Books in Civil War Library series

WHO Were The Key Players In The Civil War? The president, generals, soldiers, spies, mothers, wives, children, doctors, nurses, brothers-facing brothers, and more! This book on "who" were the participants in the Civil War gives students a virtual chronological flood of not only the usual suspects of generals, presidents, and soldiers, but also the children, animals, mothers, spies, nurses, slaves, and others who were caught up in the events leading to war, during the war, and in its aftermath. Using either the actual dramatic words of participants, as well as invented dialogue, this fast-paced, free-flowing non-fiction graphic novel brings the war to vivid life for young readers. This book includes a combination of funky, radical, text-based non-fiction graphic novels awash in drama and commentary with speedy but thorough stories, all in first person, and often the words of an actual participant. This book is FUN TO READ. Civil War, fun-it can be done! Absolutely no "content warning" on these books, except BEWARE: You may not be able to put it down, kid! Click to view four sample pages. Click to view a book review.Lexile Measure: 750On Monday, February 7, 2011, award-winning author and Gallopade CEO Carole Marsh spoke with Public Radio WABE's Steve Goss. They discussed this new 6-book series that is aimed at motivating elementary and middle school students to learn about the Civil War. to listen to the full interview.

The role of slavery in bringing on the Civil War has been hotly debated for decades. One important way of approaching the issue is to look at what contemporary observers had to say. In March 1861, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederates States of America, was quoted in the Savannah Republican:“The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us, the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the ‘rock upon which the old Union would split.’ He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact.“[Our] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.”Today, most professional historians agree with Stephens that slavery and the status of African Americans were at the heart of the crisis that plunged the U.S. into a civil war from 1861 to 1865. That is not to say the average Confederate soldier fought to preserve slavery or the average Union soldier went to war to end slavery. Some fought on moral grounds. Some fought because they felt their way of life and prosperity were threatened. Others fought to preserve the Union. Soldiers fight for many reasons—notably to stay alive and support their comrades in arms. The North’s goal in the beginning was the preservation of the Union, not emancipation. For the 180,000 African Americans who ultimately served the U.S. in the war, however, emancipation was the primary aim. The roots of the crisis over slavery that gripped the nation in 1860-1861 go back well before the nation’s founding. In 1619, slavery was introduced to Virginia, when a Dutch ship traded African slaves for food. Unable to find cheap labor from other sources, white settlers increasingly turned to slaves imported from Africa. By the early 1700s, in British North America, slavery generally meant African slavery. Southern plantations using slave labor pro-duced the great export crops—tobacco, rice, forest products, and indigo—that made the American colonies prosperous. Many Northern merchants made their fortunes either in the slave trade or by exporting the products of slave labor. African slavery was central to the development of British North America.

This biography of Pauline Cushman was written in 1865 by her friend, Ferdinand Sarmiento, ""prepared from her notes and memoranda."" Many consider the story exaggerated, but given the nature of the secret work she was doing on behalf of the Union, the lack of corraborative information available at the time may have made her real deeds unprovable. Abraham Lincoln gave her an honorary commission, and she became known as Miss Major Cushman. Pauline Cushman was born Harriet Wood and left her home in Michigan to go to New York City to become an actress. After an unsuccessful career, she eventually met and married Charles Dickinson and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. After the death of her husband Charles in the war and an incident a few months later in Louisville, Kentucky when, after a performance, she was paid to toast Jefferson Davis and was fired by the theater, she found a role as a spy. She was able to infiltrate the Confederate commanders and provide essential espionage back to the Union army. She was captured and sentenced to death, but three days before she was to hang she was rescued by the Union army. After the war, she experienced declining fame and fortune, married Jere Fryer and lived a life of telling and retelling her Civil War story. In 1893, she died impoverished of a drug overdose in a flophouse in San Francisco. She is buried at the Presidio in San Francisco. Her simple gravestone recognizes her contribution to the Union's victory. It is marked, ""Pauline C. Fryer, Union Spy.""

Civil War Resource Book includes battles, battlefields, diagrams, uniforms, insignia, how to make hardtack, a day in the life of a soldier, currency, equipment, artillery, 20 names for the civil war, music, reenactments, ships, subs, sites and more! Click to view four sample pages. Click to view a book review.Lexile Measure: 870On Monday, February 7, 2011, award-winning author and Gallopade CEO Carole Marsh spoke with Public Radio WABE's Steve Goss. They discussed this new 6-book series that is aimed at motivating elementary and middle school students to learn about the Civil War. to listen to the full interview.

The American Civil War continues to be one of the most significant events in US history. In this title, readers will examine one of the most controversial issues that separated the North and the South: slavery. Engaging text introduces readers to the history of slavery and explores the moral and economic reasons this issue was so inflammatory between the Northern and Southern states. Chapters also cover the abolition movement and political developments such as Bleeding Kansas and the US Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. Additionally, readers will explore the significance of the roles people such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln played in the start of the war. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Abdo & Daughters is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

WHERE Did the Civil War Happen? See yourself via historic documents, Google maps, virtual road trips, battlefields, photographs, landmarks, and more! This book on "where" the Civil War took place takes an innovative, far more understandable, approach with young readers as they explore the geography of the war from a cinemascope look, as well as bird's eye views of America at the start of the war, the design and purpose of forts, earthworks, etc., the set-up of a battlefield, where soldiers were buried, and so much more. "Where" to a young reader is not all about geography, but more about making sense of place, whether that's along the Underground Railroad, or face-to-face on the skirmish line. This book includes a combination of funky, radical, text-based non-fiction graphic novels awash in drama and commentary with speedy but thorough stories, all in first person, and often the words of an actual participant. This book is FUN TO READ. Civil War, fun-it can be done! Absolutely no "content warning" on these books, except BEWARE: You may not be able to put it down, kid! Click to view four sample pages. Click to view a book review.Lexile Measure: 980On Monday, February 7, 2011, award-winning author and Gallopade CEO Carole Marsh spoke with Public Radio WABE's Steve Goss. They discussed this new 6-book series that is aimed at motivating elementary and middle school students to learn about the Civil War. to listen to the full interview.