April Anniversary

April marks the month of both the beginning and the end of the U.S. Civil War, the bloodiest U.S. war to date. Eric Foner's introductory essay is worth reading considering his expertise on the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, and his essay provides a good overview of such a complicated and consequential time in U.S. history.

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era

The site includes a good video lecture on the role of the slaves during the Civil War, more specifically that African-Americans played a significant role in the "failure of the Confederacy."

There is an essay and multimedia speech on the significance of the Battle of Antietam and the pre-battle pessimistic mood that engulfed the South.

On the website above, there are many links to information concerning the conflict, including its causes, its commander in chief, blacks serving in the military, specific battles, the relationship between Great Britain and the U.S. Civil War, primary sources, the costs of war, the suspension of habeas corpus, among another topics.

The site included a piece concerning Walt Whitman's adoration of Lincoln, and I found the essay about Whitman's opinion of Lincoln very sincere:

"No other human being seemed as multifaceted to Whitman as Lincoln. The president, he said, 'had “canny shrewdness” and “horse-sense.' He seemed the down-home, average American, with his drab looks and his humor, redolent of barnyards and barrooms.' Whitman commented on the 'somewhat rusty and dusty appearance' of Lincoln, who 'looks about as ordinary in attire, etc. as the commonest man.' Whitman was excited that 'the commonest average of life—a railsplitter and a flat-boatsman!'—now occupied the presidency." (The essay continues.)

Overall, the site includes other primary and multimedia sources related to the era of Reconstruction, a time in which America grappled with a plethora of issues related to racial tension, economic strife, and an extension of conflict between the North and the South.