"It was the greatest war in American history. 3 million fought - 600,000 died.
It was the only war fought on American soil by Americans,
and for that reason we have always been fascinated with The Civil War."
- taken from the CivilWar.com homepage

The KIDS Report is published with the support of the Internet Scout Project and the National Science Foundation, and with a generous grant from Tashia and John Morgridge.

The KIDS Report is a biweekly publication produced by K-12 students as a resource to other K-12 students. It is an ongoing, cooperative effort of 12 classrooms from around the United States. Teachers assist and provide support; however, students select, evaluate and annotate all resources included in every issue of the KIDS Report.

This issue of the KIDS, dated February 16, 1999, was written and produced by students of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. High of the Altoona Area School District in Altoona, PA.

In This Issue

• CivilWar.com
• Selected Civil War Photographs
• The American Civil War Homepage
• War for Southern Independence
• Aboard the Underground Railroad
• The Underground Railroad
• The Valley of the Shadow
• First Battle of Bull Run July 1861
• The Apotheosis Of Robert E. Lee
• Bernard McKnight

CivilWar.com http://www.civilwar.com CivilWar.com is a very professional and well-made site that contains rich content and everything there is to know about the Civil War. The site contains a lot of information including a timeline, a database of the people who fought in the Civil War, information on many different battles, photographs and artwork of the time period, and historical documents. The site also includes a forum where the public can share their views on the Civil War. The site has won many awards with some of the most notable being USA Today's Hotpick of the Day and the 1998 Civil War in Minature Historic Site Award. The site is easy to navigate via the always present menu bar and the information is presented in a visually pleasing format. The creators provide links to Amazon.com where they have listed some of the best books about the Civil War. CivilWar.com is an outstanding site for anybody who wants to learn about the Civil War. The information and format of the site is fairly complex, yet very useful for people who know how to use it. We would therefore recommend it for junior high level students and above. Reviewed by Brian Z. and Mike

Selected Civil War Photographs http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/cwphome.html If you want an overall view of the Civil War from a neutral perspective this page is for you. There is a search engine on this site that allows you to search through a database of over 1,100 pictures including many by or under the supervision of Matthew Brady, one of America's greatest photographers. Every aspect of the war is shown in these pictures. We recommend this page for ages twelve and up because of the amount of complex information. This site is accurate and has reliable information; it was made by the Library of Congress as part of the American Memory collection. Reviewed by Adam and Mike

The American Civil War Homepage http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/ The American Civil War Homepage gathers together hypertext links to the best Civil War sites. The links are easy to find and they are categorized. The author of this site, Dr. George Hoemann, has been studying the Civil War for many years. The site is written very well, and it is well organized. You can get around and do everything very easily. We would recommend it for children of all ages who are willing to learn. Reviewed by Tom, Greg, and Dustin

War for Southern Independence http://www.qns.com/~williams/ When looking for real-life accounts of the Civil War, this Website is a great source of information. At this site most of the data is gathered from actual diaries, magazines, and newspapers, so the information is guaranteed to be factual. Although this site is written from the South's point-of-view, it is still good for factual information about northern events. Not only does the site have interesting information but it is easy to get around as well. I would recommend this site for ages 10 and up. Reviewed by Janelle

Aboard the Underground Railroad http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/underground What part did the Underground Railroad play during the Civil War? Well, if you want to find out, this is the site for you. It tells all about escaped slaves taking the train to freedom. This is a wonderful site for people of all ages. The information is excellent and easy to access. It has extremely nice pictures, maps, and graphs. This site was created by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in cooperation with the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. Reviewed by Rachel and Devon

The Underground Railroad http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/ This site allows you to go on the journey to the North from a slave's point of view and follow their path as they try to escape from their southern bondage. You can "visit safe houses which Harriet Tubman actually used" and see pictures. There are maps of her actual routes and information describing how she traveled them. This site is very informative and I recommend it for K-12 students. If this site interests you, let your teacher know about it and they can easily make a lesson from the lesson planning section. Reviewed by Adam

The Valley of the Shadow http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/cwhome.html If you enjoy stories and information about the Civil War, you will like this site. This site was created by Edward Ayers and William Thomas, both professors of history at the University of Virginia. We recommend this site for ages 12 and up. There are many articles and graphics on the Civil War in Augusta and Franklin counties, Virginia. This site also contains diaries from actual soldiers in the Civil War. We feel the battle maps and the information on the battles taught us facts about what the war was like from the soldiers' perspective. This site contains very educational information. We enjoyed it very much. Reviewed by Lisa and Andy

First Battle of Bull Run July 1861 http://californiacentralcoast.com/commun/map/civil/bullrun.html This site is very good for information on the Battle of Bull Run in Virginia and many other battles of the Civil War. The site has a map for each state's battles. It also has many original black and white photographs of the battle sites. The site is very organized and easy to find your way around in. I recommend this site for middle school aged students and up. Reviewed by Heather

The Apotheosis Of Robert E. Lee http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/LEE/Lee.html We recommend the site, "The Apotheosis Of Robert E. Lee." It isn't the most attractive site but it does have other great qualities. The site is well organized and it is filled with pictures and great poems about General Lee. It is an excellent site because it focuses on the fact that even though the South lost the war, they still thought highly of General Robert E. Lee. It was created by Alex Lesman and Courtney Danforth in connection with Virginia University. This is a good site to view to get the opinions of many authors of poetry about Robert E. Lee and his great successes. Reviewed by Lindsay and Brian

Bernard McKnight http://www.sinclair.edu/sec/his102/102doc01.htm This Website is very useful for information on Bernard McKnight, a Union soldier. The best items that we found are the pictures of the authentic documents. The site features items such as marriage licenses, death certificates, etc. It also has many pictures of battle sites and important figures of the American Civil War. This Website is very well organized and it has many useful links. It was created by Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. Reviewed by Meredith and Rachel

To Top of Page

The KIDS Report is produced twice monthly by students from one of the twelve participating classrooms with support from the Internet Scout Project, the National Science Foundation, and a grant from Tashia and John Morgridge. The students involved are responsible for all aspects of the report, including its title and the site evaluation criteria.

These Internet resources were evaluated on the basis of the Site Selection Guidelines that the students developed. Questions and comments can be sent to coordinating teacher, Dawn Morden dmorden@aasdcat.com.

Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1999. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the KIDS Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The Internet Scout Project provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison or the National Science Foundation.