The Brothers' War: Civil War in Verse

The Brothers' War: Civil War in Verse by J. Patrick Lewis

    This book of poems is truly amazing.  J. Patrick Lewis writes eloquently, using emotionally loaded words and imagery, to speak in the voices of various Civl War participants - both real and imagined.  What I found ironic about this text is the juxtaposition of the flowing, beautiful language and the subsequent horror it was detailing.  Some examples of Lewis's powerful imagery included in The Brothers' War are the "sickle moon" revealed during the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Seven Pines,  the voice of a hospitalized Confederate soldier - "giving up the ghost To welcome Mr. Death," a runaway slave describing his "bullwhip-long odds" of making it to freedom - "a land as alien as space." 

The Brothers' War also includes Civil War photographs, adding visual interest to the events of the Civil War and the text.  This book is a useful resource in both Language Arts and Social Studies classes.

Podcasts of letters - written from the point of view of a concerned father and a son.  The son is a Confederate Prisoner of War.  He writes his letter home on his way to a Union prison.

Letter from Home - Father to Son

Recording - Charles Barnett, Language Arts teacher

barnettecivilwar.mp3

Letter Home - Son to Father

Recording by Cody Eldridge, 8th grade student at DR Hill

civiwarcody.mp3

Google Earth Lit Trip - View the event locations included in this book - along with supplementary information about the Civil War:





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*You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to view this file.

Viewing - Unzip folder contents AND extract all files.  Then select the .kml document.  This should open automatically in Google Earth.  Under My Places, Temporary Files, you can select the Civil War Lit Trip .kmz file to view the tour.  In order to read the content saved under each location and to view and hear media files, pause the tour and manually click on each underlined placemark.