Course Syllabus

If you have some time, watch some of this excellent two hour PBS documentary before the first class:
Death and the American Civil War

Week 1  - 

Instructor Talk:   Course Introduction and Overview of this website

Instructor Talk:   Daniel Sutherland's Seasons of War
 
Instructor Talk:   Civil War history terminology

Instructor Talk:   1860 U.S. Population Statistics

Instructor Talk:   Virginia in the Civil War     

Instructor Talk:   Secession

Week 2   -  Read Sutherland, preface & chapters 1 and 2 (1861)

Instructor Talk:   Unionism and Southern Unionists

Instructor Talk:   Manassas I and western (West) Virginia

Notes to Chapters 1 & 2


Week 3 - Read Sutherland, chapters 3 (1861) and 4 (1862)

Instructor Talk:  Confederate Soldiers, Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia

Instructor Talk:  The Shenandoah Valley campaign & the Richmond Peninsula campaign

Notes to Chapters 3 & 4

Week 4 - Read Sutherland, chapters 5 and 6 (1862)

Instructor Talk:  The 1862 Western Theater and Union Naval War

Instructor Talk:  Cedar Mountain, Manassas II, Antietam, Fredericksburg

Instructor Talk:  Elite and Common White Women of the South 

Reading Notes for Chapters 5 & 6

Article:  The Civil War in Missouri


Week 5 - Read Sutherland, chapters 7 (1862) and 8 (1863)

Instructor Talk:  Chancellorsville to Gettysburg

Instructor Talk:  Slaves and The Emancipation Proclamation

Notes to Chapters 7 & 8 



Week 6  -  Read Sutherland, chapters 9 and 10 (1863)

Instructor Talk:  U.S. Grant in the Western Theater, 1863

Instructor Talk:  Rules of Warfare: Guerrilla Warfare & Union "Hard War" Policies

Notes to Chapters 9 & 10.

Week 7   -  Read Sutherland, chapters 11 (1863) and 12 (1864) 

Instructor Talks:   The Final Twelve Months of the War - Part I  

     1864 Republican (National Union) Party Platform 
     1864 Republican (National Union) Party Convention

      1864 Democratic Party Platform  
     1864 Democratic Party Convention


     Grant vs. Lee:  The Overland Campaign  (May 5 - June 24, 1864)  
                       and  The Siege of Petersburg  (June 9 - March 15, 1865) 
    
    Sherman vs. Johnston / Hood:  The Atlanta Campaign  (May 2 - Sept. 2)

    Admiral David Farragut & The Battle of Mobile Bay - Aug 5

    Sheridan vs. Early: The 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign - May 15 - Oct. 19

    The 1864 Election:  On November 8, 1864, Lincoln (2,218,388 votes - 55%) defeats
                 McClellan (1,812,807 votes - 45%) with 90.99% of the electoral college votes.

 

Week 8   -  Read Sutherland, chapters 13 and 14 (1864 - 1865)

Instructor Talks:   The Final Twelve Months of the War - Part II

    Sherman's March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign

    Lee Abandons Petersburg, The Fall of Richmond, and the Appomattox Campaign