Grade 4 Historical Fiction Unit: Civil War

Takes readers on a journey back in time in order to experience life during the Civil War, describing clothing, accommodations, foods, local customs, transportation, a few notable personalities, and more.

Brother Against Brother During the years 1861-1865, America was a nation torn apart by war. From terrible land combat to fierce battles at sea; from mothers losing sons to brothers fighting brothers--this was a conflict that profoundly affected all that it touched...and changed our nation forever. From the archives of the Library of Congress, often called "the Storehouse of the national memory," here are over one hundred vintage posters, paintings, and photographs that bring the events of the Civil War vividly to life. Witness the scenes and encounters the words of those caught up in a nations at war with itself.

In the Civil War, the most violent war that America has ever experienced, brothers fought against brothers and millions of lives were changed forever. In this book you'll find seven stories of real people whose important acts made them a part of history.

She just won’t git! A Union army soldier can’t shake his dadblamed cow in this uplifting tale based on a true story. "THAT DADBLAMED COW!" She follows her owner into the Union army and then straight on south to fight in the war. She needs unstomped grass to eat, she gets stuck in the mud, and she’s just plain DANGEROUS in battle. But this peculiar cow also gives the weary soldiers some surprising comforts. Based on stories and newspaper reports from the Civil War and full of lively illustrations, this is a heartwarming tale of one wonderfully dadblamed PERSISTENT cow.

When Sheldon Russell Curtis told this story to his daughter, Rosa, she kept every word in her heart and was to retell it many times.      I will tell it in Sheldon's own words as nearly as I can. He was wounded in a fierce battle and left for dead in a pasture somewhere in Georgia when Pinkus found him. Pinkus' skin was the color of polished mahogany, and he was flying Union colors like the wounded boy, and he picked him up out of the field and brought him to where the black soldier's mother, Moe Moe Bay, lived. She had soft, gentle hands and cared for him and her Pink. But the two boys were putting her in danger, two Union soldiers in Confederate territory! They had to get back to their outfits. Scared and uncertain, the boys were faced with a hard decision, and then marauding Confederate troops rode in. In this Civil War story passed from great-grandfather to grandmother, to son, and finally to the author-artist herself, Patricia Polacco once again celebrates the shared humanity of the peoples of this world.

On May 13, 1862, Samuel and his family, who work on a Confederate steamship out of Chaleston, South Carolina, make a daring break for freedom when they see Union ships resting on the Atlantic Ocean.