• Developers: Christie Stanczak, Park Ranger, Antietam National Battlefield
• Grade Level: Middle School
• Number of Sessions in the Lesson Unit Plan: Four lessons: Lessons 1-3 -- one class period each; lesson 4 and the final project - 2 class periods each.
  
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• Park Name: Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, MD
  
• Description:
  This lesson demonstrates how objects in the Antietam National Battlefield museum collection serve as primary sources for learning how the Battle of Antietam affected soldiers, local residents, and the nation. By examining similar objects in the classroom, students will also learn object analysis, active inquiry, observation, deduction and research skills.
  
  This unit includes four lessons and final project with corresponding activities using Antietam National Battlefield collections. The lessons below can stand alone or be done in sequence:
  
  
• Warm-Up Activity: "Battle of Antietam" documentary
• Lesson 1: "Deliver Us From this Terrible War"
• Lesson 2: "One Vast Hospital"
• Lesson 3: "This is Not the Way We Bury Folks at Home"
• Lesson 4: "Thenceforward and Forever Free"
• Final Project: "Broken Hearts Cannot be Photographed"
  

• Essential Question:
  • How did the Battle of Antietam and the subsequent issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation affect local civilians, soldiers and their families; and the nation?
  
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Social Studies
National Center for History in the Schools, United States History Content Standards for Grades 5 -12  http://www.nchs.ucla.edu/Standards/us-history-content-standards/us-era-5#section-2

• NSS-USH. 5-12.5. ERA 5: CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION (1850-1877)-Understands the course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people, 

Language Arts
Common Core Standards:  English Language Arts Standards » History/Social Studies » Grade 6-8, http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/6-8.

National Standards for Language Arts, National Council of Teachers of English http://www.educationworld.com/standards/national/lang_arts/english/k_12.shtml

Fine Arts: Consortium of National Arts Education Associations, National Standards for Arts Education, http://www.educationworld.com/standards/national/arts/visual_arts/5_8.shtml

See the attached PDF.

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Cannonading: heavy fire of artillery (cannons).
Casualty: soldier who has been killed, wounded, captured, or declared missing in battle.
Civilian: person who is not a soldier.
Confederate: Southern soldier during the American Civil War.
Dunker: member of the German Baptist Brethren Christian denomination who practice full immersion
in water during baptism. They are pacifists (opposed to war, violence and military service).
Emancipation Proclamation: The document the President Lincoln issued on January 1, 1862 to end slavery in areas in rebellion against the Union. (Enslaved persons in Border States like Maryland were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation).
Epitaph: Text or writing to honor the deceased person.
Manumission: setting free from slavery.
Stereoscope: an optical instrument that uses two images of an object to produce a single image of the object.
Re-inter: To re-bury something.
Union: Federal or northern side during the American Civil War.

CLICK HERE to download Vocabulary PDF.

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This unit includes four lessons and a final project involving the collections at the Antietam National Battlefield.

• Warm-Up Activity: Battle of Antietam documentary (6 minutes long).
• Lesson 1: “Deliver us from this Terrible War”
• Lesson 2: “One Vast Hospital”
• Lesson 3: “This is Not the Way We Bury Folks at Home”
• Lesson 4: “Thenceforward and Forever Free”
• Final Activity: “Broken Hearts Cannot be Photographed”

Lesson Plan 1: “Deliver us from this Terrible War”
Students will use museum objects and other primary sources to understand some of the problems that the local farmers faced in the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam. 

Skills:  Analysis of primary sources, writing, discussion, role-playing.

Activity:  Provide students with the “Background Information Sheet,” “Mumma Claim Record,” “Destroyed Mumma Farm," Alexander Gardner photo, and “James Hope Painting, ‘A Fateful Turn.’ (http://www.nps.gov/anti/photosmultimedia/Hope-Paintings.htm).” After students have studied the resources, show them the Museum Collection Item (photo of original letter), claim record, and photograph of Samuel and Elisabeth Mumma, and then have them read the text version of the James Clark letter  (“Deliver us from this Terrible War” activity handout), Students will then imagine that they are Samuel Mumma, Jr. and divide into small groups to to write a response.  Afterwards, students will read Mr. Mumma’s actual response to Sgt. Clark and  compare and contrast their responses to the actual response.

