Civil War Scavenger Hunt

During the civil war there were many important battles fought all which took place in one or more of the three theaters, eastern, western, and naval. To learn about each of them we did a scavenger hunt in class. Each person was assigned one of the battles, in which we then made a Google doc for including information such as where and when the battle took place as well as the victor, theater and two other facts that explained why the victor won. We then made a QR code for that Google doc that we placed somewhere in the school. Each Google doc had information as to where the proceeding one was located so that we could easily find all the information. Using the information we collected from the scavenger hunt we then made a Padlet where the class collaborated to decide where the theater for each battle was located and why, and used this information to answer our essential questions.

Each of the three theaters was dominated by a different victor.  In the east the  overall victor was the confederacy, because they used their surprise attack tactics to win battle such as the battles of Bull run and the battle of Chancellorsville. The union was the overall victor for the western theater. because the union had an advantage in their numbers of soldiers, they were able to win battles such as the battles of fort Henry, fort Donelson, and the battle of Shiloh. Lastly, the union was also the victor for the naval theater. With a well trained and stronger army and once again their greater number, Ulysses S. grant had some great tactics that helped the union to dominate the battles that took place in the naval theater.

After completing the scavenger hunt and the padlet it was more clear why each side won in the different theaters. Overall, the union was the main victor of the war because they had a better military with more soldiers, good strategies, and resources, which helped them to be successful in defeating the confederacy in most of the battles. The confederacy had won the battles they did because of their defensive strategies. I really enjoyed this lesson because doing the scavenger hunt was a fun and effective way to learn the information about all the battles

Battle of Mission [i.e., Missionary] Ridge, Nov. 25th, 1863, Cosack & Co. lithograph from McCormick Harvesting Co., c1886.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Missionary_Ridge

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