War rations is a concept that is difficult for students to understand. This site uses a painting of people shopping at a grocery store during WWII and makes it interactive. Visitors to the site can examine the picture and click on details to learn more about what is happening in the photo. For instance, it shows pictures and explainations of actual ration booklets, propaganda, posters, grocery prices, etc. There are also nice "Did you know" buttons to learn more and all the primary sources can be downloaded and printed as PDF's.
This site is sponsored by the Library of Congress. The sites focus is the Declaration of Independence and how to use use it with elementary age students. It gives an example lesson plan with it's focus on identifying, examining and evaluating.
This site would be a great addition to a civil war unit because it uses documents from Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. It would help to present both sides of the war to students. Often in teaching the civil war, we neglect to explain some of the ways that the South felt slighted and it would make for a good analysis for students to be able to view and examine the papers of Jefferson Davis.