- You must explore a topic of the question of if the American Civil War was a total war. As noted above, you have wide latitude as to how you take this topic on, but that is the general topic you are writing on in this essay.
- You must use at least 3 sources directly in the essay. These 3 sources must come from the 6 sources given to you above, the textbook, and any other resources given to you in your classroom (lectures, additional documents, etc.)
- You are not allowed to use any sources outside of those given to you here in the HIST 1301 Common Assignment – Part 3 or in your classroom. Use of sources outside of those permitted will result in a penalty on the assignment.
- You need to provide documentation for any use of sources, whether you use direct quotations, paraphrasing, or just ideas from those sources. There is not a required format for this, but MLA formatting is generally the easiest to use. You may use whatever documentation
Primary Sources:
1. http://docsouth.unc.edu/true/spencer/spencer.html#p26 – Diary of Cornelia Phillips Spencer – Although the link takes you to her whole diary, Chapter 2 is the most relevant to the question on this topic. It runs from pages 26-39 (short pages from a diary).
2. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/burge/lunt.html – “Journal of Dolly Sumner Lunt” The journal is not long and can be read fairly quickly, and all of it is relevant to the topic. You do not have to read every word, but you will find relevant passages throughout.
3. https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/23 – “Letter to James M. Calhoun, et al from William T. Sherman”
Secondary Sources
5. http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25245 – “The American Civil War: Total or Just?” by Aaron Sheehan-Dean
6. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24429316 – “Was the American Civil War the First Modern War?” by A. D. Harvey
You can approach this in multiple ways.
- You can answer the question directly, arguing that the war either is or is not a total war. If you choose this route, you would need a combination of primary, secondary, and classroom sources to make your case.
- Another idea for the essay is to look more broadly at the question of what war is and how it affects those involved in it. As the concept of a total war often involves the war’s effects on the civilian population, you can use the primary sources, especially the two journals, more broadly to look at the effects of the war on civilians and what that means for how we understand the Civil War.