The Library of Congress provides a wealth of resources for teachers to use in the classroom. Most helpful are the themed Collection Connections, which seek to give historical context to the Library’s collections and assist teachers in using them in the classroom. One of these Collection Connections is on the Abraham Lincoln papers. In this section, documents by Abraham Lincoln have been selected for each of several categories. These resources are invaluable for anyone studying the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. One of the categories is Lincoln’s 1860 presidential campaign. There are four key documents included to illustrate this period of Lincoln’s life, including speech notes, campaign posters, and a letter. This selection of a few key documents serves to underscore the main themes and events of the campaign, and there are discussion questions included as well for teachers to use in the classroom. The page presents the information in a clear way but requires a critical reading of the texts as well. To help students further analyze the documents, there is a critical thinking page designed to give assistance with interpretation and analysis of events during Abraham Lincoln’s lifetime.
The Noah Heart Papers at Dominican University offer an interesting perspective on the Civil War from a Union officer. Noah, who served with the 10th Michigan Infantry, wrote a number of letters to his wife, Emily, between 1862 and 1865. His regiment took part in several campaigns, including General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea. While outside Atlanta in August 1864, Noah described one of the problems with his regiment’s supply chain. The 10th Michigan Infantry “lines of communication..are of immense length already,” and as Noah observed, “the farther we penetrate into the enemies country the more they become exposed.” “[If [the Confederates] should cut off our Cracker and Bacon line,” Noah concluded that “we would be in a pretty fix.” This collection also includes Noah’s military records, parts of Noah’s diary, newspaper clippings related to the Hart family (such as Noah’s obituary), and several photographs.
Editor’s Comments:
This essay was originally prepared for an exhibit co-sponsored by the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg and available online at http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/stoker/
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.
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’ 54th” (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.
The Robert C. Caldwell Collection at East Carolina University offers an interesting perspective on life in the South during the Civil War. The collection consists primarily of Robert Caldwell’s letters to his wife between August 1863 and February 1865. He served with the 10th Battalion North Carolina Heavy Artillery, which remained in eastern North Carolina until they were sent to Georgia November 1864. Caldwell owned slaves, but by June 1864 he hoped that “this cruel war” would end and “let…Soldiers return home to our love ones in pece [sic].” In addition, this collection includes several letters from members of his extended family – Private Amzi Harris, who served in the 9th Mississippi Volunteer Regiment, wrote two letters in late 1861 that described Confederate operations in Florida. Mary W. Driskill, who lived on a farm in Georgia with her daughter, explained the hardships she faced while her husband served in the army.