Children of the Civil War Helps The Past Come Alive

For many teachers, the issue of making the past come alive for their students is a common one. Historical events can seem too distant to be relevant in students' lives, especially in the age of video and computer games. However, Children of the Civil War by Candice Ransom can help students connect to the ways in which children were impacted by the important events surrounding the American Civil War.

The book profiles the lives of both northern and southern children before, during and after the Civil War. The text is accompanied by a wide variety of photographs and drawings from the period, exposing students to primary documents and making the realities of being a child during wartime tangible. The before period provides students with a quick overview of the relevant facts from the 200+ years of American history leading up to the war. The accompanying pictures of children playing outside of a plantation home juxtaposed with slave children  and their families send a powerful message regarding the stratification of society at the time. The second chapter, "A War-Torn Land," is the meat and potatoes of the book, profiling child soldiers, women and children left behind by men gone off to fight and slave families yearning for freedom. Ransom does a great job comparing and contrasting how children in the North and South were affected by the war, both in very different ways. Finally, the book concludes with a look at the extent to which life resumed after the war and reflects the changes in light of the terrible conflict that had just occurred. One quote from a Louisiana girl, Celine Fremaux, really highlighted for me the cost of the war, "Childhood had slipped away from me, never to return."

This book was eye-opening, even for a history major. The pictures spoke the realities of war and the text was extremely informative and easy to read. I would use this book as a read-aloud to give my class a child's perspective on the issue and to help students connect to a unit on the Civil War. I would also use this book to help students learn to interpret primary documents, a valuable skill necessary for higher level comprehension. Older students would not have an issue interpreting the text and pictures on their own but younger readers would need a bit of help processing.