Abstract
The history of the Union states during the Civil War has typically been told with an eastern emphasis. Historians have frequently dismissed or neglected California’s role in the Civil War due to the state’s great distance from the theaters of war. The Common Core State Standards challenges history teachers to develop primary-source based curriculum that allows students to explore historical questions in-depth. Research was conducted primarily at the Center for Sacramento History (CSH), the repository for records from the city and county of Sacramento. A close analysis of Sacramento’s Civil War-era newspapers, the Sacramento Bee and the Sacramento Union was augmented by memoirs and items of personal correspondence from the collections of CSH and the California State Library. Sacramento’s support of the Union during the Civil War indicated the community’s deep engagement with the progress and outcome of the war. Given the state’s relatively small population and distance from the east, California provided abundant aid to the Union cause supplying both men and money in support of the war. California teachers can teach the Civil War as local history and in the process engage student interest, help students understand essential historical questions, and develop valuable historical-thinking skills.