Teaching the Civil War to 8th Graders, Day-By-Day

In reading what you have written, sounds like your class is very attentive and engaged. They seem to ask good questions. Signs of a good teacher. Are you going to talk at all about the role of African Americans in the war?
 
I applaud you and those who developed the requirements! It must be a rewarding experience for both you and your students!
 
The Civil War's a big no-no now days here in Virginia. If I were to attempt to do what you're doing with your students in Texas, at our only high school here in the city of Manassas, I'd probably get fired or be told to quit it. We used to have annual Civil War Days here in Old Town Manassas around the time frame of Second Manassas (we call it Manassas, not Bull Run) in late August. That has been eliminated. Like everything else associated with whatever it may be that recognizes the Confederacy and the institution of slavery.

I have a BA in History and live 3 minutes from the original train station and 5 minutes for the battlefield proper. The land my house sits on was camped on by both sides during the war. There's what's left of original slave quarters a mile from my front door and a cemetery of coloreds born into slavery that lived on the farm know as "Clover Hill." I've been the family historian for decades. We have several members that served during that great struggle.

Best of luck with your endeavor to educate your students about the War Between the States. Many a Texan served in various Confederate regiments. And they were a long way from home once they got there.
 
Any suggestions?

US Genweb is a great resource for genealogy--Manor is in Travis County, right? It's organized by county. I'd ask if anyone has an ancestor's name from that period who the class can see research on. Use your projection equipment (hope you have a whiteboard!) and do the search--just Google and something will probably come up. Or look here on our Ancestor board and pick a name and show them how! LOL...if you need me, call. I'm only a couple of hours away!
 
A bit over a week behind now, but here is Day 4: The Emancipation Proclamation.

As a joke, I started by showing them this old clip from the Andy Griffith show, warning that they would one day look equally foolish if they didn't pay attention:


They thought it was hilarious.

I started by talking about Lincoln's personal views on the evil of slavery as well as his stressing at the beginning of the war that the war goal of the Union was to preserve the Union and not to act against slavery. I discussed the political reasons against moving towards emancipation: 1) it might cause the Border States to bolt the Union and throw in with the Confederacy, and 2) it might lose Lincoln the support of War Democrats who supported a war to restore the Union but not to end slavery. On the other hand, we listed reasons that moving towards emancipation might be a good idea: 1) it would secure support for Lincoln with the abolitionists, 2) it would hurt the Confederate war effort, 3) it would help persuade Britain and France to stay out of the war, and 4) it would give the Union the moral high ground in the war and help give Union soldiers an additional motivation to fight.

We discussed the early steps towards emancipation, such as the Confiscation Acts and the abolition of slavery in Washington D.C. We talked about how Lincoln was doing these things as a means of testing the waters, to see how the country would react, and how he understood the crucial importance of timing in politics, and, for that matter, in life itself.

We talked about Lincoln coming to a decision to issue an emancipation proclamation and Seward's advice to wait until a Union victory could be secured before issuing it. Some students, getting their chronology a bit off, thought that Vicksburg was the key victory, being reminded that they had jumped ahead in time a bit with the lesson on Grant. A few correctly guessed that Antietam was the victory, which led to a discussion in two of my five classes about how the appearance of something is often more important than the reality.

We discussed the complexities of how certain areas, including the Border States, were excluded from the Emancipation Proclamation and how abolitionists began undertaking work designed to help freed slaves, such as opening schools. We then moved on to a discussion of how the Emancipation Proclamation led to the enlistment of African-Americans in the Union army, a process which was helped by the work of Frederick Douglass. I discussed how U.S.C.T. regiments were organized, how they numbered roughly 180,000 men, and how they played crucial roles in such battles as the Siege of Petersburg and the Battle of Nashville. I discussed atrocities committed against black troops by the Confederates, signaling out Fort Pillow as the most famous example. I ended the class with a discussion of the 54th Massachusetts, Fort Wagner, and how William Carney became the first African-American to win the Medal of Honor.
 
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Day 5: War Overview

We took a step back from the chronology of events today and took a bird's eye picture of the war.

We started by talking about how technological changes, such as the railroad and the telegraph, changed the war war was fought. We discussed the battle of the first ironclads and I told them the story of the CSS Hunley becoming the first submarine to sink a ship.

I talked about the age and background of the average soldiers and the differences between the enlisted men of the two sides (i.e. the Northern troops wore blue uniforms and the Southerners wore gray and butternut). We talked about the manner in which soldiers from the two sides would fraternize with one another. We talked about camp life in general.

