Class 6B

*This is a photograph we assigned as part of my class on the Civil War. It was taken by George Bernard at Bull Run in March of 1862. Apparently this is the federal cavalry at Sudley Ford, and some children observing them. I basically used this for a couple purposes: 1) to show a legacy of the war often represented as different from the freedom legacy and then to question that difference and 2) to compare the experience by average American citizens of the Civil War with the current experience with the war in Iraq. That second part is a bit more explicitly contemporary than we usually go, but it seemed appropriate and inavoidable in this day and age. We also read Walt Whitman's Specimen Days (an account of his work at soldiers' hospitals) and the Preliminary Report of the Freedman's Inquiry Commission, which eventually spawned the Freedman's Bureau. Definitely an interesting discussion at the end of the day.