Civil War Battlefield Tour

On April 12, 1861, the first shot was fired upon Fort Sumter in South Carolina, setting off a conflict that would pit citizen against citizen and even brother against brother — the Civil War. For five years, the war wore on through valleys, fields, towns, and cities on U.S. soil until the Union defeated the Confederacy, preserving the United States as one country and securing the freedom of the slaves forever. Just as today many people still visit battlefields such as Antietam, you can explore Civil War history by touring battlefield sites on the Web.

An excellent place to begin is where the Civil War started, at Fort Sumter. "Crisis at Fort Sumter" not only re-creates how the war began, through text, illustrations, pictures, and maps, but simulates the events so that you can pretend you are President Abraham Lincoln and make decisions based on what he knew at the time. South Carolina remained one of the major battlegrounds early in the war. At the Battle of Secessionville, Union forces made their first attempt to take Charleston. Read about Alexander and James Campbell, two Scottish immigrant brothers who fought on opposite sides of this battle.

Firsthand documents on the Internet bring the experiences of those who lived and died during the Civil War as close as reading old letters in an attic. The soldiers often wrote home, like Lt. Winston Stephens during the Battle of Olustee in Florida. Less than a month later, his wife Octavia wrote in her diary of her sadness after finding out that her husband had died in battle.

Web sites permit you to track the progress of the Civil War or even a single battle. Antietam, fought in 1862, became the single costliest day in American military history: Approximately 13,000 soldiers were lost by the Confederates and 12,000 men by the Union. An animated map shows you the positions of the forces throughout the day. No study of Civil War battles would be complete without a visit to Gettysburg.

Finish this battlefield tour as Abraham Lincoln did, by returning to Gettysburg, where Lincoln made his famous Gettysburg Address. You can actually see original drafts of the speech and the only known photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg!

"Crisis at Fort Sumter"
http://www.tulane.edu
/~latner/CrisisMain.html

Battle of Secessionville
http://www.awod.com
/gallery/probono
/cwchas/secville.html

Battle of Olustee
http://extlab1.entnem.ufl.edu
/Olustee/

Antietam
http://elohi.com/
photo/antietam/

Gettysburg
http://www.military
historyonline.com
/gettysburg/

Gettysburg Address
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits
/gadd/gadrft.html