil War.Peterborough, NH : Cobblestone Pub. Co., 1999.
• Damon, Duane. When This Cruel War Is Over : The Civil War Home Front. Minneapolis : Lerner Publications Co., c1996.
• Dolan, Edward F. The American Civil War : A House Divided. Brookfield, Conn. : Millbrook Press, c1997.
• Erdosh, George. Food and Recipes of the Civil War. New York : PowerKids Press, 1997.
• Gaines, Ann. The Confederacy and the Civil War in American History. Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow Publishers, c2000.
• Hakim, Joy. War, Terrible War. New York : Oxford University Press, c1999.
• Haskins, James. The Day Fort Sumter Was Fired On : A Photo History of the Civil War. New York : Scholastic, 1995.
• Haugen, David. The Civil War. San Diego, Calif. : Greenhaven Press, 1999.
• Herbert, Janis. The Civil War for Kids : A History with 21 Activities. Chicago : Chicago Review Press, 1999.
• Isaacs, Sally Senzell. America in the Time of Abraham Lincoln : 1815 to 1869. Des Plaines, Ill. : Heinemann Library, c2000.
• Lloyd, Mark. Combat Uniforms of the Civil War. Philadelphia : Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.
• Otfinoski, Steven. John Wilkes Booth and the Civil War. Woodbridge, Conn. : Blackbirch Press, 1999.