Wherever he goes, 11-year-old Adam Webb looks for Civil War artifacts to collect. In his bedroom, he displays 150-year-old Civil War items, including buttons and bullets. He also has a collection of books about the war. He sketches pictures of Civil War heroes and uses Lincoln Logs to build replicas of homes from the 1800s.

“I love learning about the history of the Civil War,” says the Ashland Elementary School fifth-grader. Growing up in Manassas, he says, he has been surrounded by Civil War history his entire life....