The Civil War era encompasses a vast archive. It can take years to familiarize yourself with a representative sampling of what is available and you still will only have just scratched the surface. It’s one of many reasons why this subject remains endlessly fascinating to so many of us.
As a teacher, I always found it difficult to select primary sources for my course in American history and especially my course on the Civil War. Each semester I made it a point to try out new sources in the hope that it would help my students better understand this complicated moment in our history.
With that in mind, I thought we would consider a little thought experiment. If ever there was an unfair question, this is it. But let’s give it a shot.
