Teaching the Civil War (and Gen Z)

At Emerging Civil War, we all are educators in the field of the American Civil War. We inform our readers about topics important to us and shine lights on all aspects of Civil War studies. As a former K-12 instructor, I reached out to my ECW colleagues Samuel Flowers and Neil P. Chatelain to get their opinion on Civil War education “in the wild” – the classroom. We each contributed a different perspective to this discussion due to our unique backgrounds, historical interests, and type of institution where we taught. To me, writing for ECW and educating our readers is an extension of bringing history to my students. After all, we never stop being students!

 

 What is your teaching experience?

Flowers: So, I am currently in my second year of teaching. Before this, I had the opportunity to give a couple of lectures for my graduate school mentor’s classes. This helped me get used to teaching in a college-style environment. My time as an educator has only just started, but I teach history like I am having a conversation with a colleague. History, especially American history, is the study of change over time. Making these larger-than-life events and figures more realistic and complicated for my students can give them a better understanding of the world they live in today.

Feierstein: Less than two years after graduating from my undergraduate Criminology program, I realized it was a better academic study than a career path for me. Teaching became the “bridge” between my investigative and historical worlds, especially as I entered my Master’s program for American History and focused fully on becoming a historian. Teaching the youth helped prepare me to teach, well, everyone else! The K-12 school system – public or private – is always looking for teachers, so I signed-up for the job. Now that my historian career has very fortunately taken off, Fall 2025 will be my last term teaching middle and high schoolers after four amazing years.

Chatelain: I started teaching in 2016. I taught middle school for a couple of years, then shifted to high school. While teaching high school, I shifted once again to adjuncting at Lone Star College and teaching dual credit courses for Lone Star College. I have been teaching college courses in one form or another since 2018.

Why did you want to teach history?

Flowers: I had some very good history educators when I was in school. My high school teacher would teach us about the complexities of the nation’s past and have honest conversations about topics like the 1898 Wilmington Coup. She, along with other great professors I had at UNCC and UNCW, really made me want to teach the next generation.

Feierstein: I personally was an excellent student of history in high school. It was my best subject and those teachers’ classrooms always felt like a safe space in the hectic public school environment. I pulled my inspiration for wanting to teach from my experiences with my government and social studies instructors. Additionally, as a tourist to many historical sites, I enjoyed being taught by experts in the field – and hoped my own students would value my rants and ramblings.

Chatelain: When I was in the Navy, one of the best parts of my day was when I could help a sailor qualify for a new position. When my naval career came to a close, I decided I wanted to take that passion for mentoring and teaching people and combine it with my love of history.

Does teaching the Civil War present unique challenges, especially when compared to other historical eras?

Flowers: There are always challenges to teaching history, and the Civil War is no different. What I think hits home for my classes is having complex conversations about what they already believe they know. Some students will view Lincoln through the lens of a “Great Emancipator” rather than as someone who was anti-slavery in 1860, not an abolitionist. His pragmatism is something I harp on a lot as we push through the war. I mean, this was a man who would have never uttered the idea of freeing slaves when Fort Sumter was fired on, and then days before he was killed, he spoke on citizenship for a specific population of freedmen. That’s not only radical thinking, but more like pragmatism on steroids! These are the same discussions we have in all topics of American History, like Andrew Jackson being a slave-owner but would fight his fellow Southerners on nullification, the idea that our Founding Fathers sometimes despised each other due to differing opinions, or the morality of America fighting fascism abroad while remaining mum on Jim Crow. History is grey, not black and white. Layers and nuance are what are necessary to understand the past.

Feierstein: The Union victory in this conflict is not due to one great moment, person, or decision. Therefore, it is not simple to condense and point to like other conflicts. This is not to say that the Revolution or the World Wars are simple, but for the younger students we tend to boil-down great conflicts to a few important people and places (i.e., unfortunately, many students believe that George Washington – and Washington only – won the American Revolution). The Civil War also wasn’t a clean victory. The nation was physically and economically destroyed with over half a million dead and millions more freed from slavery. It’s difficult to teach a war that had an equal balance of positive and negative outcomes, but still manage to find silver linings along the way.

Chatelain: So, I take a very schema-centric comparative view of teaching the Civil War in my survey class. I focus much of the Civil War’s conduct on comparing it to the US war for independence. We compare how the Confederacy was trying to invent a government while fighting a war, how the US had to conquer the Confederacy but the Confederacy did not need to conquer the US, how the US worked to cut the Confederacy in half like the British attempted in the Hudson River valley. This comparison allows the students to gain a better appreciation for how people of the time logically thought, while also building tools to help them remember how the war was fought. I then combine this with historical reading, interpretation, and writing to have students dive into more specific topics.

What are the top obstacles or challenges when teaching the current generation?

Flowers: As an early member of Gen Z (1998), it comes down to two things. One issue I think is prevalent in classrooms is social media and technology, which can be particularly damaging when it comes to misinformation. Sometimes, students will show me a video that is clearly AI, and it gets crucial facts wrong. Second, I get some students who, frankly, do not care about history because they think it does not impact their current situation. I try to change that way of thinking and show them that the past and the present are connected, even if they do not think so.

