Portraits of individuals, families, or groups in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the Civil War era.

Creative writing:

• If you have been assigned an individual, write the memoirs of that person, communicating all that you have learned.

• If you have been assigned a family, draw a family tree and write an informal family history. It could be in the form of a family Bible, which would record births, deaths, and marriages on the day they occurred.

• If you have been assigned a group, write a description of the group for your local newspaper. What is your function? What type of people belong?

B. Traditional essay:

What do these individuals, families, or groups, tell you about nineteenth century families, civic life, military life, etc.? What do they teach us about the Civil War?

Use this class period to search the Valley of the Shadow archives, take notes, and write a basic outline for your paper.

Portrait A: The Albert J. Garber Family of Augusta County

Research suggestions:

• Read the transcripts of the Garber family letters.

• Search the Augusta population census for Albert J. Garber. Note his family number, then return to the search page, click "clear" and search for everyone with that family number.

• Search the slave owner census to see if the family owned slaves.

• Go to the Augusta County Newspaper Search Page for the Pre-War Years and for the War Years and search for information on this family. Click the date of article you want to read, and use your browser's "find" function (search for "Garber") to go right to that particular article.

Portrait B: The West Augusta Guard

Research suggestions:

• Go to the Augusta County Newspaper Search Page for the Pre-War Years and the War Years For both pages, select "all years" and type "West Augusta Guard" into the keyword box. Then click the dates of the articles you want you read, then use your brower's "find" function to go right to the articles of interest.

• Explore the public records to find out as much as you can about this group. Search the Augusta population census manuscripts by the names of the members. Then, find their family numbers, and search the census by that information. How old did the members tend to be? Were they men of property? The sons of men of property? Were they all Virginia natives? Search the slave owner census. How common was slave- ownership by them or their families compared with the county at large? (About 10 percent of Augusta County owned slaves.)