Civil War - Lincoln's Wartime Actions

How did President Lincoln try to preserve the Union? This lesson and activity examines President Lincoln’s decision making and wartime actions taken during the Civil War. Students will analyze documents including primary source resources and political cartoons to determine how President Lincoln tried to preserve the Union.

Included in this resource:

Complete lesson plan
Do Now document analysis questions - Horace Greeley’s “Prayer of Twenty Millions”
Six “stations”/documents/resources with scaffolding questions corresponding to each
Station #1: President Lincoln’s response letter to Horace Greeley
Station #2: Photograph of President Lincoln on the battlefield of Antietam
Station #3: Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation primary source excerpt and Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation lithograph
Station #4: Proclamation Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus primary source document and Debating Habeas Corpus: Atlas and Argus and the New York Times primary source documents
Station #5: The Political Rail Splitter and the National Game political cartoons
Station #6: Portraits of Mr. Lincoln - Mathew Brady’s 1860 portrait of Mr. Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial Statue
Graphic organizer to record conclusions and notes
Application/Closing/Higher-Order Thinking Question - Think about the exhibits and documents you saw today analyzing Lincoln’s actions. After the Civil War, what do you believe will be America’s goals for the South?
Group numbers
★ Please Note: I execute this lesson with my 9th grade honors students and my 11th grade gen-ed students. Please make an executive decision whether or not this lesson can be executed with your students based upon the preview file. Thank you!

★ This activity can be used during your Civil War unit or at the beginning of your Reconstruction unit. I tend to use it as the first lesson in my Reconstruction unit.

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