Putting+a+Name+with+the+Face

My thematic unit is based on Civil War Reconstruction with a focus on national disunity and tensions between states and their people.

Poetry Background: I went to a small, local concert several years ago and the singer told a story about the song he was about to sing. He was going through some old Civil War artifacts a long time ago and he stumbled upon a tin-type of a very young soldier who fought for the Confederacy and died in battle. He was extremely moved by the photo and he wanted to learn more about the boy soldier. He did tons of research but was not able to find anything about him. Barry Stagg was very bothered by the fact that the boy was so young, and he gave so much, yet no one even knew his story. He was then inspired to give the unidentified soldier a story and that is how he ended up with the poem "Private Edwin Jennison." He eventually put the poem to music and ended up with a fairly successful song.

Activity: I plan to start this activity by simply reading the poem to my students. After reading it, I will play the song and tell the students to listen closely. I will then ask my students to tell me what they know about Edwin Jennison from the song. I will then instruct them to tell me what they can infer about Edwin Jennison based on the poem/song. After doing so, I will show them the photo of the unidentified soldier that inspired this poem and ask students if they can infer anything else about him based on his photo. Finally, I will tell the students the author's story of how Edwin Jennison came to be and as a class we will listen to the poem again. Students should look closely at the photo and try and discover any clues in the picture that led Barry Stagg to create certain parts of his story.

After we've discussed the concept of creating a story for someone, I will pass out a different photo for every student. Some of the photos could be Civil War soliders, others could be newly freed slaves, women widowed by the war, etc. Each student will be responsible for giving the person in their photo a story. I will help the students get started on their poems by having several mini free writes. First, I'll instruct the students to free write for one minute about their persons family, then one minute on their job, and finally one minute about how they died. I'll tell them to make their person's story as realistic as possible by using clues about the person they find in the photo. Students will have a few days to write and revise their poems and when everyone is finished, we will present the poems. Some of the photos will be of people that have a fairly well-known story, although the students will not know that until they have finished writing. After the students who have those photos have presented, I will be tell their person's real story and we'll see how close they were. For example, I plan on using a photo of Henry K. Burgwyn (the boy colonel).

My name is Edwin Jennison and I wore a suit of gray It was 16 yrs last April When I saw the light of day I left my home in Georgia and I watched my daddy cry As my momma held and kissed me on the day I said goodbye

Now I bow before the One Who knows each star by name I no longer hear the guns, I no longer feel the pain I bow before the one Who knows each star by name On Judgment Day, the South is gonna rise again

My eyes once told a story of a soldier much too young To understand the reasons for a war that no one won I died outside of Richmond in 1862 A boy inside the body of a man he never knew

I’m the universal soldier, my face is every son Who has gone to war and listened for the beating of some distant drum My name is Edwin Jennison, I left all my dreams behind How long will it take before my name is lost in time

On Judgment Day The South is gonna rise again On Judgment Day The South is gonna rise again On Judgment Day The South is gonna rise again

Resources:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157625520211184/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3WOr8swc-g