The Becker Collection is a great digital project from Boston College that contains over 600 drawings by Joseph Becker and others who worked for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. The “Featured Images” slideshow provides a nice introduction to what is available in the collection. These drawings cover a range of Civil War related topics, such as camp life, military ceremonies and discipline, panoramas and landscapes, and ships. Other topics include the Chicago fire, political cartoons, and the Trans-Atlantic cable. Biographies of the artists featured in this collection are also available.

The Denver Public Library has a nice digital collection of images related to various topics in Western history. While not available to download for free, each set of images can still be viewed as a slideshow – these include “Railroads,” “On the Trail and Covered Wagon,” “Western Life,” and “Wild West Shows.” Other digital collections from the Denver Public Library are available here.

William G. Thomas III and Edward L. Ayers have a piece of digital scholarship entitled “The Differences Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities” that analyzes Augusta County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania in the period just before the Civil War.  While the scope of the article is to relate how slavery affected these two small communities, it contains some important analysis of the election of 1860 as well.  The method follows closely that used by Ayers in his excellent book In the Presence of Mine Enemies.  Analyzing primary documents from these two small towns close to the Mason-Dixon line sheds new light on previously held notions of how the buildup to the Civil War affected everyday Americans.  Of particular interest in this article is the summary of Politics and the Election of 1860 and the “points of analysis” from these towns in the Campaign of 1860 and the Election of 1860.  The digital format of this article makes it particularly compelling as the authors’ points about each county can be summarized briefly in a side-by-side manner, and then expanded upon by clicking the link if more information is needed.  In this expanded view of the argument, there are links to all of the supporting evidence and historiography at the bottom.

Rice University’s project The Papers of Jefferson Davis has been blogged about earlier, but there are two documents relevant to the Election of 1860 that I wanted to point out.  The project is an attempt to compile all of Davis’s documents into a 15-volume set (twelve of which has been published so far), and in the process some of the important letters and speeches have been digitized as well.  Volume 6 of the collection contains materials from the years 1856-1860, particularly two important documents from 1860: an Address to the National Democracy in May 1860 and a speech from Washington, D.C. in July 1860.  The first document is a summary of the events of the Democratic National Convention that took place in Charleston and resulted in the splitting of the party into two factions over the slavery issue.  Davis actually praises the “lofty manifestation of adherence to principle” displayed on the part of the Southern delegates who withdrew from the convention, but insists that if the demands of the Southern delegates are met during the new Baltimore convention “no motive will remain for refusing to unite with their sister States.”  He appears to believe that the demands of the Southern “fire-eaters” may still be met by the other half of the Democratic party, and the party can unite once again in time for the election.  The address urges Southern democrats to await the outcome of the Baltimore convention before holding their own convention in Richmond, and was affirmed by 18 members of Congress.  Jefferson Davis’s speech from Washington, D.C. in July of 1860 presents a markedly different tone.  The speech is short, but it sends the powerful message that although the Democratic party is split, it is not dead.  He contrasts the Southern Democratic party with the other three parties, calling the Northern Democrats a “spurious and decayed off-shoot of democracy,” and bemoaning “Abe Lincoln’s efforts to rend the Union.”  Finally he endorses John Breckinridge for president, declaring that “he has split a hundred rails to Lincoln’s one!”  These two primary documents demonstrate the progression of the splitting of the Democratic party in a very clear way, from the hopeful moment that the party can again unify to the finality of the factions nominating different candidates for president.

“A Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment,” which is available from the Library of Congress, features Captain Tilton Reynolds correspondence with his family between 1861 and 1864. Reynolds, who joined the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers as a seventeen year old private, became a prisoner of war after the Battle of Fair Oaks in May 1862 and was exchanged four months later. Hereceived a commission in November 1864. (A timeline is available). Forty-six letters in this collection have been transcribed, including one from October 1861 in which Reynolds described President Abraham Lincoln. As “President Lincoln and his Wife and child went By In a two horse Carriage,” Reynolds explained how “Lincoln laughed when he seen us all standing looking at him.” “[Lincoln] looks a good deal like his picture only he is better looking,” as Reynolds concluded. In addition, this exhibit includes correspondence from other members of Reynolds’ extended family as well as from a family friend who also served in the Wild Cat Regiment. A short essay provides more information on these individuals.

