ADAH: Alabama Moments (The Civil War in Alabama: A Basic Bibliography)

| The Civil War in Alabama: A Basic Bibliography |


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The Civil War in Alabama: A Basic Bibliography

Dr. Leah Rawls Atkins, Auburn University (retired)

Correlates to Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies 10^th Grade Content Standards 10, p. 73
Correlates to Graduation Exam Eligible Content Standard IV, Objective 1

McMillan, Malcolm C., editor. The Alabama Confederate Reader. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1963. Second edition, 1992.
- The 1992 edition has an introduction by C. Peter Ripley and is available in paperback at a reasonable price. This valuable collection of primary source documents is a must for those teaching the Civil War to Alabama students. McMillan did a superb job of selecting contemporary documents that illustrate how Alabamians responded to the war and how the war came to the state. As Ripley notes, the selections plot "grand strategies and bold political strokes" as well as illuminating "personal moments of fear, death, triumph, sacrifice, despair, and the growing crush of defeat." The book will lead the teacher to other books by following the sources of documents, some archival and some published.

Rosenburg, R. B. "Alabama." Journal of Confederate History Vol. 10 (A Nation of Sovereign States: Secession & War in the Confederacy, edited and compiled by Archie P. McDonald, 1994): 40-57.
- A concise overview of Alabama's role and contributions to the Confederate war effort.

Local Sources: Most local public libraries have Civil War holdings, and teachers should ask librarians about files of local items (letters, diaries, family histories, etc.) that relate to their geographical area or to families living in the community and the experiences of their ancestors during the war.
Internet: The Alabama Department of Archives and History web site contains several classroom activities using primary sources from the Archives' collection. This can be found at www.archives.alabama.gov/teacher/civil.html.