Scavenging a Hunt Through the Civil War

QR Code to Google Doc

Google Doc

The civil war consisted of many bloody battles, which were able to sway the momentum and give both the north and south the upper hand at different points. Due to their importance, our class recently completed a scavenger hunt with them. In order to do this, each student in the class was assigned one of 20 important battles of the civil war. With this battle, each was supposed to record the battle name, place, date, victor, and theater (east, west, or naval), along with the main reasons for the outcome of the battle. With this Google Doc, we created a QR Code (with a bit.ly) and placed them around the school, numbered 1-20. Each QR Code had instructions to the next, thus creating a sort of “hunt”. After completing the hunt and examining the data, it became clear that there were certain trends regarding the victor of the battles (either the union or confederacy) and the theater in which the battles took place (east, west or naval). These trends were put on a Padlet (shown below). In the end, a conclusion can be made that the confederacy were the ultimate victors of the east while the union dominated the western and naval battles.

The ultimate victor of the western battles was the union, mainly due to having a larger army. In the Battle of Shiloh, the confederacy was simply overwhelmed by the numbers that the union had. After the initial attack by the union, the confederacy launched a fairly successful counterattack, but the many waves of union soldiers stopped the confederacy from causing too much damage. Additionally, in the Battle of Vicksburg, the Confederate chief’s sole choice was to retreat from battle after suffering 29,491 casualties and not being able to keep up with the union’s size. In all, the confederacy could not keep up with the union, not by lack of strategy, but simply by lack of soldiers.

In addition to the west, the union also dominated in the naval battles of the civil war. This can be attributed to the fact that the union had an advantage in being the aggressors as well as poor confederate defense and preparation. The Battle of Fort Henry had the confederacy running out of ammunition, and many of the soldiers were fresh recruits with little training. Also, the location of the fort was poor, due to being very exposed as well as on low ground. In addition to the Battle of Fort Henry, the Surrender of Fort Donelson also involved poor confederate strategy. Instead of deciding to retreat from the fort prior to union attack, General Gideon Pillow put his troops back into their posts. Due to, again, a poor location, the union were able to come out of the battle victorious. Overall, the confederacy was generally dominated by the union in the naval battles due to having to defend from all directions, as well as not having adequate preparation.

Though the western and naval theaters had a clear victor in the union, the victor of the eastern theater is more ambiguous. Either side could have been argued as being more successful in that theater; even so, the confederacy seems to just edge out the union. In the war, the main motivations of the confederacy were to defend, hold their ground, and make sure that the no big changes would occur in the country due to union victory. Because of this, the confederacy were able to achieve their goal in the east. In the second battle of Bull Run, the union was simply overwhelmed by confederate strategy, which consisted of a completely unexpected counterattack. This led to a large loss of union soldiers as well as being held off from their goal. Additionally, the Battle of Fredericksburg also showed the confederacy with a better strategy than that of the union. With poor communication inside the union army, the confederacy were able to create a choke point which led to an easier way to defend their position and, ultimately, victory. Though the confederacy may not have led many attacks in the east, they were still able to defend themselves (unlike the results of the west and navy) through their stronger strategy.

In class, a scavenger hunt was a great way to learn this material. It made the lesson enjoyable and gave a way to learn the material without having to sit in a classroom taking down notes. Creating the Google Doc gave a way to learn the intricacies of your own battle, and finding the others around the school presented many patterns while teaching the material without going into too much detail.

Created with Padlet