Feierstein: While I’ve barely made the cut for the Millennial generation (1995), I feel as though I’m decades apart from the students who I teach – who could be my younger siblings. Many have a hard time conceptualizing why the war really began, and why political matters can turn violent. I don’t believe my students who were born in the 2010s are completely ignorant about the concept, but there have been a number of times where they raised their hands and asked, “Why didn’t we just let the South secede?” I believe that because today’s youth are very far removed from the racism and less-PC culture that I grew up in, it’s hard to understand going to war over humanitarian or political matters. Others, however, have likened the 1850s and 1860s to the sectional divisions of today and use it as a way to connect the time periods.

Chatelain: There are real obstacles to find relatability in historical material that will engage most students in a class. One student will find a topic fascinating, while another will find that same topic boring. This is ubiquitous, and educators have a true responsibility to both know their content material, but to also understand who our students are and where they come from. It is also important to understand their prior knowledge level. Expecting a new college student taking their first class to be experts at reading Abraham Lincoln’s prose may prove difficult, but helping them get to that point is rewarding.

In a perfect world, how would you want your students to respond to Civil War instruction?

Flowers: I want them to understand the complexities and myths that came out of the Civil War, but it can also be seen as an epic story. Whether you see it as a political drama, a nineteenth-century war epic, or a journey toward freedom, there is something that will intrigue everybody if only you are willing to hear about it.

Feierstein: Ideally, my students understand that we still feel and see echoes of the Civil War in today’s world. To some Americans, the conflict isn’t over. 160 years is also not that long ago. I would want them to acknowledge that the Union didn’t just piece itself back together, brush the dust off, and continue on into the 1870s and beyond. It came down to political decisions, historical figures taking action, and some making mistakes along the way.

Chatelain: I want students to know that the US Civil War is the country’s most trying and defining moment. It was the conflict where we said as a nation-state that we can do better, that we can make life better for those who live here, and that we can hold ourselves accountable. Great change happened because of this conflict, and the losses were tremendous. We have a responsibility to continue trying to live up to all of that to continue working to make the United States a better place to live.

What do you think is missing from curriculums or teaching guides on the Civil War?

Flowers: My students in survey courses only get two weeks on the American Civil War, and that is obviously not enough time. Even an entire semester on the subject can feel short because there’s so much I would want to talk about. Not only the battles, leaders, and emancipation, but also common soldiers, women, Reconstruction, and memory. A whole class could even focus on the Civil War in Popular Culture. There’s so much to talk about, and yet I’m concerned that important things get set aside for the sake of time management.

Feierstein: I have noticed that many curriculums do not incorporate interactive or creative elements. In the World War II unit, my highschoolers can examine war propaganda, artwork, and movies related to any aspect of that war. The Civil War unit is quite dependent on written materials, which may turn-off this newer generation that doesn’t even use hardcover textbooks. While I personally love primary sources, the Civil War units have not updated to the modern era.

Chatelain: Most curriculums I have seen at the secondary and higher education level focus on the basics of comparing sides, listing important battles, understanding emancipation, and learning how the war changed the country. I try to take an even more macro look at elements of the war in the hope we can see bigger pictures. I also make students look at different resources (both visual and written) and have them interact with these resources through class discussions and written responses. A lot of curriculum I see is just the same thing over and over, with little thought on larger interpretation. Sam is right that in a survey course you only look at the Civil War for a week or so, and Reconstruction for another week or so. Sometimes there is just not enough time to dive into things in the depth that teaching guides (or our own opinions) want.

What keeps you coming back each day to work and continuing with instruction?

Flowers: I learn something new in my own research venues every day, and having a classroom to take the time to show them is always refreshing. It tells me and my students that we are all learning new things together.

Feierstein: I’ve earned the title of “Map Lady” at my campus since I incorporate an enormous amount of battle maps, as well as maps of migration, laws, and demographics. Even on those days when my mental battery is at 5% or the world is on fire, my students never fail to walk in and ask, “What map are we using today?” I will miss that curiosity once I leave the profession.

Chatelain: It is 100% the students. There are students in all of my classes that impress me with their insight, inquisitiveness, and drive. I teach at a community college, and many of my students are there because they are not literate about how college works or just cannot afford to attend another institution. I see things online about how the next generation of students is worse than previous ones, but I also see students every day in class who challenge that assumption.

If you weren’t teaching, what would be your dream job related to the Civil War?

Flowers: Working as a historian/tour guide for a battlefield was something I thought a lot about as a kid. Working on land like Antietam, Gettysburg, or Spotsylvania, and having the opportunity to be surrounded by the weight of it all would be amazing. Public historians are educators too; only their classroom is larger, and the students are average Americans with diverse backgrounds. They are the frontlines of what I do in the classroom, and they should be commended and admired for their efforts.

Feierstein: I would really enjoy being a guide or ranger at Andersonville National Historic Site or another Civil War prison location. I have quite a nerdy obsession with prisons. But alas, I love living in Washington, D.C., so this dream job will have to stay a dream!

Chatelain: If I had the chance to just sit in archives, do research, and write books all day, I would most certainly take that offer.

 

Madeline Feierstein is an Alexandria, VA historian specializing in psychiatric institutions, hospitals, and prisons. A native of Washington, D.C., her work has been showcased across the Capital Region. Madeline leads efforts to document the sick, injured, and imprisoned soldiers that passed through Civil War Alexandria. Additionally, she supports the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and interprets the burials in Alexandria’s historically rich cemeteries with Gravestone Stories. Madeline holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from George Mason University and a Master’s in American History from Southern New Hampshire University. Explore her research at www.madelinefeierstein.com.