Civil War Essay Contest Winners 2015

High School Division

Click on the title to view a pdf of a winning essay.

First Prize

Anjelica Matcho, Bridgewater Raritan High School, Bridgewater, New Jersey
"Dethroning King Cotton: The Failed Diplomacy of the Confederacy"

Second Prize

Stefano E. Jacobson, Collegiate School, New York, New York
"Andrew Johnson’s Pardoning Policy and the Failure of Freedmen’s Land Ownership during Reconstruction"

Third Prize

Dante Mangiaracina, Collegiate School, New York, New York
"The Army for Lincoln in 1864: Electing the President, Ending the War, and Changing the Voting Process"

Middle School Division

Click on the title to view a pdf of a winning essay.

First Prize

Justin Swanson, Johnson Creek Middle School, Johnson Creek, Wisconsin
"How Was the Strategy of Blockades Influenced by Britain?"

Second Prize

Jamie Joung, The Manning School, Golden, Colorado
"Our Strengths As Women"

Third Prize

Maya Jowers, Endeavor Hall Charter School, West Valley City, Utah
"The Emancipation Proclamation: A Key Factor in the Civil War"

Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order)

Zachary Cherian, Crystal Springs Uplands School, Hillsborough, CA
"The Role of the Civil War in the Expansion of the American Healthcare System"

Jane Colon-Bonet, Rocky Mountain High School, Fort Collins, CO
"The Backbone of Motivation: How Incentive in the North vs. the South Aided the Union to Victory"

James Creissen, East Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC
"Southern Inequality: The Planter Class and the American Civil War"

Isabel Cushing, Concord Academy, Concord, MA
"Voices from Behind the Veil: The Literary Tradition of African American Women"

Abigail Doroshow, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC
"‘Potomac Calls to Chesapeake’: Maryland as a Microcosm of the Civil War"

Scott Fairbanks, Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY
"Descent into Tyranny? Civil Liberties in a Wartime State"

Eli Guenzburger, The Bronx High School of Science, Bronx, NY
"The American Civil War and Perceptions of Jewish-American Identity"