We ended the lesson with a discussion of how disease killed far more men than died in battle and how the insufficient prison system of the two sides led to thousands of deaths.
 
Day 6: Reenactor Visit

On this day, my friend and fellow Civil War novelist @Phil McBride was nice enough to come to my school from Lockhart in order to give a presentation to all the 8th grade classes about the average life of a Civil War soldier. He talked about the food they ate, the clothes they wore, what camp life was like, what weapons they carried and how they were loaded, and several other things. Each presentation was slightly different, depending on what questions the students asked and simply how the presentation flowed.

Phil also made sure to discuss the cases of females disguising themselves as men and serving in the ranks of the two armies.

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Phil used a wooden model of a rifle musket, since security would not allow him to bring his actual musket into the building.

The students loved the presentation and were very well-behaved. Indeed, for the whole of the day I never once had to tell a single student to be quiet and pay attention. And Phil did this for the entire 8th grade, not just my classes. Quite a fellow, if you ask me!
 
Sounds great.....I hope you've managed to watch the PBS 2 part documentary on Reconstruction hosted by Louis Gates Jr. I'm a big fan of him. I really like the "Finding Your Roots" series he narrates. I can really appreciate the work that goes behind each person featured. Try that on yourself and see how far you can get. What makes it so much easier today is that a lot of info is just a mouse click away. Back when I was in college there was no such thing as the internet or Google or Wikipedia or access to something like Ancestry.com, inclusive of webites such as what we're on right now. All of my research was done at libraries or over the telephone and requests made via inter-library loans. And trips to the Archives downtown in DC and muddling through spools of microfilm.
 
The Civil War's a big no-no now days here in Virginia. If I were to attempt to do what you're doing with your students in Texas, at our only high school here in the city of Manassas, I'd probably get fired or be told to quit it. We used to have annual Civil War Days here in Old Town Manassas around the time frame of Second Manassas (we call it Manassas, not Bull Run) in late August. That has been eliminated. Like everything else associated with whatever it may be that recognizes the Confederacy and the institution of slavery.

I have a BA in History and live 3 minutes from the original train station and 5 minutes for the battlefield proper. The land my house sits on was camped on by both sides during the war. There's what's left of original slave quarters a mile from my front door and a cemetery of coloreds born into slavery that lived on the farm know as "Clover Hill." I've been the family historian for decades. We have several members that served during that great struggle.

Best of luck with your endeavor to educate your students about the War Between the States. Many a Texan served in various Confederate regiments. And they were a long way from home once they got there.
How sad...get fired for teaching American students about American history and made on our own soil to boot! What has this nation come to?
 
The Civil War's a big no-no now days here in Virginia. If I were to attempt to do what you're doing with your students in Texas, at our only high school here in the city of Manassas, I'd probably get fired or be told to quit it. We used to have annual Civil War Days here in Old Town Manassas around the time frame of Second Manassas (we call it Manassas, not Bull Run) in late August. That has been eliminated. Like everything else associated with whatever it may be that recognizes the Confederacy and the institution of slavery.

I have a BA in History and live 3 minutes from the original train station and 5 minutes for the battlefield proper. The land my house sits on was camped on by both sides during the war. There's what's left of original slave quarters a mile from my front door and a cemetery of coloreds born into slavery that lived on the farm know as "Clover Hill." I've been the family historian for decades. We have several members that served during that great struggle.

Best of luck with your endeavor to educate your students about the War Between the States. Many a Texan served in various Confederate regiments. And they were a long way from home once they got there.
Are you a teacher in Virginia?
 
The Civil War's a big no-no now days here in Virginia. If I were to attempt to do what you're doing with your students in Texas, at our only high school here in the city of Manassas, I'd probably get fired or be told to quit it. We used to have annual Civil War Days here in Old Town Manassas around the time frame of Second Manassas (we call it Manassas, not Bull Run) in late August. That has been eliminated. Like everything else associated with whatever it may be that recognizes the Confederacy and the institution of slavery.

I have a BA in History and live 3 minutes from the original train station and 5 minutes for the battlefield proper. The land my house sits on was camped on by both sides during the war. There's what's left of original slave quarters a mile from my front door and a cemetery of coloreds born into slavery that lived on the farm know as "Clover Hill." I've been the family historian for decades. We have several members that served during that great struggle.

Best of luck with your endeavor to educate your students about the War Between the States. Many a Texan served in various Confederate regiments. And they were a long way from home once they got there.
In the 21st Century we are still using the term "coloreds" ? " War between the states" is used by historians? Isn't it true both armies had men from all states? Tennessee Aline supplied 42k troops to the Union Army see "Lincoln's Loyalists Union Soldiers from the Confederacy" Richard Current North East University Press.
Leftyhunter
 
Certainly the term "coloreds" is no longer a proper term today. Just ask the NAACP what the "C" stands for. Same with the "War Between the States." They're antiquated and out of place. Just mentioning both has created an uproar right here on this website!! See what I mean???

