Love and War: Civil War Love Letters Primary Source Analysis

Unique Civil War Primary Source Activity. Students will analyze ten primary source "Love Letters" from 1861-1864 in order to analyze a shifting society through the preferred communication medium of the time-- letters. Students will use these documents to answer the essential question: "Who, or what, did people love during the Civil War?"

Students may assume that these love letters will reveal that soldiers mainly loved their spouse or significant other. While that is overwhelmingly true, after reading the love letters closely, students will soon look past the romance and dig deeper into other topics mentioned in these love letters-- women advocating for education, women taking on new roles in the household, women having opinions about politics and current events, men revealing their dedication to country and cause, men revealing a weakened dedication to country and cause, the importance of religion, as well as a theme of recognizing a common humanity in the enemy. (And FYI-- yes, the famous Sullivan Ballou letter is part of this lesson. Your students will love it!)

CIVIL WAR LOVE LETTERS is a lesson your students will not forget. These letters reveal more than a simple love for their sweetheart; they pull back layers that allow students to move past the romance and dig in to the social climate of the time. Fantastic group discussion can be generated about the shifting role of women as well as the concept of what it means to be a man in the 1860's.

Included:

- Ten Letters (six from Union, four from Confederacy) with space for student annotations

- Graphic Organizer to help organize thoughts about the essential question

- Writing Assignment for students to make a claim then defend their claim using text support.

- Sample annotations to help guide your teaching with each document and/or use for modeling.

- Sample Graphic Organizer to guide your teaching or to use with modeling for students. (There are many possibilities with this organizer as student responses will vary, but at least it's a starting place).

This lesson is best for grades 8-12, but could be an extension assignment for TAG grades 7 & 8.

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