Civil war battles scavenger hunt

             To learn more about the battles in the civil war, each person in the class took a battle and researched it. They then put that research into a Google document and created a QR code that linked to it. Next we hung up our QR codes around the school and left a clue to find the next code at each place. After that, we proceeded to go around scanning the codes and taking the information from them.  Finally, we analyzed the battles and, based on the theater (east, west, naval), we said which army dominated over the other in a program called padlet.

Created with Padlet

               After doing the activity, we had enough information to answer the first essential question; who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters and were they winning all along. In the western theater, the Union was the clear victor. First of all, they won almost all the battles fought there and there were only a few major losses. Also, they outnumbered the confederates in almost every battle And they had a strong infrastructure behind them with a network of railroads to supply them with munitions. In the eastern theater, the confederates held firm control in the beginning of the war, while the union gained ground later in the war. At first, the the confederates used superior strategy such as ambushes to rout the union forces. Also, a lot of military schools were in the south creating a strong army for the southerners.  Then, the union started to win when the confederates tried to push into the north like at the battles of Gettysburg and Antietam and they furthered their victories as they pushed the confederates into the south. Finally, in the Naval theater, the Union had dominance over the confederates. This was mostly do to the fact that the union had a pre-established navy and greater numbers than the confederates. overall, the union won the most in the three theaters, which makes sense because the Union won the war.

a depiction of the battle of Gettysburg

               Between all theaters there were similarities in the battles which produced the same outcomes. First of all, in almost all of the victories , the side which won had the other side outnumbered. Also, a lot of union victories happened because they were better supplied with munitions from their larger railroad system. A confederate advantage that caused them to win a lot of their battles is that they were on the defensive side, letting the union come to them. Finally, a commonality between many victories is the side that came up with a better strategy succeeded.