Civil War Essay Contest Winners 2016

High School Division

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

First Prize

Catherine Cai, Garnet Valley High School, Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania
"‘Army Disease’ and America’s Changing Attitudes toward Drug Addiction"

Second Prize

Anastasia LeDuc, Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
"The Continuing Influence of Slavery and Emancipation on Contemporary African-American Culture"

Third Prize

Nicholas C. Monaco, Collegiate School, New York, New York
"Reconstructing the Crescent City: Benjamin Butler’s Occupation of New Orleans"

Middle School Division

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

First Prize

Ellie Schweiker, The Manning School, Golden, Colorado
"A Taste of Food in the Civil War"

Second Prize

Ameera Waterford, Emmanuel Lutheran School, Kahului, Hawaii
"How Death Saved Lives: The Evolution of Medicine in the Civil War"

Third Prize

Idris Young, City Honors School at Fosdick-Masten Park, Buffalo, New York
"Illustrating War and Race: Political Cartoons and the Civil War"

Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order)

Grace Driggers, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP Online, Lamar, South Carolina
"West Virginia: Secession or Excision?"

Ngan Kim Le, Mount Saint Charles School, Woonsocket, Rhode Island
"After the Civil War: Radical Reconstruction, Its Birth of Freedom, and Its Civil Legacy"

Austin Mejia, Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
"Extra, Extra: Journalism and the Civil War"

Nick Ni, Garnet Valley High School, Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania
"How a Twentieth-Century Movie Made Reconstruction a Failure"

Hiroto Saito, Garnet Valley High School, Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania
"James Buchanan and the Impact of the Dred Scott Decision"

Gabriel Straus, The Collegiate School, New York, New York
"‘Traitors and their Sympathizers’: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War’s Investigation of George Meade"

Anneka Williams, Harwood Union High School, Moretown, Vermont
"Cross Examining Lincoln: Challenging the Legacy of ‘Honest Abe’"