In choosing our topic, we decided to research Abraham Lincoln’s impact on the Civil War. We had a hard time trying to find a topic that connected to the 2013 History Fair theme, so we didn’t bother with it. We thought this topic would be a very researchable topic and were also interested to find out more about Lincoln and his impact on our country. When we started to conduct our research, we first looked to online encyclopedias for brief background information on our topic, which was fairly new to us. After gaining background knowledge, we began searching for sources on web pages, databases, and the local library. We came across one of Lincoln’s greatest speeches, The Gettysburg Address, which was read in the months following the Battle of Gettysburg. We also researched Lincoln’s second inaugural address, in which he brings the country together and says that the evil of slavery was both of theirs. He doesn’t blame either side for the war and brings the north and south together. We began to think about what ways Lincoln impacted the Civil War so we could narrow our research to specific points that we want to talk about. We found that Lincoln's first goal was to rejoin all of the seceded states to the Union and maintain order. His secondary goal was to abolish slavery. This helped us get an understanding of key points/ideas to talk about in our website. At this point we realized we needed to find more primary sources. We found the preliminary format of the Emancipation Proclamation, "Abraham Lincoln Papers." We also came across a biography account of Lincoln and the Civil War. We found lots of sources that seem to be very promising in connecting to values such as equality. After consulting a few more primary sources, books, and journals, we started building our website. After getting some feedback, we tweaked our argument a little and feel like we had an overall stronger argument and thesis after some adjustments. In deciding to work as a group or as individuals doing separate projects, we found that group work would benefit us more. By working in a group we could edit each others work. We used Google docs so everyone could have easy access to all of the necessary materials for the project, and edit and share parts of our project whenever needed. We figured that amidst our schedules, at least one group member would be available to complete a portion of the project. At the start of the project, we wanted to base our thesis on how Abraham Lincoln was working to reunite the Union and abolish slavery. After reading into one of our sources, we learned that at first, terminating slavery in the United States was not Lincoln’s first goal in the Civil War, so we had to change our thesis to add in some of Lincoln’s other goals and things he did to help the Union. Finally, we came up with our final thesis and argument for the site, which was:During the Civil War era, Abraham Lincoln's military genius and Emancipation Proclamation helped reunite America and bring equality into the United States.