Civil War Scavenger Hunt

In this section of the unit, our class was discussing 2 essential questions which asked about which sides dominated which theaters: "Who was the ultimate doctor in each of the theaters of war: East, West, or Naval?" and "What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battles?" To help in our understanding of these questions, our class broke up into small groups and set off on a scavenger hunt around our school to understand who won which wars, as well as what gave the winning side the advantage in doing so. 

Battle of Gettysburg

Battle of Shiloh

The victors throughout each battle in the civil war varies depending on the theatre. For example, the Union mostly dominated the western theatre while the confederacy mainly dominated the eastern theatre. The naval theatre went back and forth, but in the end, the union came out on top. Reasons for these victories and losses varied from battle to battle. For example, the confederates won the Battle of Good Harbor (east) simply because they focused in on causing as much damage as they possibly could in a short amount of time. According to the information we found during the scavenger hunt, the confederates frontal assault caused at least 7000 casualties within an hour. On the contrary, the Union army outnumbered and outgunned the Confederate army by a large margin during the Battle of Fort Henry (naval) They caused enough damage to make the Confederates surrender.

In my opinion, I believe that each army did conquer their respective theaters. However, near the end of these streaks of wars, union began to take the upper hand when it came to winning battles in the eastern theaters. Otherwise, I feel like the class as a whole correctly determined which army conquered which theatre. I trust most all of the sources as we were required to use primary sources when finding the results of battles we were given. All In all, I feel this was the correct approach and was a fun twist on a way to learn about several battles during the civil war.

Class Responses to the essential questions