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ATicketto Ride
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Music ofthe CivilWar
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uring the Civil War, a poet named Julia Ward Howe rewrote the words to the tune “John Brown’s Body” and provided the North with a new musical anthem—“The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Filled with Biblical imagery and wording, the song became a popular rallying cry as Northerners took comfort in the belief that God was on their side. The words also mirrored the many hardships, death, and destruction witnessed during the Civil War.
The Battle of Gettysburg
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any believe the turning point in the war was the Battle of Gettysburg fought on a field in Pennsylvania in 1863. The three-day battle was the bloodiest in the war with great losses suffered on both sides. Four months later, President Lincoln spoke of the sacrifices of war in the close of his famous speech known as the Gettysburg Address:
uring the Civil War years, most people travelled by horse-drawn buggies or by long marches on foot. New innovations in travel were the railroad with its steam locomotives and the steamboat. Hot-air balloons were used during the war as a method of spying on enemy activities —but typically such balloons were shot down.
I Spy It was not uncommon for Civil War spies to transport secret messages across both Union and Confederate lines. Try creating your own secret message with this recipe for invisible ink.
1.
Use lemon juice, either fresh lemons or bottled juice, as ink.
2. Dip a paintbrush or a stick into the lemon juice and write on a blank sheet of paper.
3. Allow the paper to dry thoroughly. 4. Hold the paper up to warm sunlight or a light bulb.
5. The heat should cause the message to be revealed when the invisible lemon juice turns a pale brown.
‘ that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’
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