Background Information: 


Lesson 2:  “One Vast Hospital:”
Students will use a museum object and other primary sources to understand medical care in the aftermath of battle.

Skills:  Analysis of primary sources, writing, discussion, role-playing, map-reading.

Activity: 

• Students examine the surgeon’s kit in Antietam’s museum collection and complete the How to Read an Object worksheet.  They compare and contrast similar items (modern first aid kit, Clara Barton’s first aid kit, and military trauma kit, and study historic photographs of the field hospitals).
• Students will then read diary entries, letters, and quotes from doctors, wounded soldiers and others who helped with medical care in the aftermath of battle. 
• Students reflect on what they have read and assume the role of a doctor, soldier, or civilian involved in care of the wounded and write a journal entry about their experience, report to the commanding surgeon on hospital conditions or provide written instructions to a nurse for the short and long term care of the sick and wounded.
• Students develop a list of items that Clara Barton would have brought with her to the battlefield.  Groups role play how she would have handled the immediate and after care of the wounded.
• Concluding activity: Students examine the cane, its manufacture and uses and then discuss what types of activities would occupy them as modern or Civil War soldier if they were recovering from a wound or illness.  Students research advances in prosthetic limbs from the Civil War to modern time and report their findings. 

Lesson 3:  “This is Not the Way We Bury Folks at Home”
Pvt. Roland Bowen, 15th Mass Infantry. 

Skills:  Reading, writing, drawing, analysis of primary sources.

Background Information

Activity:  Students l analyze museum objects associated with burials on the field, historic photographs of some of the burial details, handout of soldiers buried in the Antietam National Cemetery, (link to pdf “These Honored Dead”, (link to pdf) photograph of National Cemetery headstones, and background information on the Antietam National Cemetery.  Students will then complete the “How to Read a Museum Object” worksheet for the wooden headboard.  Afterwards they will read the primary source handout (link to pdf “This is not how we bury folks at home” handout), and newspaper article.  Student will use large format paper to draw and design their own private or military cemetery and corresponding headstones based on the following questions:

• Who is the cemetery for: Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers, soldiers from both sides or civilians?
• How have you identified people buried in your cemetery?  What types of gravestone or markers do they have?  Are there epitaphs?  Are all of the markers different or the same?  How are gravestones for unknown soldiers marked?
• How do you want to lay out your cemetery?  Does it have a wall; are the graves chronological or alphabetical?  What is your policy on recently discovered remains, where are they buried? Will the cemetery have any monuments or memorials or other commemorative objects?  What type of landscaping does your cemetery have?
• What can you add to the cemetery to make it easy to find people buried there?  What other types of things might be appreciated by cemetery visitors?
• Who will take care of the cemetery 100 years from now?

Students then serve on “committees” and listen to the cemetery designers give a “tour” of their cemetery.  They will discuss the various pros and cons of the different cemetery plans.  They will then vote on their favorite plan.

As a concluding activity, students will write a newspaper article on various issues such as locating graves, identifying soldiers, or the creation and dedication of a community war memorial.

Lesson 4:  Emancipation:  “Thenceforward and Forever Free”

Activity (two class periods):  

Activity: Class Period 1-Students will examine Nancy Camel’s carte-de-visite and compare it to other historic photographs. Students will then complete a “How to Read a Photograph” worksheet and design their own carte-de-visit. 

Skills:  Reading, writing, utilizing primary sources, visual arts.

Activity:  Nancy Camel carte-de-visite. Students: Complete the How to Read a Photograph chart on Nancy Camel’s photograph

• Read the article by Charnes,G. Keeping History Cartes-de-Visite - the first pocket photographs published by the Nantucket Historical Association. 
• Study the selected historic photographs
• Make their own carte-de-visite and write a detailed caption.  For a digital photograph, drawing, or painting use their own clothing and belongings that are personally meaningful. These will be included in the exhibit.

