We will be starting a unit on the Civil War. There will be three groups of students that will all be reading different books. Below are summaries of the books. Read each summary and decide which book interests you the most.
Soldier's Heart
In June 1861, when the Civil War began, Charley Goddard left his farm and enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers. He was fifteen. He didn't rightly know what a "shooting war" meant, or what he was fighting for. All he knew was that he didn't want to miss out on a great adventure.
The shooting was meant the horror of combat and the wild luck of survival. It meant knowing how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. Waiting for death. And Charley learned: This is how it's done.
When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different. He was only nineteen, but he was a man to have "soldier's heart."
Blue or Gray? A Family Divided
The Civil War was a war of Americans against Americans. It was fought on American soil. Neighbors fought against neighbors. Cousins fought against cousins. Even brothers fought against each other.
As the root of struggle was the issue of slavery. In 1860 Americans elected a new president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had promised not to end slavery in the states where it already existed. Most people in the South did not believe him. After his election, South Carolina seceded from, or left, the Union. (The Union was another name for the United States.) Six other states followed in January 1861. Together the states formed their own nation, the Confederate States of America.
The Underground Railroad
From colonial times until the end of the Civil War, slavery was part of life in America. Many places depended on the work of enslaved Africans. But slaves wanted to be free.
Over time, the idea of slavery began to trouble some Americans. Many who were troubled were Quakers, members of the Society of Friends, a religious group. Quakers did not believe in slavery. Some began to help slaves escape. Gradually, an informal network of trails and safe houses grew to help slaves run away to freedom. The network was called the Underground Railroad.
