A Primary Source History of the US Civil War

By John Micklos, Jr.

What was it like to be part of the U.S. Civil War? Personal accounts, newspaper stories, and other primary sources give students an opportunity to see what it was like to live during this amazing time in history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
• Release date: May 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781496665140

John Micklos, Jr.

John Micklos, Jr. has written more than 50 children’s books spanning a wide range of ages and genres. His work includes picture books, poetry books, and numerous nonfiction books. Popular titles include One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count with Me! (Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017), which was chosen for inclusion in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program for multiple years. John’s other top-selling books include 125 True Stories of Amazing Pets (contributor) and 125 Cute Animals (contributor), both published by National Geographic Kids. He also has written dozens of biographies, history books, and social studies books for educational publishers such as Capstone and Cavendish Square. Biographies include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Amelia Earhart, Alexander Graham Bell, Abraham Lincoln, Muhammad Ali, Sequoyah, Geronimo, and others. History topics include the Revolutionary War (six-book series), Civil War, Challenger tragedy, Gold Rush, Lewis and Clark Expedition, and many others. A resident of Newark, Delaware, John enjoys visiting schools (in person or via Zoom) and conducting writing workshops with students of all ages. His presentations and workshops center on writing poetry, nonfiction, and persuasive pieces, as well as the art of research and revision, to name just a few. Learn more about John’s work at www.JohnMicklosWriter.com.

Book preview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

A NOTE ABOUT PRIMARY SOURCES

A DIVIDED NATION

HOPES FOR A QUICK WAR FADE

BACK AND FORTH

NORTHERN VICTORIES

GROWING PRESSURE

THE END AND A NEW BEGINNING

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

GLOSSARY

INDEX

COPYRIGHT

BACK COVER

A NOTE ABOUT PRIMARY SOURCES

Primary sources are newspaper articles, photographs, speeches, or other documents that were created during an event. They are great ways to see how people spoke and felt during that time. You’ll find primary sources from the time of the Civil War throughout this book. Within the text, primary source quotations are colored brown and set in italic type.

A DIVIDED NATION

Cannon fire boomed throughout and all around Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The roaring and crackling of the flames, the dense masses of whirling smoke, the bursting of the enemy’s shells, and our own which were exploding in the burning rooms, the crashing of the shot, and the sound of masonry falling in every direction, made the fort a pandemonium, wrote Abner Doubleday, one of the fort’s defenders.

Confederate forces fired