The Process
- Choose
the event
You
will be creating a series of five journal entries that focus on one event that
took place during the Civil War so the first thing to do is to decide what event
interests you. Use this chart to
help you explore some initial topics. When
you find one that interests you, explore it using the following links.
|
Fort Sumter |
Battle of Bull Run |
|
Battle of the
“Monitor” and the “Merrimac” |
Battle of Shiloh |
|
The Peninsular
Campaign |
Battle of Seven
Pines |
|
Harper’s Ferry |
Antietam |
|
The Vicksburg
Campaign |
Gettysburg |
|
Grant’s
Wilderness Campaign |
Surrender at
Appomattox |
|
Richmond Falls to
the Union |
Seven Days’
Battles |
Look at the Time Line of The Civil War to see information on the events above. Make a decision after you look at these events on which event you feel would be the most interesting to write about. Remember, you should choose an event that has plenty of action to fill your journal pages with.
The
American Civil War Homepage: Take a look at the Images
of the Civil War to help you gain a visual of the way things looked back
then. Use this website to help you incorporate visual details
into your journal entries.
- Choose
your point of view. Whose perspective are you going to write
from? Choose one of the following perspectives to write your journal
from:
|
A Confederate
Soldier |
A Union Soldier |
|
An Abolitionist in
the North |
A young girl in the
south whose father and brother just left to fight in the war and left her
and her mother to take care of the families farm. |
|
A Black soldier
fighting for the North |
A Civilian
witnessing the war from their own home. |
- Collect the background information you’ll need to make your diary accurate and begin writing your journal entries. To help you gain perspective take a look at some actual diaries written during the time period. Pay close attention to the writing style and language.
- Letters
from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War
(use this website to help you gain
an awareness of how a soldier writes…pay particular attention to the
battle descriptions to aid in your descriptions of battle.)
- Selected
Civil War Photographs (use
this website to help you gain the ability to describe more clearly the way
things may have looked during the time period)
- The
History Place: A Nation Divided
- America's
Story: The Civil War
- American
Memory Timeline of the Civil War
4.
Now begin writing your journal.
You should pay attention to the language you use and what you are
describing. Remember, you are
attempting to make your reader believe you were actually there during this
event. But, it is also fiction! You must
make up some portion of this but base the actual entry on fact.
