To Be Classy Or Sassy During the Civil War

While the men were fighting in the Civil War, the women had to run the towns. However, being in control of things was frowned upon for females during this time. Women were forced to stay inside the “Sphere of Domesticity” in order to be considered a lady. This only held some women back from acting in what was considered back then a "lady manner." 

Some women chose to act outside the “Sphere of Domesticity” during the Civil War because they wanted to help out in society or they wanted a career for themselves. Louisa May Alcott desired to help in war, so she worked as a nurse in a hospital in DC. The issue was, she was young, attractive, and single. Society did not approve of that kind of lady working with young, single men. Harriet Jacobs was a runaway slave who focused on helping refugees. It is understandable that she wanted to help people who were like her at one point, so she knew what they were going through. However, society thought it was unacceptable to help slaves that escaped to the North. Martha Coston was outside the sphere by being in charge of designing flares for the war, but that the job she was good at and enjoyed doing, so she continued. Some women chose to dress up as men so that they could be soldiers in the war to support their country, despite the fact that they were outside of the sphere. Rose O’Neil was a Confederate Spy. This was not accepted, but she was enthusiastic about helping the Confederates. Dorothea Dix was amazing at being in charge of a nursing corporation in DC, even though soldiers and male doctors were upset that women were in charge of them.  Some women felt that it was their duty to be in control of the community, since the men were away at war. However, this meant that they were outside of the “Sphere of Domesticity”

           On the other hand, some women chose to maintain traditional gender roles during the Civil War because it was important to them to be known as ladies. For example, General Butler threatened that any woman who wore Confederate colors or ignored male soldiers would be known as a “common whore.” Women were not willing to have that title. Also, Alice Chapin was part of the temperance movement and gave medical aid to people. She remained in the sphere, even though she was poor as a result. Some women wanted to have a positive reputation in society.

           During the Civil War, women had different priorities. Some women felt it was important to try to be in charge of things while the men were away at war, while others desired to act how the women back hen were supposed to act.

 "The Sphere of Women." http://www1.assumption.edu/WHW/old/Godey's%20Lady's%20Book%20-%20Mar.%201850 

Secrets to the Victories of the Civil War Battles

For the Battle Scavenger Hunt, each person in the class received one battle to research that occurred during the Civil War. For each battle, students were required to created a Google Doc that anyone can view. It included the name of the battle, the date it happened, the victor of the battle, two reasons why the victor won, and a picture of the battle. Students created a QR code that linked to the Google Doc about the battle. Students communicated with each other where they were going to put their QR code around the school so that each Google Doc had directions to the next battle. During class two days, students put their QR code wherever they had planned to put it and then they would go to the battle after theirs to start the scavenger hunt. When students arrived at a QR code they would scan into that battle and take notes on each battle. Some students found it helpful to screenshot the Google Doc for each battle in order to reference back to them later. After completing the scavenger hunt, we used Padlet to respond to two questions. Each student posted their answer on padlet through their devices and then the class could see all of the responses on the SmartBoard. Ms. Gallagher briefly went over the responses to each question. The first question was who was the overall victor in each theater? (East, West, Naval.) Students chose any of the three theaters to give their response to. The second question was to give the reasons as to why each victor won the battles in each theater. Again, students could decide which theater they wanted to respond to.

Link to my battle Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X9uLrWPs6tiutP0likhx_ka9vPdFIIo37vDInW_DlQQ/edit

Link to Theaters and Victors Padlet: http://padlet.com/wall/bblockcivilwar

Link to Reasons for Results Padlet: http://padlet.com/wall/bblockcivilwar1

Each theater had a victor during the Civil War. The overall victor of the East was the Union. At the beginning of the Civil War, the Confederates won many battles against the Union because the Union underestimated the Confederates. These battles included Second Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Chancellorsville, the Union Assault at Spotsylvania, Battle of Cold Harbor, and Battle of Fort Sumter. However, towards the end of the Civil War, the Union begun to win more battles in the East. These battles included the Battle of Antietam, and Battle of Gettysburg, which were also in the East. Since they won more battles towards the end, the Union is considered the victor of the Civil War in the East. In the Naval theater, the Union won many battles. The Union destroyed the Confederacy’s ironclad at the battle of Hampton Roads. The Union also won the battle at Baton Rouge and Fort Henry. The Union was the victor in the West because they won the Western Naval battle of Fort Henry, Battle of Shiloh, Battle of Fort Donelson, and the Battle of Gettysburg. The only victory for the Confederates in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga.

