Causes of the Civil War Podcast

The Teaching American History Podcast series has a two-part lecture that I would like to share with you.

The lecture is on the causes of the Civil War and is presented by James McPherson. You can read a description of the lecture HERE:

Here is the link to Part 1

and

Here is the link to Part 2:

Read Books on the Civil War Online

As many of you already know, Google has begun to scan and make books available online, including full versions of books. These books are copyright free and can be downloaded for your reading pleasure.

In addition to these books, there are also some books where the copyright has not expired, however you can read sample pages from the book. Not free to download, but nice to "try before you buy."

So, for example, a quick search for the word "Gettysburg" and you get a list of books of some really interesting looking texts such as:

• Gettysburg: Description of the Painting of the Repulse of Longstreet's Assault by John Badger Bachelder - 1870
  
• Gettysburg Made Plain: A Succinct Account of the Campaign and Battles, by Abner Doubleday - 1888
  
• The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top, Gettysburg, July 2, 1863 by Oliver Willcox Norton - 1913
  
• Did General Meade Desire to Retreat at the Battle of Gettysburg? by George Meade - 1883
• Hospital Scenes After the Battle of Gettysburg, July, 1863 by Patriot Daughters of Lancaster (Pa.) – 1864

There are also numerous autobiographies and biographies of Civil War Generals that are also available for download. Try searching for Civil War or Civil War general and see what you come up with.

Finally, Google Books also has a feature where you can find a library near you that has a copy of a particular book, and for you researchers out there, a "cite this item" link which gives you the proper citation for a book for publishing purposes is given in several different formats .(APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Turabian.

Try it at http://books.google.com especially the “full view books.”

In addition to Google Books, you may also want to try searching the following websites for Civil War books:

http://www.archive.org and http://books.live.com

and

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

Happy Reading.

Two Quick Links

I came across the following two links and thought I would share:

The Historic New York Times website now has copies of the newspapers from 1860-1865 online for your viewing pleasure. They also have a short video on the newspapers for you to watch.

The next one is from the HarpWeek website and has over 400 political cartoons on the Lincoln presidency. Check out the Abraham Lincoln Cartoons and let me know what you think.

Soldiers in Stone: Saving the Monuments at Gettysburg

Hi,

Someone emailed me last night that there was a show on WQED in Pittsburgh about the monuments in the Gettysburg National Military Park.  Now, living in central Pennsylvania, I was not able to watch the show on TV.  But I was able to watch it on the Internet.  How cool is that?

So, for those of you who missed the premiere last night, there will be additional viewings on-line of "Soldiers in Stone: Saving the Monuments at Gettysburg" as follows:

Saturday, March 3  1:00 a.m.
Monday,  March 5 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday   March 20   7:30 p.m. and midnight
Wednesday, March 21 12:30 p.m.

Enjoy!

Civil War Medicine

The unfortunate Civil War soldier, whether he came from the North or South, not only was in the army when the killing power of weapons was being brought to a brand-new peak of efficiency; he enlisted in the closing years of an era when the science of medicine was woefully, incredibly imperfect. Efficient weapons and a very poor quality of medicine, for every wound and natural ailment, destined the soldier to increased suffering. . When he fought, he was likely to be hurt pretty badly; when he stayed in camp, he lived under conditions that were very likely to make him sick; and in either case he had almost no chance to get the kind of medical treatment which a generation or so later would be routine.

Both the Federal and Confederate governments did their best to provide proper medical care for their soldiers, but even the best was not very good. This was nobody's fault. There simply was no such thing as good medical care in that age -- at least as the modern era understands the expression.

The first enemy the soldiers faced was disease. Healthy recruits became victims of illnesses that were easily spread due to the large number of people in the camps, the often unsanitary conditions, and the poor diet of the soldiers. Childhood diseases such as measles could devastate regiments and many men succumbed to diarrhea and dysentery. Of the nearly 620,000 soldiers who died during the Civil War, two-thirds died not of bullets and bayonets, but of disease.

There is a vast amount of information on the Internet about medicine and medical practices of the period. The U.S. Sanitary Commission website contains information on how they raised money and supplies to help care for the sick and wounded soldiers. There is an excellent series of lessons entitled, “Challenges of Health Care During the Civil War”, which provides students with statistical data on the different types of injuries and diseases. This data could then entered into a spreadsheet and used to produce results such as percentages and averages. Additionally, the U.S. Civil War Center at Louisiana State University has, among other topics, an extensive list of sites specific to Civil War ear medicine.

Finally, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine has some excellent information on Civil War era medicine.

UPDATED 3/1/07: More Good Links

Caring for the Men, the History of Civil War Medicine
http://www.civilwarhome.com/medicinehistory.htm

Civil War Medicine
http://www.library.vcu.edu/tml/bibs/cwmed.html

Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet: Medical and Medicine
http://www.cyndislist.com/medical.htm

eHistory.com – Medicine: More Civil War Medical Terms
http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/features/medicine/cwsurgeon/medicalterms.cfm

Galen Press: Civil War Medicine Challenges and Triumphs
http://www.galenpress.com/021.html

eHistory.com - Statistics on the Civil War and Medicine
http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/features/medicine/cwsurgeon/statistics.cfm