Today is the 145th anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War. Here’s the description from Answers.com:

Apr 9, 1865. At 1:30 pm General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, commander in chief of the Union Army, ending four years of civil war. The meeting took place in the house of Wilmer McLean at the village of Appomattox Court House, VA. Confederate soldiers were permitted to keep their horses and go free to their homes, while Confederate officers were allowed to retain their swords and sidearms as well. Grant wrote the terms of surrender.

I thought this might be a good opportunity for another “The Best…” list.

You might also be interested in:


The Best Sites For Learning About The Battle Of Gettysburg

The Best Resources About President’s Day (to explore the resources on Abraham Lincoln)

The Best Websites To Teach & Learn About African-American History

The Best Resources For Learning What Caused The Civil War

Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About the American Civil War (and are accessible to English Language Learners):

To start-off with, I’m going to direct you to my United States History Classes blog. You can find my entire year’s curriculum there, though here are links to the lessons specifically about the Civil War:

In addition to the multiple activities and links in those posts, here are a few more resources:

How Stuff Works has countless short online videos about the Civil War.

The History Channel has a similar video collection.

Mr. Nussbaum’s Interactive Civil War

EL Civics on The Civil War.

“The Price Of Freedom: Americans At War” is a Smithsonian multimedia interactive on each war in United States’ history. Videos (with transcript), images and text are included.

In pictures: Faces of US Civil War is a slideshow from the BBC. The BBC says:

Virginia collector Tom Liljenquist has donated nearly 700 photographs from the US Civil War to the Library of Congress. Library curators say the photos are an invaluable depiction of the ordinary men who fought the war.

The Washington Post has a special website on the 150th Anniversary of The American Civil War.

A Civil War Interactive Timeline from The New York Times

The Civil War is from Mr. Nussbaum

Faces of The Civil War is a Washington Post slideshow

How Stuff Works has many Civil War related videos

African-Americans And The Civil War is a slideshow from NPR.

Faces From The Civil War is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

Civil War 150 is from the History Channel.

Who Am I? is an interactive from the Smithsonian.

The Civil War is from Shmoop.

The Top 10 Civil War Innovations is a slideshow from Discovery.

On War: The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War are photographs from

Here’s a video from MSNBC showing newly discovered photos from the Civil War:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Civil War Photography is a slideshow from Discovery.

Photo Essay: The Civil War: Between the Battles is from the PBS News Hour.

Resources | Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War comes from The New York Times Learning Network.

Blogging History: Interpreting Civil War-Era Primary Sources is from The New York Times Learning Network.

Civil War Timeline: Fury Unleashed is another interactive from The Post.

Slavery, Not States’ Rights, Caused Civil War Whose Political Effects Linger is from NPR.

Five myths about why the South seceded is from The Washington Post.

3-D ‘Motion Pictures’ From The Civil War is a series of really cool “animated” photos from the Civil War. You really should check them out.

Russel Tarr, who has created a ton of great online learning activities, has just unveiled another one — an interactive simulation of the American Civil War. It seems quite engaging, and I’ll try using it in my U.S. History class this year. Russel has also created an entire unit on the war.

To My Old Master is an amazing letter written by a former slave to his “owner.”

The Atlantic recently published three collections of Civil War photographs:

The Civil War, Part 1: The Places

The Civil War, Part 2: The People

The Civil War, Part 3: The Stereographs

The Civil War is quite an impressive interactive infographic on…the Civil War. It shows casualties, stories, and a whole lot more. And it’s a college student’s project.

Disunion: The Civil War is a multimedia collection from The New York Times.

Civil War 2013: Photographs From the Grisly American Conflict is a video and article from The New York Times:

Gettysburg: The bloodiest battle is an Associated Press interactive.

The American Civil War

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

Civil War 150 is a History Channel interactive.

The American civil war then and now interactive is from The Guardian. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The American Civil War.

2 maps that show the Civil War really was about slavery is from Vox.

Here’s a video from The National Parks Service.

President Trump & The Civil War

Feedback and suggestions are welcome!

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You might also want to explore the 400 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.