The reason why the Confederates won their battles was that they had more helpful strategies than the Union. The Confederates won at the Battle of Chancellorsville, even when outnumbered by the Union, because Robert E. Lee split up his army when attacking the Union. At the Battle of Cold Harbor, the Confederates made trenches when they realized that the Union had misplaced a group of reinforcements and had a delay on their attacks. Therefore,the Union was unprepared, so the Confederates won. The Union victories were due to their skillful generals, the army’s size, and the Confederacy’s mistakes. At Gettysburg, General Meade used smart tactics to defeat the Confederacy. General Grant and Sherman lead their army to victory by demolishing the Confederacy’s supplies. The Union outnumbered the Confederates in many battles. In the Battle of the Wilderness, the Confederacy lost more troops than the Union. At the Antietam Battle, Sherman’s March to the Seas, and the Appomattox Campaign, the Confederates had to retreat because they were outnumbered by the Union. The Confederacy’s cannons were destroyed by water at the Battle of Fort Henry. Arkansas, the Confederacy’s ship at the Battle of Baton Rouge, was ruined because of the engine.

This image shows students scanning into the Qr codes around the school that link to a Google Doc about a specific battle.

What Really Came From Being in the Civil War

In my opinion, I believe that personal perseverance was more important during the Civil War. At first, I thought it was more important to service to one’s country, until I realized the risks and dangers of being in the Civil War. First of all, the Cumberland (the Confederacy’s ship) and the Merrimack (the Union’s ship) attacked one another at a short distance away from each other, so the battle lasted a long time. The only way to destroy an iron clad (the Cumberland) was to somehow get fire inside of the ship, which was difficult to do. People in the Confederacy and Union had to fight for long periods of time, sometimes getting injured. If someone were to get injured, they had a chance of getting worse, or dying, from the treatment. Surgeons often carried out resections on people with battle wounds. In “Under the Knife,” Terry L. Jones wrote, “Besides being a difficult procedure, resection also carried a high risk of profuse bleeding, infection and postoperative necrosis of the flesh.” Not only did people in the Civil War have a high risk of getting injured in battles, but they also had a high risk of dying from the treatment of the battle injuries.

Another danger of being in the Civil War was getting hurt from advanced weapons. In 1862, 240 patents issued for military weapons, according to “The Art of Death.” These weapons included the most important invention in the Civil War; the rifled musket. The Minié ball used in the rifled musket could kill someone at half a mile and accurate at 250 yards. The “Under the Knife” article by Terry L. Jones explains how Major General Richard S. Ewell’s left kneecap was hit by a Minié ball during the Civil War in 1862. Campbell Brown, Ewell’s aide who saw the operation on Ewell’s leg said about the Minié ball, “pierced the joint & followed the leg down for some inches. When the leg was opened, we found the knee-cap split half in two — the head of the tibia knocked into several pieces — & that the ball had followed the marrow of the bone for six inches breaking the bone itself into small splinters & finally had split into two pieces on a sharp edge of bone.” The technology of new weapons during the Civil War came with more opportunities to get hurt or killed.

With so many people killed in during the Civil War, there was no point of fighting so hard, just to lose loyal citizens. It was more important to have enough people in a community, rather than enough people to fight in the Civil War. 

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads_3g01752u.jpg

North vs.South in Civil War

In my infograph, I used the Slave Density statistics in Document A because the South had more slaves than the North, and therefore depended on the slaves' production of cotton. Normally the South traded the cotton produced by slaves for other resources that they needed for the army. President Lincoln discontinued the ports along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico in the South. This prevented the South from trading their cotton to Europe and receiving manufactured goods needed for the the army. I also used the Resources of Union and Confederacy statistics in Document B because the differences in numbers between the North and South impacted their armies. Since the North had a bigger population, more men were able to fight in the army, as well as having people available to maintain the land and produces resources. Also, the North had more railroad mileage, which made it easier for them to transport supplies for the army. Another advantage for the North was that they were able to make more supplies that were needed in the army because the North contained more industrial workers than the South. From these statistics, I realized how the North and South used their advantages to create strategies in the Civil War.


Link to Infograph: https://infogr.am/north-vs-south-in-the-civil-war?src=web

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/civil_war/civil_war_map.jpg

Overview of Causes of the Civil War Project

In the Causes of the Civil War class project, each group (of one, two or three students) researched one cause of the Civil War. The different topics were Bleeding Kansas, California & the Gold Rush, Caning of Charles Sumner, Compromise of 1850, Dred Scott Decision, John Brown & Harper's Ferry, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Mexican-American War, Missouri Compromise, Secession of South, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. From their research, each group made an online scrapbook so that students could learn about their cause from viewing each scrapbook. Students used things like Prezi, Weebly, and Glogster to create their scrapbook. The scrapbook included an introduction essay, at least twelve primary sources that had captions to explain how the primary source relates to the topic, and a bibliography that stated all of the groups’ sources. The scrapbook needed at least six primary source pictures and at least six primary source documents. During class, students had the opportunity to look at each scrapbook and include each cause on a timeline. Each cause needed the name of the event, the date of the event, and a brief description of the event, including how the event impacted slavery. The events were put into chronological order on the timeline.  

Link to my project: http://www.glogster.com/jennasimran/poster-glog-by-jennasimran/g-6k5vbeu898u1prkmfnmif7f

Note: Compromise of 1850 and Bleeding Kansas should switch places on the timeline. 
Also, I am not sure how to crop the print screen so that only the timeline shows.