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.