Class Period 2:  Students will examine the Emancipation Proclamation and background information on Nancy Camel and Jerry Summers (link to pdf of “Lesson 4 background materials”) and  work in small groups to complete “ Written Document Analysis” (link to webpage http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/written_document_analysis_worksheet.pdf)
worksheet on Nancy Camel’s manumission paper.  Students will then “interview” Nancy (a free woman) and Jerry (who would have still been enslaved after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued because he lived in the border state of Maryland), and write a newspaper article that covers how each responded to the social, financial, and personal ramifications of slavery and this granting of freedom. 

Skills:  Reading, writing, using primary sources, working together in small groups.
Museum Objects:  Manumission paper of Nancy Camel.
Similar Items: 

• Text copy of Manumission paper
• Copy of the Emancipation Proclamation,
• Map of free, slave, and Border States.

Background Information Text

Final Project:  ”Broken Hearts Cannot be Photographed”

Skills: Research, creative presentation of work, small group work, writing, oral presentation, drawing, photography, painting.

Background Information for Activity:  Alexander Gardner at Antietam

Activity:   Students will reproduce Civil War photographer Mathew Brady’s New York Studio.  Each student will produce one “photograph” or item that tells something about real or imagined person (soldiers or civilian), place, or story from the Battle of Antietam or its aftermath.  These can be black and white drawings, charcoal drawings, gray-scale water color pictures, or black and white photograph where the students recreate a famous portrait or picture from the era.  Students develop captions and an accompanying exhibit catalog for these items and the carte-de-visites made earlier and create an exhibit in the classroom or hallway or.  Each student prepares a ‘docent tour’for the exhibit. 

• Journal entry
• Letter writing activity
• Completed “How to Read an Object” and “How to Read a Photograph” worksheets
• Final project and oral report about project
• Class participation
  
  

Lesson 1: “Deliver Us From this Terrible War”

• Complete the Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross, Pioneer and Innovator activity.
• Have students visit the American Red Cross Prepare Your Home and Family Web Site and make a list of items for their preparedness kit.  Students can work with family members to develop a kit based on list.
• Have students write down three things they would take with them if they had to leave their house in a hurry.  Ask them to share their ideas with the class and explain why these things are important to them.

Lesson 2: “One Vast Hospital”

• Complete the National Park Service, Clara Barton National Historic Site, “What Would Clara Barton Bring?” activity”
• National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans.  The Battle of Bentonville:  Caring for Casualties of the Civil War
• National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans. These Honored Dead: The Battle of Rivers Bridge and Civil War Combat Casualties. 

Lesson 3: “This is Not the Way We Bury Folks at Home”

• If the class can visit the park, complete:

-“Antietam National Cemetery Exploration” activity, (pdf, 8 mb).
-“Mumma Cemetery Exploration” activity, (pdf, 763 kb, 4 pages).

• National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans. A Nation Repays Its Debt: The National Soldiers' Home and Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.
• National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans. Not to Be Forgotten:  Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery. 
• Smithsonian Institution.  Explore a Historic Cemetery

Lesson 4: “Thenceforward and Forever Free”

• Have students bring in a photograph of themselves or a family member.  Have them compare the completed “How to Read a Photograph” Worksheet” for Nancy Camel’s photograph to a worksheet they complete on their own photo.

• Have students download and read “Contradictions and Divided Loyalties:  Slavery on the Antietam Battleground.”  

Final Project:  “Broken Hearts Cannot be Photographed”

• Library of Congress.  Civil War Photographs: The Mathew Brady Bunch Lesson Overview. 

• Library of Congress.  Civil War Photographs: What Do You See? Lesson Overview.
• Library of Congress.  Civil War Photojournalism: A Record of War lesson overview.