A Union Tested was published with teachers and students of the Civil War in mind. The following links will take readers to a pair of lesson plans that will help them to dig deeper into what the Fikes’ letters reveal about life on the homefront and on the battlefield. The first lesson, Letters from Home, focuses upon the challenges that Cimbaline Fike faced as a parent and citizen, all while battling chronic health problems. The other lesson, A Soldiers’ Letters, utilizes the correspondence of Henry Fike to consider how the Union army’s invasion and occupation transformed the South, and also how these experiences influenced troops’ evolving sense of duty, loyalty, and race.