Educator Resources

Showing 405 results for Civil War Battles ...

Richmond National Battlefield Park

Neither Cold Nor A Harbor: Archeology and a Civil War Soldier’s Experience at the Battle of Cold Harbor

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

In June of 1864, the soldiers at Cold Harbor had to make use of the limited resources they had to survive. They used repurposed materials and their own hands to dig trenches and earthenwork mounds that would protect them from gunfire and mortar shells. This lesson plan combines artifact and map inquiry to learn about the Civil War landscape. Este plan de clase con actividades incluido también está disponible en español.

Guilford Courthouse: A Pivotal Battle in the War for Independence

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Learn how the deceptive results of this battle in the backwoods of North Carolina helped set the stage for American victory.

The Battle of Bunker Hill: Now We Are at War

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Learn how this American Revolution battle spurred colonial unity and sparked the formation of the Continental Army. What were the motivations and consequences of the Battle of Bunker Hill?

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Civilian War Experience: The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

How did the experience of the Civil War differ from multiple perspectives, including that of women, children, and other civilians? Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park is a 2,923 acre site that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War. While the site is best known for the battle that took place there, it is often forgotten that there was a thriving community surrounding the Mountain.

Antietam National Battlefield

Women in the Civil War

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

This lesson plan can be used to help your students explore some of the important roles that women had during the Civil War.

Civil War to Civil Rights Trading Cards

Type: Online Galleries
Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Collect stories about the Civil War and civil rights! The National Park Service is offering more than 500 trading cards to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Antietam National Battlefield

War at Your Doorstep: The Story of the Mumma Family at the Battle of Antietam

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

This lesson plan uses primary and secondary sources related to the Mumma Farm and family to help students understand how the Battle of Antietam and its aftermath had a profound and lasting impact on the Mumma family and other families near the battlefield.

The Forgotten Warriors of the Civil War

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

The Forgotten Warriors of the Civil War is the story of the tragic effect that the American Civil War had upon the tribes of the Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma). More than any other particular group in the United States at the time, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole (the Five Civilized Tribes) were divided between loyalty to the Union and the secessionist Southern states. This lesson will teach students about why this “civil war within a civil war” occurred.

Cane River Creole National Historical Park

The Civil War Comes to Louisiana

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Scott's Great Snake also known as the Anaconda Plan.

Cowpens National Battlefield

The Battle of Cowpens: The Battle Geography

Type: Field Trips
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

To show students how Carolina backcountry geography affected the course of the Battle of Cowpens

Gateway Arch National Park

Civil War in the West Traveling Trunk

Type: Traveling Trunk
Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

What was it like to live in the Midwest during the Civil War? This traveling trunk will explore the Civil War through the eyes of two children who grew up in St. Louis during the nineteenth century. Although they did not live on the edge of any major battles, they felt the conflict and tension that the war years brought with it.

Chatham Plantation: Witness to the Civil War

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Learn why this home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was a center of military activity, and consider the impact the war had on those whose property became part of the battlefield.

Andersonville National Historic Site

The American Civil War: A Humanitarian Perspective

Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Learning about humanitarian law helps students connect lessons of the past with the issues of the present. Students will explore historical events through the lives of those who experienced the American Civil War and will participate in hands-on exercises that make for challenging and exciting class projects and discussions. The lessons will also help students develop critical thinking skills and character.

Fort Scott National Historic Site

Saws and Scalpels: Civil War Medicine

Type: Distance Learning
Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Most of us today would not want to go the hospital if we could help it, because we associate hospitals with sickness and injury. However, because these two conditions occur with a great degree of regularity, hospitals often become a necessity to help us recover. During the Civil War, soldiers and civilians attached similar meanings to hospitals-a place of suffering, yes, but also a place of healing and recovery.

Fort Donelson National Battlefield

Civil War Nurse Mary A. Newcomb

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

Nineteenth century women and young girls were restricted by societal norms and customs, particularly what was perceived as appropriate choices for their education or careers. It was acceptable by 1860 for women to become teachers, but not so for women who wanted to serve as doctors or nurses. Through her efforts and struggles as a volunteer, Mary Ann Newcomb became recognized as a nurse in the United States Military, achieving a pension for her four-year service.

Fort Pickens and the Outbreak of the Civil War

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

The peaceful surroundings--white sugar-sand beaches, clumps of golden sea oats, and the soothing sounds of coastal waves pounding on the shores of a long barrier island--belie the serious purpose of Fort Pickens, located on Santa Rosa Island in Florida. One of the largest brick forts built in the United States, Fort Pickens provided the setting for a serious effort by a small group of men to avert or at least postpone the outbreak of the Civil War.

Gettysburg National Military Park

Tide of Battle

Type: Distance Learning
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

There were many "turning point" moments of the Battle of Gettysburg, each critical to the battle's ultimate outcome. In three-part virtual field trip/distance learning program, students will analyze primary source documents including maps, officers' reports, and soldier accounts, from three different Union regiments and then developing their own response to the essential question of which they believed to have been the most important "turning point."

Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park

Battling Disease

Type: Lesson Plan
Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

In this lesson, students will answer the following essential questions: How has the prevention and battling of health threats changed between the US-Mexican War and today?

Kings Mountain National Military Park

The Battle of Kings Mountain

Type: Student Activities
Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

The Battle of Kings Mountain (October 7, 1780) was one of the most dramatic and hotly contested battles of the Revolutionary War. On an isolated ridge top in the Carolina backcountry, nearly 1000 American Patriots surrounded and overwhelmed an approximately equal number of American Loyalists.