This week marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sumter, the first battle of the American Civil War. Through the Google Earth Blog I learned about a great source of Google Earth files and Google SketchUp models related to the American Civil War. 3D American Civil War is all about sharing and producing SketchUp models to use in Google Earth to illustrate places and events of the American Civil War.

The Google Earth file and 3D model that drew my attention is this one featuring the Battle of Fort Sumter. The file contains the following:

• 3D version of Fort Sumter before it was attacked
• 3D version of the Floating Battery of Charleston that was used to fire on Fort Sumter
• Historical map overlays of the locations of various Confederate Batteries that fired on Fort Sumter.
• These maps come from Library of Congress and the National Archives 
• Geo-located Civil War Era photos of the damage Fort Sumter endured and the locations of the Confederate batteries. These photos also come from Library of Congress and the National Archives
• Twitter Feeds of the Washington Post’s twitter campaign of the Civil War
• Links to Qwiki and Wikipedia articles and media about the Battle and various locations