Women in the Civil War

During the Civil War, women were expected to act a certain way. They were expected to cook, clean, and take care of the children. It was not looked favorably upon for a woman to have a job outside the home or act "like a man". These set of constraints are known as the Sphere of Domesticity. Some women in the Civil War chose to make an impact while staying inside the sphere, while others chose to break out from the sphere to aid others.

One woman, Belle Boyd, strayed out of the sphere by acting as a Confederate spy. She stole weapons from confederate camps and flirtatiously tricked union soldiers. Belle Boyd is a prime example of a woman not being inside the Sphere of Domesticity. She chose to act outside the sphere because of an encounter she had with a Union soldier. A drunk group of soldiers tried to raise a Yankee flag above her home. She then was threatened by a soldier, then she killed him, leaving her with a sense of revenge for the soldier trying to convert her house to a "yankee house".

Belle Boyd

Another woman, Alice Chapin, chose to stay more inside the sphere. Her husband forbade her from getting a job while he was at war, so she decided to aid the troops. She did not however volunteer as a nurse, she chose to send care packages full of food, soap, and stamps.

Alice Chapin

The Union Needs You!

Today I am faced with a tough decision. The North and South have split from each other. The North is forming an army, they call it the Union. Even though I want to serve my country in war, I cannot help thinking what could become of me. I have seen how people do not always come back from war, and what kind of people they have become when the return. One thing eases my mind, the technology that the Union has is very advanced.

One of the advances was the new types of rifles and slugs. These rifles were deadly at up to half a mile and the slug rounds used caused many more amputations. The repeating gun, the forerunner of the machine gun was also a factor.

One of the rifles used by the Union in the Civil War

Battles Blog Post

The lesson our class participated in was about the battles of the Civil War. Each student was assigned a brief description of a battle, numbered 1-20, which they would be required to do research on. The student then would have to make a Google Doc and put their information on there and acquire the link to the doc. The link to the document would then be converted into a QR code. Each student would print their code out and hide the codes throughout the school, with directions on how to get to the next QR code. The students would then start at the code after their own, and carry out the scavenger hunt, taking notes on the battles as they examine the Google Doc. After the hunt was over, the students would contribute their answers to the essential questions on an online wall called Padlet. Each student would post their name and answer to the wall and each answer would be read over.

Example QR code used in Scavenger Hunt

In the Eastern theater, the ultimate victor was the Confederate Army. In the Western and Naval Theaters, the Union was the winner. The Eastern Theater was won by the Confederate Army early on in the Civil War. The Confederate Army won just about every battle at the beginning of the war. Towards the end of the war, about 1863 and on, the Union started to win battles such as Gettysburg and Antietam. The Western Theater was dominated by the Union for the entire war. The Union won so many battles in this theater because they were able to get supplies to their troops much easier than the Confederate Army could. The Union also won the Naval Theater because of the blockade of the Southern ports. The South already had a worse economy than the North, and not being able to ship cotton to Europe in exchange for supplies crippled their economy and lost them the theater and eventually,  the war.

Timeline Post

My group was assigned The Kansas Nebraska Act as one of the causes of the Civil War. We were also assigned to make a timeline to show each event. All of the events are shown below on the timeline with their respective dates and titles.

Civil War Infographic

I chose to set up my infographic the way I did for a few reasons. I chose to give the advantages of both sides to show how each side had different things they could use to defeat the other side. For example, the Northern side could use their overwhelming numbers and better manufacturing to cripple the South, or the South could use their defensive position and will to fight to fend off the Northern attack. I also included a word web to convey the ideas and strategies associated with each side. I also chose to make each side represent a certain color, North red, South blue, so that the info on it can been seen and immediately recognized as North or South. This all went into consideration in the design of my infographic.

The infographic can be found here.