Tag Archives: Civil War

Lesson Plan: Close Reading Activity for the Gettysburg Address

By Anne Continetti

Download the full lesson as a PDF.

Overview | The Gettysburg Address has been memorized, recited, and admired. Countless readers have discussed its rhetorical devices, literary merit, and political reception. But few have attended to the thought of Lincoln’s speech and the deeper purposes that it serves.

People do recognize that this funeral oration, honoring Union dead in the battle that marked a turning point in the war against Southern rebellion, was even … Read more »

Gettysburg at 150

With the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg approaching, defense scholar Tom Donnelly reviews a new book by noted Lincoln historian Allen Guelzo. Donnelly writes:

Gettysburg. The word is a looking glass for America, both as a blood-and-soil union and an ideal of liberty but also as an eternal striving to make the one realize the other. Gettysburg, like America, “contains multitudes.”

Children’s Poetry for Memorial Day

This charming poem by Wisconsin educator Ninette Maine Lowater (1844–1932) is perfect for remembering Memorial Day with younger children. Published in 1904, it delicately addresses how the living care for and “keep alive” their dead.

What is the mood of the poem? How—and why—do Roy and his Grandma care for Grandpa as they do? What is the meaning of the last two lines? Why is the poem called “Roy’s Decoration Day”?

I brought blue … Read more »

Lesson Plan Idea: Compare Two Versions of a Civil War Song

Looking for ideas to remember Memorial Day with your students? Read and listen to two versions of one of the Civil War’s most popular songs, “The Battle Cry of Freedom.” Originally written in 1862 by prolific patriotic composer George F. Root (1820–95), it was so highly demanded that printing presses could not produce enough copies. Ultimately, 500,000 to 700,000 copies were produced.

The African American Experience and Memorial Day

Many cities claim to be the progenitor of Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day. The best claim might be made by Charleston, South Carolina, where, in 1865, 10,000 Charlestonians—many of them former slaves—re-buried the Union dead who had been buried in a mass grave and paraded around the city, with the procession led by 3,000 black children carrying flowers and singing “John Brown’s Body.” 

To celebrate Memorial Day’s forgotten roots, our selection today … Read more »

Arlington National Cemetery and Memorial Day

Rest on embalmed and sainted dead!
Dear as the blood ye gave,
No impious footstep shall here tread
The herbage of your grave.

These lines are inscribed on the west face of the McClellan Gate at Arlington National Cemetery. During the Civil War, as the cemetery was being established (1864), Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs ordered lines from the poem inscribed on the cemetery’s gate, although without attributing … Read more »

Lesson Plan Idea: Compare Douglass and Holmes on Memorial Day

How should we honor those who gave their lives in battle? Can we properly honor them if we do not honor their cause? This has been a difficult question for many Americans on Memorial Day—particularly so in the aftermath of the Civil War. As Americans sought to rebuild the nation, they faced the question of how to celebrate the holiday (then called Decoration Day), and whether to remember only their … Read more »

Close Reading for Memorial Day: Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels

Looking for a story to have students closely read for Memorial Day? Read and discuss this powerful excerpt from Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels (a Common Core exemplar text!) with the help of our discussion guide and video seminar.  Even better, our friends at NEH EDSITEment have adapted the discussion guide for students!

Why Memorial Day? Sullivan Ballou’s Letter to Sarah

Why Memorial Day? This moving letter by Civil War Major Sullivan Ballou (1829–61) to his wife Sarah just a week before he died in the First Battle of Bull Run provides one answer. Read the letter, and consider the following questions: How does Ballou understand and explain the choice he faces? Why does he choose as he does? Imagining yourself as the recipient of this letter, how would you receive … Read more »

30Days30Poets: Julia Ward Howe’s “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was written in 1861 as an abolitionist song by Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), a prominent American abolitionist and social activist. While witnessing a review of Union troops in Washington, D.C., Howe heard the Union army marching song “John Brown’s Body” set to a tune written by William Steffe (1830–90). The stirring tune inspired her to write new lyrics: this poem came to her … Read more »