This is a detailed and in-depth introduction to the US Civil War.  Students will learn what led up to the war, the major events and battles during the war, the key players, and the consequences of the war.  

The structure of the course is as follows:  Session #1--  Prelude to War: the movement westward; the Missouri Compromise; slavery, states rights, and tariffs; Bleeding Kansas, Sherman's Letter; opening shots at Fort Sumter; key players; and the Anaconda Strategy.  

Session #2--The Beginning of a Bloody Endeavor: First Manassas; Lee takes command; the Seven Days Battles; Jackson in the Valley; Fort Donelson and Fort Henry; outmoded tactics for modern weapons, naval blockage.  

Session #3--Bloody and Determined:  Second Manassas; Antietam; Shiloh; Fredericksburg; Chicamauga; Gettysburg; the Emancipation Proclamation.  

Session #4--Confederacy on the Defensive: Grant's Overland Campaign; Sherman's March to the Sea; Sheridan's Valley Campaign; Petersburg; POWs in the war.  

Session #5--Lincoln's death; the end of the fighting; racism, the KKK, and the Lost Cause mythology; warfare innovations.   

I'm a very visual instructor so I'm showing pictures of battlefields, famous artwork, copies of key documents on the screen.  The class will be very interactive--I welcome questions and I'm always asking students for their opinion or what they'd do differently.  At the start of the course, each student is assigned an identity of someone who lived during the war and as we progress through it I cover what happened to those individuals.  For instance, in my course on the battle of Antietam, three examples I use are:  Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross), 13 year old bugler John Cook who was awarded the Medal of Honor at the battle, and 17 year old Rebecca Peterman who pretended to be a man and enlisted--and was then wounded at Antietam (the second battle she fought in).  Interaction with learners will be continuous.  Required background is minimal:  individuals should have some geographic knowledge of the US (so when I refer to Virginia or Georgia they know where I'm referring to) and basic awareness that there was a Civil War in the US in the 1860s.