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Battle Flags:
Michigan and the Civil War
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Unit Overview
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Lesson Plans
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Resources
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Michigan's Civil War
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Battle Flag Facts
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Abel Peck's letters
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Credits and Acknowledgements
Michigan Government Television wishes to thank the following for their contributions to this project:
The Capitol Battle Flags Task Force, Kerry Chartkoff, Chair,
Save the Flags
for the tremendous support provided to this project. Abel Peck letters are
courtesy of Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections. Archival photographs are courtesy of the State Archives of Michigan. Photographs
of the flags were taken by Peter Glendinning, MSU Department of Art. MGTV also wishes to thank The Michigan Capitol Committee and the Bureau of Michigan History
for their support.
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Oh, Could They But Speak!
The information included in MGTV's Civil War Battle Flags Project and the photographs of the flags are the result of a cooperative project between the
Michigan Capitol Committee
(an executive-legislative body charged with the oversight of the Michigan State Capitol and its collections) and the Bureau of History. The project is called
Save the Flags
. To learn more about the Save the Flags project, click
now.
Purpose:
Our purpose is not to bring into the classroom abstract facts and distant figures of a war that was fought between the North and the South, but rather to bring to each student the stories of the people of Michigan who served and fought, triumphed and died, waited at home, believed in and honored their country and their state. This unit is about Michigan stories, Michigan heroes, and Michigan's history.
One wouldn't need to open a history book if the Battle Flags of Michigan's regiments could talk. Battle flags were proudly made and given to Michigan regiments as they started off to war. These flags became the symbol of all that the men were fighting for. They were carried into every battle, they inspired every man, and they literally held the army forces together. The flags embodied the American spirit and the personal pride that it took to fight the Civil War. It is indeed the stories of these flags that we wish to tell. We wish to let the evidence of the blood and smoke stained battle flags speak.
Our purpose is not to listen to the winner's conception of history, but to hear the people's voices - to walk through Michigan in the 1860's and discover for ourselves what life was like and how the Civil War would change everything.
Comprehensive Lesson Plans to Introduce the Middle School Student to Michigan's Role in the Civil War.
The Big Questions:
What was Michigan's role in the Civil War? What was the war really like? What made battle flags so important? How have the flags lived through history and what is their symbolic meaning today?
Note to Teachers:
We are assuming some prior knowledge of the Civil War era in the creation of this unit. For this reason, we have not included review material or information regarding the general issues of the Civil War. We believe these things will naturally appear throughout discussion and lecture. We did intentionally design this unit to build upon itself so that it will be flexible for your needs. If you only have time for a short unit on the Battle Flags themselves, you can use lessons one, four, and nine, and have a solid presentation. Add those three days to the rest of the Michigan unit and you have a complete unit with a Michigan focus. You could also add general Civil War material with the material presented in this packet, and have a complete curriculum for this era. This unit could easily be incorperated into Language Arts curriculum.
The Standards targeted on each lesson are taken from the
Michigan Department of Education's Social Studies Standards and Working Draft Benchmarks.
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© 2021 Michigan Government Television
Photography by Mike Quillinan
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