I went to apply for a substitute teaching position with Manassas City Public Schools in 2006 after I retired and the guidance counselor did not recommend it. She said these children are awful, don't have any respect for teachers and lack any type of discipline.
 
Certainly the term "coloreds" is no longer a proper term today. Just ask the NAACP what the "C" stands for. Same with the "War Between the States." They're antiquated and out of place. Just mentioning both has created an uproar right here on this website!! See what I mean???

I went to apply for a substitute teaching position with Manassas City Public Schools in 2006 after I retired and the guidance counselor did not recommend it. She said these children are awful, don't have any respect for teachers and lack any type of discipline.
Kids! What's the heck the matter with kids today?
Kids! Who can understand a single word they say?
Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way.
What's the matter with kids today?
Bye Bye Birdie, 1960
 
Day 6: Reenactor Visit ...Phil used a wooden model of a rifle musket, since security would not allow him to bring his actual musket into the building.

I've found that local school security and school staff, if unchecked by a confident teacher or principal, do tend to "rule" by lowest denominator, the least risk to themselves whatever value to the kids is denied. They will defer to security, which defers to some local city or county ordinance, but if actually checked those guidelines are nearly always per Federal guidelines that a black-powder musket is not even legally a firearm so restrictions don't actually apply -- not that anyone checks it.

So this is to advise that if you can enlist a confident teacher and a committed Principal in allowing a repro firearm you can pre-empt the almighty "security office denial." It doesn't always work but it is worth it to try. The thing is don't just roll at the first timid teacher's or school secretary's mention of "having to get school security approval." At that point just ask if you can talk to the Principal first, that it's important to properly demonstrate with CW firearms. So you teachers: stand up and defend education, enlist your Principals before we 'enactors even have to bring it up. Bottom line there is no risk to students whatsoever to bring in an unloaded repro musket or pistol.

A few of us have pulled this off, even to the point of a blank-fire demonstration on the playground. This is to say we understand what happens with the absence of push-back. At one point our local museum's CW outreach was reduced to demonstrating a "musket" made of PVC pipe clamped on to a balsa stock with a pop-gun cork as a bullet, with which loading and ramming could be demonstrated. We were able to convince the Museum how counter-productive that was to genuine education. Middle and High Schools Kids just aren't that stupid. It insults their intelligence to be treated like 3rd graders and blows an opportunity to properly educate them on the actual setting of the war.

btw, unrelated to the muskets in the classroom discussion, but just as damaging to education imho is the late over-play on the topic of women soldiers. The black experience in the CW is much more pertinent to history than the statistically-insignificant occurrence of women soldiers in the CW, which of course we all know is more about empowering young women today than it is about teaching history. Good goal but wrong venue.
 
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Byron ed is right about the low numbers of women impersonating men to serve as soldiers. So yes, numerically it isn't an important facet of Civil War soldiering. And yes, it is about empowering young women, which is a laudable goal. And it is a way to stress the modesty of Victorian clothing, and that no woman ever ever wore trousers or even a dress above her ankles. And the eviction of women soldiers once discovered is a nice contrast to today's armed forces acceptance of women.

I also talk to students about how clothing in the 1800's with no zippers--only buttons, buckles, and ties-- and the problems young male soldiers encountered cooking for each other, when that was something women did at home, forcing the young men into an immediate learning curve. The 'blue beef' pulled out of my haversack is a hit, even more than the hardtack.

I don't talk about the USCT regiments, as they dressed and lived the same as white Union soldiers. The racism they faced and their whole story is very important, but not what I choose to include in a 50 minute show and tell about the common soldier.

As to the simulated musket, for years I took reproduction weapons into classrooms from 4th grade to college history classes. Having said that, I now have zero problem with leaving my reproduction musket and revolver at home. I was a high school principal for ten years--before Columbine, the first 'modern' incident of mass murderers killing multiple students in the sanctuary of their school. The two most recent mass murder episodes at high schools in Florida and my home of Texas have caused me to reverse my opinion. I love doing programs for students, but the last thing I want is to cause a school lock-down because a parent or staff member or student saw a real weapon in the building. And I watched the eyes of the 8th graders last week as I held a bayonet to the end of my simulated musket-- they were with me. They got it. Same as when I described loading muskets using my wooden prop.
 
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