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"The Civil War grumbles and growls and gathers; but the storm clouds do not yet break...It is indeed a heavy atmosphere to breathe - the impending doom of a nation." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, May 2, 1861.

"Grief and pride rule the hour." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, April 20, 1861.

"The destiny of the colored American ...is the destiny of America" ~ Frederick Douglass, February 12, 1862.

This Primary Source Set includes images, sheet music and analysis tools to help teach about civil war music.

Use these lesson plans (created by educators for educators) to explore the Civil War with your students in your classroom:

Civil War through A Child's Eye, The - (Grades 6-8) Students use literature and photographs to view the Civil War from a child's perspective.

What Do You See? - (Grades 5-12) Students analyze Civil War photographs, and develop links between the Civil War and American industrialization.

Mathew Brady Bunch - (Grades 6-12) Students become reporters, analyzing a Civil War photograph, and writing a newspaper article based on their chosen photograph.

Ladies, Contraband, and Spies - (Grades 10-11) Students view the perspectives of slave women, plantation mistresses, female spies, and Union women during the Civil War.

Photojournalism - (Grades 5-8) Students explore how and why war has been photographed and also see the bias within the recording/reporting of war. Students may explore Civil War photographs as a basis for their analysis.

Is there a title (or two) that you always read to (or with) your students when teaching about the Civil War? Are there invaluable reference books that you use when working with this theme? Staff from The Library of Congress have generously donated favorite titles for the Civil War theme. We hope you will contribute your favorite titles to our growing bibliography!

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Create your own collaborative lesson plans using material related to this month's theme assembled from The Learning Page Collection Connections:

Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment: Selections from the Tilton C. Reynolds Papers - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection documents the Civil War experience of Captain Tilton C. Reynolds, a member of the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers through correspondence, photographs, and other materials dating between 1861 and 1865.

We'll Sing to Abe Our Song Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War, from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Learn tips for integrating these historic sheet music compositions into Civil War teaching.

Civil War Maps - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection of more than 2,300 items provides students an opportunity to study the Civil War era through cartographic data.

Selected Civil War Photographs - (Summary and Teaching Resources) The 1,118 photographs in this collection featuring encampments, preparations for battle, battlefields and military portraits can be used as a basis for researching the Civil War.

Band Music from the Civil War Era - (Summary Only) This collection features over 700 examples of brass band music popular during the Civil War period.

Washington During the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection documents life in Civil War era Washington, D.C. as seen through the eyes of Horatio Taft

Voices From the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Story - (Summary Only) Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom.

Poet at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Explore Walt Whitman’s journals for notes written during Civil War visits to Washington, D.C. hospitals.

Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library - (Summary Only) This site serves as a gateway to two other American Memory Collections on Abraham Lincoln and includes a presentation about some of the Lincoln documents held by the Library of Congress.

First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Search this collection using the keywords "Civil War" to locate narratives from the period.

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Most of the 20,000 items in this collection are from the 1850s through the Civil War years.

Civil War Treasures from the New York Historical Society - (Summary and Teaching Resources) The photographs, drawings, posters and letters in this collection document the lives of ordinary citizens who were involved in the Civil War.

Hotchkiss Map Collection - (Summary Only) View cartographic items made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-1899), a topographic engineer in the Confederate Army. These maps were used by Generals Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson in developing strategies for battles.

These terms may be useful when searching for items related to this theme in the American Memory collections.