This month students in the US History class have been discussing the Civil War. This war is the central event in America’s historical consciousness. While the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world.

Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of 625,000 lives–nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

As part of our education this month, students were asked to complete a project in teams which would illustrate their understanding of the Civil War.  One such team decided to create a song. Not only were the lyrics to the song were created by the student team, but they also sang it for our listening pleasure. I hope you enjoy!

Lyrics:

There’s a time, there’s a place

There’s a meaning for war

Are you sure, are you sure you know

What you’re fight—fighting for?

 

Sometimes it seems there’s no other way

But, why couldn’t both sides just free their slaves?

 

Now it brothers on brothers, a Civil War

Everybody’s always in need of more

Six hundred twenty thousand people dead

It can’t be counted how many tears were shed

 

The war began when the South bombed Fort Sumter

The North was unprepared and gave their surrender

Eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five

Four years passed and then there were few alive

 

Was it worth the blood, the people asked

The North was bigger stronger and were winning fast

 

Now it brothers on brothers, a Civil War

Everybody’s always in need of more

Six hundred twenty thousand people dead

It can’t be counted how many tears were shed

 

The North had won, the slaves were freed

The rising sun was what the people need

They put down their guns and reunited

A bloody war had just been fighted

 

Now it brothers on brothers, a Civil War

Everybody’s always in need of more

Six hundred twenty thousand people dead

It can’t be counted how many tears were shed

 

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All information written above on the Civil War taken from: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html#