Friday, April 10, 2015

Search for Facts

            This week in our Honors History 10 class, we learned about many different Civil War battles. While studying these battles, we observed the tactics of the Confederacy and the Union. Every battle took place in one of the three “theaters.” These theaters were east, west or naval. We observed who won more battles in each theater. Our goal was to figure out who the ultimate victor, the north or south, was in all of the three theaters. To help gather information to find the answer to this question our class created and went on a scavenger hunt. Each person in the class was assigned a battle and they had to find general information on that battle. We had to find the date, theater, location, winner, and reasons for victory. Each person had to create a Google doc for his or her battle and then create a QR code for the sharable link. Everyone printed out the code and typed his or her battle name above the code. Once these sheets were printed everyone hid them around the school for everyone else to find and scan into to get information on the battles. This was a very enjoyable and entertaining way to gain knowledge about civil war battles. At the end of our findings we created a Padlet and voiced our opinions on who we though won in each theater.
            Through our findings in the scavenger hunt our class concluded that the Union dominated the western and naval theaters. The Union capitalized on the fact that the Confederates had minimal supplies. This was the case in the Siege of Vicksburg. In the battle of Shiloh the Union outnumbered the Confederates by a lot and that was a key factor in their victory. In the naval theater the Union prevailed in battles like the battle of Hampton Roads. In this battle the Confederate ship exploded. The Union had a much better naval system than the Confederates.

            When it came to the eastern theater, the result was not quite as obvious. Both sides had victories in the east. As the war progressed it was evident that the Union was more skilled in the east than the Confederates. Many Union victories had to do with the unpreparedness of the Confederates. Through this fun activity we learned that the Union dominated pretty much every theater there was.  


Tuesday, April 7, 2015

It has Begun

The election of 1860 was the start of a series of conflicts between the north and south in the United States. Abraham Lincoln was the winner of the election.  Lincoln was a republican and was against slavery. The fact  that Lincoln was against slavery lead to him winning all of the northern states who were also against slavery. Lincolns strongest competitor was Breckinridge. He was a southern democrat who was all for slavery. This lead to him receiving almost all of the votes from southern, pro-slavery states. The other two candidates were Bell and Douglas and they both did not win many states. Douglas only won two states and he believed that people should be able to vote for slavery. Bell believed that no changes should be made to the constitution. so he felt that slavery should stay. The groups we split into in class analyzed five pieces of civil war art. Each piece of art helped show how the election affected the war.

Election Map
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1779925/United-States-presidential-election-of-1860

Link to Educreations video