Decoding the Civil War

Decode Now

The Decoding the Civil War project is focused on transcribing and decoding of Civil War telegrams to engage new and younger audiences using crowdsourcing technology to spark their curiosity and develop new critical thinking skills.

Over one hundred and fifty years have passed since the end of the Civil War and it still captures the imagination and passion of young and old. The American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s presidency are perpetually fascinating. With all the attention focused on the Civil War and Lincoln, all we know and have learned, there is still much to learn. This project is focused on some of those untold stories. President Abraham Lincoln was America’s first “technology” president. He used emerging telegraph technology in war, politics, and even his personal life. The Decoding the Civil War project is focused on transcribing and decoding of Civil War telegrams to engage new and younger audiences using crowdsourcing technology to spark their curiosity and develop new critical thinking skills.

The Huntington Museum is partnering with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, North Carolina State University, and Zooniverse.org at the University of Minnesota to,

Provide open source access to a large, rare collection of 15,922 Civil War telegrams in the Thomas T. Eckert Papers at The Huntington Library.
Develop a crowdsourcing website decode and decipher the 15,922 telegrams with greater efficiency and accuracy than could be done by staff at participating institutions. Available at http://decodingthecivilwar.org
Design inquiry-based educational modules that can be used to bring history alive to museum-goers and classroom students at http://huntington1.com/ps/_decoding_the_civil_war/_decoding_the_civil_war.html

Instructional materials for this project are being developed by teachers and students under the direction of Dr. John Lee and the Digital History and Pedagogy Project at NC State University along with C3 Teachers. If you have any question, please contact us at jklee@ncsu.edu

The Heart of Social Studies

Instructional Materials

This project uses an approach to designing instruction for social studies called the Inquiry Design Model (IDM). IDM emerged in response to the publication of the C3 Framework. The IDM approach to teaching and learning puts inquiry into practice following the contours of the C3’s Inquiry Arc.

Decoding the Civil War features three types of instructional materials – Explainers, Activities, and Inquiries.

Explainers are direct instruction materials that provide background on topics and issues related to the Decoding the Civil War project. Explainers emerged in journalism as a way to build background knowledge among readers (see more here). The concept has been picked up in education as a way to introduce complex subject matter using a variety of media (examples here and here).

Inquiries feature telegram sources and all the materials needed for 2-4 days of instruction on a range of Civil War topics. The inquiries are designed using a new approach to designing instruction for social studies called the Inquiry Design Model (IDM). Each inquiry includes a Blueprint overview of the lesson along with descriptions of the various tasks that make up the inquiry.

Inquiry #1 – The Telegraph in the Civil War
Inquiry #2 – Telegrams and the Battle of Gettysburg
Inquiry #3 – Hampton Roads Peace Conference
Inquiry #4 – African American experiences in the Civil War
Inquiry #5 – Lincoln and McClellan

Explainers are direct instruction materials that provide background on topics and issues related to the Decoding the Civil War project. Explainers emerged in journalism as a way to build background knowledge among readers. The concept has been picked up in education as a way to introduce complex subject matter using a variety of media.

Explainer #1 – The Telegraph in the Civil War
Explainer #2 – Cipher in the Civil War

Activities are hybrid lessons that incorporate the best of explainers and inquiries – meeting in the middle to provide students with a structure and direct, but semi-autonomous learning experience with content.

Activity #1 – Learn the Union Code
Activity #2 – Codes in Everyday Life
Activity #3 – Build Your Own Code
Activity #4 – Transcribing Telegrams
Activity #5 – Analyzing Telegrams
Activity #6 – Decoding the Weitzel Telegram
Activity #7 – Codes Wikileaks and National Security

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