Our History class recently conducted a scavenger hunt around the school, trying to find out about important battles in the Civil War. The first thing we did was split up twenty battles among the students in our class. A few students had to pair up, most were on their own. Outside of class, we did some research to figure out the important details about our assigned battle. We looked up the theater (Eastern, Western, or Naval), victor (Union or Confederate) and two important points having to do with why the outcome was the way it was. Using this information, we created a Google Doc and a QR code that would lead the our public Google Doc. In class the next day, we discussed where our battle would be placed around the school with the people who had the battles before or after us. We wrote directions to the next battle on the bottom of our Google Doc and started the Scavenger hunt! Each person would scan the QR code, read the information, copy it into a note then follow the directions to the next station. After we finished the hunt, we gathered as a class to discuss the two Essential Questions on Padlet. The questions and links to Padlet are following:
Who were the ultimate victors in each theater?
What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battles?
In the Western Theater, the Union armies were in control for most of the war winning five of six major battles in the West. They tended to lead incredibly successful sieges against Confederate soldiers in their forts. They often utilized their strong navy to weaken the Fort's defenses before the soldiers attacked. In battles like Battle of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the Union set up gunboats around a Confederate fort and would weaken its defenses. They out soldiers around the Fort, particularly blocking escape routes. Unprepared and panicked Confederate soldiers couldn't break Union lines and get out. At the Battle of Shiloh, Union soldiers outnumbered Confederates 40,000 to 30,000. In the Battles for Chattanooga, William Sherman's Army arrived to help Ulysses S. Grant to escape a town the Confederates had cornered them in. With their back up soldiers, the Union ended up outnumbering the Confederates yet again.
At the start of the Civil War, the Confederates seemed to be ahead in the Eastern Theater. They seemed to have better leadership in the beginning of the war. Not only this, but they were familiar with the territory while Union invaders were not. In battles in during the beginning of the war like the First Battle of Bull Run, the Union Army made their first attempts at invading the South. This left them open to be attacked by Confederates who knew the country while they tried to figure out what the best way to maneuver and use the land was.
\However, at the turning point of the year (beginning of 1862), the Union began to win more battles in the Eastern Theater. They had become more accustom to the land at this point and started to use their numbers to their advantage. In the Battle of Spotsylvania, both the North and South lost many men. However, the North, outnumbering the South, was able to continue their campaign along another Front of Richmond.
While the Eastern Theater never remained under one side's control, there was never any question that the Naval Theater belonged to the Union. The Union simply had a more established navy with better ships. In the Battle of Hampton Roads, one of the Confederate's Iron Clads had broken its iron ram against a regular Union Warship. There was no clear winner between the Confederate and Union iron clads, but the South was forced to retire first due to damage it had sustained. In the Battle of Baton Rouge, Confederate's CSS Arkansas' engines failed preventing her from neutralizing Union gun boats. They failed again the next day, causing the ship's crew to blow her up. Union ships weren't nearly as notorious for engine failures and malfunctions as the Confederate ships were.
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