What was it like to enlist as a soldier in the Civil War? By using enlistment papers, young scholars consider this question. After they've looked at the primary source and discussed it, they create a short story of a fictional soldier to explain what they learned.

Concepts

civil war, the united states civil war, soldiers, military history, the military, military draft, primary source analysis, primary source images, primary sources

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Use discussion questions to analyze the included primary source and others related to the topic
• Ask scholars to write a letter home, diary entry, or short story to demonstrate their learning

Classroom Considerations

• Pupils may need some background on the Civil War to understand the context of the activity

Pros

• Activity compares the experiences of a Union soldier to relatable experiences for a young person today
• Primary source image is intriguing

Cons

• Not all the documents mentioned in the resource are included

Common Core

RH.6-8.2