A Different Kind of Theatre

We've been learning about the individual battles of the American Civil War lately, and we created a scavenger hunt in class to learn more about each battle.  Each person was assigned a battle and had to research it and create a Google Doc about the battle.  We made QR codes for the documents and hung them up on the walls all over the school with directions to get to the next station, and ran around the school finding each QR code and taking notes on the battles of the Civil War.  We then used Padlet to collaborate on answers to the essential questions.

Ultimately, the Union was victorious in each of the three theatres of war (East, West, and Naval), though their victory in the western theatre was less complete than in the eastern and naval theatres.  The north had an established navy before the war, which automatically gave them the upper hand on the naval front. At the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, the Union used their superior navy to their advantage.  In the western theatre, in battles such as Vicksburg and Shiloh, the Union used their larger population and factories to their advantage.  The North's economy was based on factory work instead of agriculture, so people flocked to Northern cities to work in the factories.  This gave the Union more soldiers and more necessary supplies such as clothing and weapons.  Many military academies were located in the South, however, and this allowed the Confederacy to win some battles in the western theatre.  In battles such as those of Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, the North dominated the eastern theatre as well.  Their victory in this theatre was again caused by their larger, more well-supplied armies.

Most of the victories of the north were the result of bigger armies, greater resources, and often better strategising.  In the beginning of the war, the north had a greater population than the south and an economy based on manufacture. This allowed the north to have more men available to fight and places to make the supplies they needed.  They also had more railroads, allowing troops and supplies to move faster.  All of these things enabled the union to successfully lay siege to many confederate cities and to cut off southern supply routes.