![\"Matthew](\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/civilwar\/files\/2013\/05\/TAH-trip.jpg\")
<\/a>Matthew Pinsker touring with a TAH group from Utah in 2011<\/p><\/div>\n
It will be a bittersweet three days for me on June 4, 5 and 6, 2013 when I travel under the auspices of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History<\/a> with K-12 educators from the Arkoma (OK) Teaching American History (TAH) grant to various battlefields and Civil War sites in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. \u00a0Bittersweet because despite what promises to be a terrific educational journey, this will be one of my last outings under this wonderful federal program<\/a>, which has been zeroed out of the federal budget.<\/p>\n Since TAH is coming to a close, I thought it was appropriate to share the materials that I will be highlighting with the Arkoma educators online –offering a kind of summary and resource guide that helps capture some of what I have been doing on dozens of these trips over the last several years with grant groups from all over the country. I will highlight here materials relevant to our four key stops between June 4-6, 2013: \u00a0Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, Antietam National Battlefield, Gettysburg National Military Park, and President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home.<\/p>\n Day One –Harpers Ferry<\/strong><\/p>\n First things first. \u00a0You’ll see Harpers Ferry spelled both with and without the apostrophe, but leaving out the apostrophe out is preferred. \u00a0 This is the place where John Brown led his famous (or infamous) raid in October 1859 that many argue was a critical turning point in the coming of the Civil War. \u00a0During the first half of the nineteenth century, the town became a unique industrial outpost in western Virginia, best known for the federal armory and arsenal where various types of munitions were built and stored. \u00a0That’s what made Harpers Ferry a target for abolitionist John Brown who hoped to use weapons seized from the armory to help support a massive effort to free slaves along the nearby Appalachian mountains. \u00a0Brown’s capture, trial and execution riveted the nation and cast a polarizing shadow over the election of 1860. \u00a0Later, during the Civil War, Harpers Ferry played a pivotal role in several Civil War campaigns, most notably during the Maryland invasion of September 1862.<\/p>\n The House Divided Project at Dickinson has created a host of free digital resources on Harpers Ferry, beginning with a large section in our research engine<\/a> that includes dozens of historic documents, images and reference materials. \u00a0Using a tool from Google called Sketch Up, we have created a set of 3D models of landmarks in Harpers Ferry<\/a>. Some of these models are also featured in a Google Earth tour of Underground Railroad sites<\/a> in the region that culminates at Harpers Ferry. \u00a0The main blog section of our project, entitled “Blog Divided,” aims to create short posts that provide a quick guide to teachable topics and resources from the Civil War era. \u00a0There are a number of helpful Blog Divided posts about Harpers Ferry, see especially the ones on digital resources<\/a> about John Brown’s raid,\u00a0southern newspaper reaction<\/a> to the raid, the\u00a0escape of some of the raiders <\/a>into Pennsylvania,\u00a0Brown’s execution<\/a>, the Senate investigating committee<\/a> which followed up on the raid, the\u00a01861 military campaigns<\/a>, and the\u00a01862 campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I bring educators to Harpers Ferry, I usually distribute two handouts. \u00a0The first offers a comparison of John Brown and Abraham Lincoln<\/a>. \u00a0It forces us to consider both how they were different but also how they were alike and it raises the larger, philosophical question about when Americans consider violence to be legitimate. The second provides an\u00a0excerpt from Brown’s statement<\/a>\u00a0at his sentencing. \u00a0This one offers insight into Brown’s eloquence and suggests that teaching him as some kind of insane terrorist underestimates his influence in antebellum America, relegating him to an extremist sideline that –perhaps– he only partly deserved. \u00a0Again, the goal with this exercise is not to bully students into moral judgments but rather to force them to consider moral complexity as they decide for themselves about right and wrong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Day One –Antietam<\/strong><\/p>\n The September 17, 1862 battle at Antietam Creek or Sharpsburg remains the bloodiest single day in American military history. \u00a0Few experiences are as somber as visiting this battlefield site and imagining the carnage that occurred over the space of that bloody day. \u00a0The National Park Service website on Antietam is especially useful for educators and includes\u00a0a timeline<\/a>,\u00a0gallery of\u00a0historic photographs<\/a>, and first-rate\u00a0curriculum materials<\/a>\u00a0including lesson plans, primary source packets, and various types of worksheets. \u00a0The best site for student research papers, however, is most certainly\u00a0Antietam on the Web<\/a>, which features\u00a0\u00a0links to all 315 of the\u00a0After-Action Reports<\/a>\u00a0published in the\u00a0Official Records<\/em>.<\/p>\n But for most classroom teachers, Antietam offers perhaps the Civil War’s most teachable turning point. \u00a0James McPherson has a terrific lecture on Antietam, videotaped in 2002 and available from the Gilder Lehrman Institute multi-media channel, explaining why the battle should be taught as a pivotal turning point of the war. \u00a0The 45-minute lecture can be supported quite nicely with a short essay on the same topic<\/a> from McPherson that is also available on the Gilder Lehrman website.
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