Laura Kloock
TPS Summer Institute
Disease and Death: The Life of a Civil War Soldier
Overview: Students will use primary sources to analyze the life of Civil War soldiers
through photographs and letters to determine what a typical man went through.
Goal: Students will be able to explain conditions faced by the average Union or
Confederate soldier and what dangers were faced on an almost daily basis.
Objectives:
• The students will be able to discuss the dangers of camp life for soldiers during the
Civil War.
• The students will be able to analyze photographs and letters from Civil War soldiers.
Guiding Question: What was camp life like for the average American Civil War soldier?
Time Required: 1 class period
Recommended Grade Range: 6 – 8
Subject Area: Social Studies/Civil War
Standards:
• 8.1.8.B
• 8.3.8.B
• CC.8.5.6-8.B
• CC.8.5.6-8.F
• CC.8.5.6-8.G
• CC.8.6.6-8.A
Materials Used: Primary source analysis tools, photographs, letters, paper, pencils
Resources Used:
• "The Civil War by the Numbers." The American Experience. PBS, n.d. Web. 25 July
2013. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/generalarticle/death-numbers/>.
• Gardner, Alexander. The Sunken Road at Antietam. 1862. Photograph. Library of
Congress, Washington DC. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/whitman/wounddresser.html
• Perry, Martha D. Letters from a Surgeon of the Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1906.
Print. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00137634934
• Photo Analysis Worksheet. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records
Administration, n.d. PDF.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo_analysis_worksheet.pdf
Laura Kloock
TPS Summer Institute
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Wescott, M. Ebenezer. Civil War Letters. Mora, Minnesota: Ebenezer Wescott, 1909.
Print. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00013811222
Wounded Soldiers from the Battles in the "Wilderness" at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
1864. Photograph. Library of Congress, Washington DC.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/whitman/wounddresser.html
Written Document Analysis Worksheet. Washington, DC: National Archives and
Records Administration, n.d. PDF.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/written_document_analysis_w
orksheet.pdf
Instructional Procedures
1. Working in small groups and given index cards with prerecorded data, students will
participate in an activity where they will match statistical numbers to the correct
“record” set during the Civil War. For example, 504 deaths per day, 2.1 million
Union troops, 880,000 Southern troops, 2 out of 3 deaths that occurred from disease
rather than battle.
2. Using the Photo Analysis Worksheet from the National Archives website, students
will analyze two photographs, one portraying Union soldiers outside of a hospital
and one showing dead soldiers in the sunken road at Antietam. Students will then
report to the rest of the class what they analyzed, reflecting on what military life
must have been like for the soldiers during the Civil War.
3. Students will then be asked to analyze primary source letters from the Civil War.
Working collaboratively, students will fill out the National Archives Written
Document Analysis Worksheet, where they have to pick out what is important, why
it was written, and what it tells you about life in the United States for these soldiers.
Assessment
4. To assess comprehension, students will be assigned an independent LDC writing
task: LDC Task 5 – After researching informational texts and primary source
documents on living conditions during the Civil War, write a letter to President
Lincoln in which you discuss the dangers of camp life and evaluate a plan to improve
living conditions. Support your position with evidence from your research.