In an interview available on House Divided’s YouTube channel, Kate Larson explains several myths surrounding the famous Underground Railroad conductor, Harriet Tubman. “The most important ones to talk about,” she explains “is the myth about returning to the south nineteen times and rescuing 300 people.” She further expounds that these myths developed from an early Tubman biography by Sarah Bradford. If interested in following the development of such a myth, Bradford’s book, “Harriet, the Moses of Her People,” is available at the ever expanding Google Books, a great place resource for early Tubman historiography and myths.

The National Park Service is looking to expand upon its Underground Railroad stops in its National Register of National Historic Places.  By visiting , “Aboard the Underground Railroad: A National Register Travel Itinerary” you can help the NPS. At the website, one can explore stops on the Underground Railroad, both in the North and South, and even a few stops in the territories. The site is also useful in offering a “Learn More” page, , where additional sources regarding the Underground Railroad can be found, including web resources.

With your help, by applying to the National Register of Historic Places to add your historic Underground Railroad site, this website and tool can only grow and become more useful.

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln website recently inlcuded a link to samples of New Lincoln Documents.  The site offers a sample of pieces that Lincoln either authored or upon which he penned “substantial” endorsements.  Any fan of Lincoln should be intrigued to learn that none of these documents appeared in prior collections of Lincoln’s papers.  Although personal letters make up the bulk of this new subset, the compilation also includes government documents and endorsements.   For those who simply cannot get enough Lincoln, this is certainly a site to visit in the near future!

The Gilder Lehrman Institute just added a new podcast on Abraham Lincoln’s political career during the early 1850s. In “Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point,” Lewis E. Lehrman explains how in October 1854 Lincoln “argu[ed ] that slavery was incompatible with the Founders’ vision of America as articulated in the Declaration of Independence.”  While House Divided does not have a transcript of Lincoln’s speech, one is available through the University of Michigan Digital Library.

Other lectures are also available at the Gilder Lehrman Institute (full list here), including James McPherson’s “Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam” and David Blight’s “The Civil War in American Memory.”

Late last year, Michael Burlingame published a two volume collection titled Abraham Lincoln: A Life. Civil War Memory, another Civil War era focused blog, has a post relating to this publication and Mr. Burlingame himself. More importantly, the post contains a great video (separated into Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) of Mr. Burlingame speaking at Illinois College. For anyone who has used the book in a class or is interested in his work, I think watching this video would be of great value.

To see naval officers in uniform walking around New York city in 2009 is unremarkable. Yet in November 1859 a lieutenant wrote the New York Herald to address the fact “that a great number of naval officers are seen daily in the streets and public places in uniform.” While careful to note that he was not “ashamed of [his] uniform,” this officer believed such public display was wrong. “In our republican country,” as he explained, “it is not customary for offices of either “arm of national defense” to war their uniforms, save on special occasions.”

This letter is available on House Divided – while a transcript has not been posted, you can access the page image.

One of the better resources on the website for the Civil War Preservation Trust are the very interesting, informative, and entertaining animated battle maps. Rather than just show the course of a battle through static maps, these flash-based animations such as Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville show highly detailed troop movements while providing all the information necessary to explain the battles. These maps are very useful for visually understanding the course of a battle.

Other maps include Chantilly, Cedar Creek, and Bentonville. All are worth a look.

Sometime simplistic websites are just the resource needed to teach even some of the most complex and important issues. Abraham Lincoln is a clear example of a topic which contains countless resources both on and offline. The History Place is a simple, yet effective, website which covers a vast variety of topics. For example, their page on A Timeline of Lincoln contains great information and links presented in a clear and concise manner. The timeline, as well as the rest of the site, is defiantly worth browsing.

The battle of Antietam is considered to be one of the most important battles in the civil war. Many valuable resources are scattered amongst text books, in archives, and around the web. Antietam on the Web serves as a great source to bring some of these resources together in one place. Recognized by organizations such as PBS and The History Channel, the site features databases filled with information on weapons, timelines, and even a searchable participants list. The site contains great information students, as well as teacher resources. When covering this battle, I highly recommend browsing through the site.

When it comes to history, preserving it is as important as learning it.

Preserving the hallowed grounds of the Civil War is the mission of the Civil War Preservation Trust. The mission of this non-profit organization is “the preservation of our nation’s endangered Civil War battlefields” and to promote “educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public of the war’s history and the fundamental conflicts that sparked it.”

Not only does the Trust’s website explain the group and its mission, it also has a number of useful tools and pages. This includes an extensive collection of videos of various battlefields, an interactive library of Civil War books, and a classroom and history center. It is clearly evident that the Civil War Preservation Trust is doing great things to preserve and teach this important era in our nation’s past. �