The Civil War
Primary Sources and Online Teaching Activities
Teaching with Civil War
It ended over 150 years ago. But Americans still discuss, debate, and disagree about the Civil War. No one alive today lived during this momentous conflict. Time and myth have obscured our perspective on the war. So how do we know what happened?
Very often, we find answers and stories in records left by the participants themselves. Much of this evidence — including letters, orders, maps, telegrams, photographs, and broadsides — is preserved at the National Archives.
Use this page to find primary sources related to the Civil War, as well as document-based learning activities to share with your students.
COVER IMAGES
Left Column (Top to Bottom) Topographical Map of the Original District of Columbia and Environs Showing the Fortifications, Proposed Thirteenth Amendment Regarding the Abolition of Slavery, Map of Antietam, Sharpsburg, and Vicinity.
Right Column (Top to Bottom) Drawing of Improvements in Breech-Loading Repeating Cannon, Deck of Gun Boat, Map of Virginia Showing the Distribution of its Slave Population, Ulysses S. Grant standing by a tree.
Teaching Activities
Black Soldiers in the Civil War
Memorializing the Civil War Around America
Analyzing the Cotton Gin Patent
Lincoln’s Suspension of Habeas Corpus During the Civil War
