Interpret the Evidence and Put It in Context

1. Question

   In reading these letters, what do you think accounts for the early popular support for the war in the North and the South?

2. Question

   Compare the letters from Fred Spooner (Document 13.6) and John Hines (Document 13.7). How did each view the enemy and the causes of the war?

3. Question

   In what ways do Ginnie Ott (Document 13.8) and Katharine Prescott Wormeley (Document 13.9) defy contemporary gender roles? In what ways do they affirm them?

4. Question

   What was life like for soldiers at the front (Documents 13.6, 13.7, and 13.10)? How would you compare the different war experiences revealed in these letters?

5. Question

   How did the war change the lives of each of these letter writers?

• Question

  In what ways do the personal letters of soldiers and their families illuminate the standard political and military history of the Civil War?