Monday, March 17, 2014

Civil War Battles Scavenger Hunt

Instead of doing a normal unit on the important battles of the Civil War, we did a different, more interactive method. We made a scavenger hunt out of it. Everyone in the class was assigned an important Civil War battle that they had to research. They were given a little description with the date and a few other pieces of information and had to find the name. We then had to find some other basic information about the battle including the victor and theater of war. We put all of this into an open google doc and added an image. We then had to make a QR code linked to the document and put it on a sign. The signs were hung up around the school, so people would go to a sign, scan it to get information, and receive a clue to where the next battle was located. We spent three days running around the school completing the scavenger hunt. After the scavenger hunt, our class made two padlets to answer the essential questions of the unit.


Battle Google Doc:


Reasons for results padlet:




Theaters and victors padlet:




The ultimate victor of the Civil War varied between the theaters. In the east theater the confederates were the winners. They won seven out of the twelve eastern battles studied including the Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Cold Harbor, Battle of Fort Sumter, and Battle of Fredericksburg. Most victories were at the beginning of the war, though, and the Union started to win eastern battles after Ulysses Grant became in charge. The Union was the clear victor of Naval battles. The first major one, the Battle of Hampton was a draw and the south sustained damage on their only ironclad. The union won every other naval battle we studied including the Battle of Baton Rouge and the Battle of Fort Henry. The Union was also the victor in the West theater. Victories included the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Gettysburg. Some reasons for the confederate victories include that they had good leaders and good tactics. For example, the Battle of Chancellorsville was won because Lee decided to split up his troops. Some confederate victory could also be attributed to the union underestimating them. One major reason for Union success is that they had a lot more resources. They had more soldiers and more weapon and had more advanced technology. Another reason for Union victories was the union had some very smart generals, especially Ulysses S Grant. Grant was a very good general and was responsible for many union victories and the victory of the war itself as well. For these reasons, the Union was the overall victor of the Civil War.  

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