I already described DocSouth’s online exhibit on antebellum students at UNC-Chapel Hill, but this letter from March 1861 provides an interesting example of the Upper South’s role in the secession crisis. Even though “Lincoln’s inaugural…amounts to coersion [sic],” John Halliburton believed that “[he could] hate him and still love the Union.” Pro-secession editorials were “absurdities,” as Halliburton noted. Of course many southerners reached similar conclusions. The Fayetteville Observer reported in February 1861 that Tennessee voters “not only [gave] an overwhelming majority for the Union candidates, but voted down the [Secession] Convention itself.” Yet their support for the Union was not unconditional. Disunion remained an option under the right conditions. While the Observer never expected any “violation of [the South’s] rights from [Lincoln’s] administration,” this conditional unionist newspaper considered secession a legitimate response. After Confederates attacked Fort Sumter and President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers in April 1861, North Carolina left the Union and Halliburton presumably changed his mind as he enlisted in the Confederate army later that year.

On February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln made a landmark speech in his political career at the Cooper Institute in Manhattan, now known as the Cooper Union Address.  This speech catapulted the Illinois senator onto the national scene and Lincoln scholars such as Harold Holzer believe that this speech secured his nomination as the Republican party candidate.  By extension, this address is seen as a pivotal moment in 1860 that made Lincoln president.  Whether or not this was the moment that Lincoln secured his presidency, the speech is critical to any study of the election of 1860.  It introduced Lincoln to an audience in the East and caught the attention of Republican party leaders there as well.  Lincoln chose to discuss the views of the framers of the Constitution on slavery and states’ rights, a topic that required a great deal of in-depth research.  The speech is heavily grounded in historical fact, and shows Lincoln’s ability to articulate his ideas in a clear, logical fashion.  In addition to the speech, a photograph (seen at right) taken of Lincoln before the address by Matthew Brady became crucial to the presidential campaign as many campaign posters were based on it.  In compiling its digital exhibition celebrating Lincoln’s bicentennial entitled With Malice Towards None, the Library of Congress included the Cooper Union Address and the Cooper Union Portrait in its section on the Road to the Nomination.  This project contains an 1860 copy of the speech as campaign literature.

“Under the Rebel Flag: Life in Texas during the Civil War” is a new online exhibit available from the Texas State Library & Archives Commission. Even though it focuses is on a single state, teachers from across the country should be able to find material to use in their classrooms. The exhibit breaks down this period into nine sections that provide concise overviews of major topics and key events. Relevant primary sources, including historical images and letters (transcripts are available), are also in each section. One particularly interesting letter is in the Dissent section and provides an example of how one Texas community responded to an abolitionist in their midst – a Committee of Safety warned that he would face “Mob law” unless “[he left] our Country at once.” Be sure to check out the Texas State Library’s other online exhibits, including “Hard Road to Texas: Texas Annexation 1836-1845.”

The National Archives has put together a great collection of materials highlighting the role that African-American soldiers played in the Civil War. Documents include letters highlighting the treatment of black prisoners of war by the Confederates, partial service records for Frederick Douglass’s sons, and partial service records for Sgt. William Carney, who received a Medal of Honor. No suggested grade levels were present on the website, so it is left up to individual teachers to create the level of difficulty appropriate for students.

The activities included not only analyze the primary sources in terms of content with a provided worksheet, but ask students to synthesize and apply the information in one of four possible scenarios. Over all, the lesson activities are a bit weak when compared to the type of documents provided, yet under the heading ‘Further Research’ the lesson plan suggests students read and analyze Robert Lowell’s poem “Colonel Shaw and the Massachusetts’ 54^th” (also known as “For the Union Dead,” available here) which is a great way to create an interdisciplinary lesson.

On the other hand, if one is looking for other ideas, the Civil War Preservation Trust offers a lesson plan on the United States Colored Troops, for grades six through eight. Using enlistment papers for a colored solider as well as two period illustrations, it guides teachers through several activities that ask students to describe, explain, and analyze information. The lesson plan is well thought out and can easily be supplemented with the documents made available by the National Archives.

The University of South Carolina has a nice digital collection of over two hundred broadsides from the Colonial Era to the present. One can find broadsides related to secession, the Civil War, and a number of other topics. Almost all of the broadsides in this collection were originally printed in South Carolina. Other digital collections are available through the South Carolina Digital Library.