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Civil War Resources
Other Civil War Lesson Plans
Some Facts of Soldiering
- The average age of a soldier was twenty-five. Soldiers were supposed to be eighteen to enlist, but drummer boys joined as young as nine (see photo). Toward the end of the war with a shortage of men, many young boys participated. Charles E. King may have been the youngest combat soldier in the war. He enlisted when he was twelve and served as a musician in Company F, forty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was killed at Antietam .
- The average soldier stood 5' 8 ¼" inches and weighed 143 ½ pounds.
- One in sixty-five soldiers died in combat. One in ten were wounded. One in thirteen died of disease. More than 600,000 soldiers died in the war.
- A soldier's diet included beans, bacon, pickled beef (called salt horse) and cakes of dried vegetables that made a kind of soup in water. And a lot of hardtack-square flour and water biscuits. Soldiers soaked the hardtack in coffee-the drink of choice. Often weevils floated out of the biscuits, and they skimmed them off and ate the biscuit anyway.
- Junior officers were permitted to bring one trunk of belonging, while their superiors were allowed more baggage. Officers sometimes even had the luxury of furniture.
- Enlisted men had to carry all their belongings with them. They carried as little as possible to get through long marches, but they still carried approximately thirty to forty pounds each.
- Soldiers got half of a tent. The half connected with another soldier's half to make a full size tent. Odd men ended up with only half a tent.
Other Resources
Other websites
Civil War political cartoons
Civil War Battle History
- Gettysburg
- Battle of Honey Springs
- The March to the Sea
- http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_sherman.html
PBS site featuring Sherman 's March as part of the Ken Burns "Civil War" series. The lesson plan rests largely on the PBS series, but does include great maps, letters between Sherman and Grant, and music from the Civil War period. Also includes strategies for teaching Sherman 's March.
- http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/marchsea.htm
University of Geogia collection of primary documents centered on Sherman 's March. Most documents are produced by Sherman , but there are also other perspectives, including a southern woman's account of the March to the Sea.
- http://www.click2history.com/civil_war/civil_war_ch1.htm
Admittedly not an academic site, but well written summary of the devastation wrought by Sherman 's March. Includes extremely powerful images of Sherman 's "scorched earth" campaign.
- http://www.brotherswar.com/Civil_War_Quotes_4i.htm
Collection of quotes from William T. Sherman that might offer students some notion of his attitude toward civilians during his March. The "brotherswar.com" site itself is a great website for Civil War history.
- Surrender at Appomattox
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