Women's Sphere of Domesticity

During the Civil War, many some women decided to stay inside their Sphere of Domesticity, but others chose to break free and do things that were outside the normal realm for women. The reason that many women broke out of this sphere is because they wanted to make a difference. For example, Rose O'Neal was a spy for the Confederacy. Being a spy was definitely outside of the realm of normal women actions during this time period. She was also captured by the North and put into jail for 4 months. When she died, she was honored as if she was a war hero.

On the other hand, some women like Alice Chapin decided to stay inside the sphere. When her husband left for the war, Alice was devastated but stayed together. She decided to do charity work for fire victims and involve herself in the temperance movement. Since most of this activity was not outside the Sphere, her work was not as risky as others. Her actions show why some women decided to stay inside the Sphere while others decided to venture outside of it,

http://padlet.com/wall/bblockcivilwarquilt

Battle Scavenger Hunt

The battles scavenger hunt was another new and fun way to present the information we've been learning in class. It's always nice to be able to do something enjoyable that is also different from traditional teaching methods. In this project, 20 different small groups were each assigned a battle. Then, each group had to research their particular battle and put their findings on an open google document. For example, this is my battle google doc, https://docs.google.com/document/d/13gvtJhGFByFnlXpCL-9eDcliaHoidcixgmvq1m4Z5x4/edit.

Then, we had to create a QR sign for our google doc, which is just a little symbol on a piece of paper that, when scanned, brings up the google document on your phone. Then you had to pick a location to put your sign and talk to the groups around you so that they could put your clue at the end of their google doc, and then the fun began! After finishing, the class then came back together and talked about the two essential questions and brainstormed the answers together on Padlet. Here are our classes answers. http://padlet.com/wall/bblockcivilwar http://padlet.com/wall/bblockcivilwar1

 

To figure out who was the ultimate victor in each theater, we must look at specific battles and tally up the totals. It is also important to understand why the side that won won. In the east theater, the confederates won many of the early battles. One reason why they did so was because of superior battle tactics and excecution. However, towards the end of the war the Union started to win some eastern battles because of phenomenal leadership on the battlefield from their generals.  

 

In the Naval battles, the Union were the clear winners. They won these battles again due to superior leadership. They also won because they severely damaged the Confederacy's only ironclad, which was their biggest weapon. The Union's dominant naval army proved to be too much for the Confederates.

 

In the western battles, the Union also came out on top. One big reason for this was again the superior leadership in the North. The Union nearly swept all of these battles except for a few. They also won the majority of these battles because the South failed to execute their battle tactics properly. These miscues came back to haunt them and eventually led to their defeat.  

The Biggest Choice

If I were a teenage male during The Civil War, I would choose self-preservation over joining the army of my choice. While the idea of joining a side and fighting for what you believe in an intriguing one, the risk is not worth the reward. Even though choosing not to fight might result in an outcome you don't enjoy, at least you still have your life. 

Choosing to be a solider is a gigantic risk. There are so many things that can go wrong and so many dangers that could end your life. For example, about 1 out of every 4 people that enlisted in the war died. One reason that so many soldiers died was because of the technology of the oblong Minié ball, which shattered bones when it hit them. This made procedures for surgeons even more difficult, and many wounded soldiers died before reaching the war infirmary. The two options for wounder soldiers were not pretty. The two options were amputation or resection.

First, resection was an extremely painful process. It involved cutting open the limb, sawing out the damaged bone, and then closing the incision. This procedure requires extreme skill from the surgeon and some war surgeons became proficient at this procedure. However, there were may risks involved. For example, there was a big risk of profuse bleeding and infection. Next, there was the option of amputation. This process was fairly simple, you made a cut around the damage limb, and sawed the bone off while removing blood vessels and nerves. For this process, bleeding out was a big concern because sometimes surgeons could not stop the bleeding. Also, with a big open wound, infection was often a sidetrack when amputation had been done. Another reason for many soldiers deaths was the misuse of chloroform. It was used to knock out a patient, but many times the patient would receive too much and would end up dying. These challenges were ones that were tough to overcome for surgeons and ended up causing many deaths to injured soldiers. 

Overall, joining the war was too much of a risk for a teenage boy during this time. With the advanced weaponry, one hit was basically signing your death warrant. With the odds of survival stacked against you, injury had to be avoided which was nearly impossible. For that reason, if I was a teenage boy during this time, I would choose self-preservation over joining the war. 

Image Link: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/04/03/science/03CIVI_SPAN/03CIVI-articleLarge.jpg

Infogram Blog Post

Making an infogram is another new and fun way to present the information I've learned. The creation of an infograph was a fun but challenging this to do because it really tested our ability to realize which information is the most important to use and present it in a visually effective way.  The reason why I chose the topics I did for my graphs is because I think the are the topics that best help to answer the essential question. When studying a war like this, we needed to figure out what makes both sides successful and how it effects their strategy in the way. I think things such as population, transportation, and economic value are keys components to winning a war. In order to win a war, you need to have people, which is why I chose to show population. Also, transportation such as railroads are important because it allows for easier access around the country in which you are fighting. Also, the value of manufactured goods are important because in order to fund a war you need lots of money which rests partly on the value of manufactured goods.

 

In my infograph, I decided to make 4 different charts that were all visually appealing. That was a viewed could easily pick out the important information and not get bored doing it. I also kept a consistent color to represent the North and the South so that it would again be easier for the reader to see the point I was trying to make. The interesting theme and pattern also improved the overall look to the infograph and hopefully made a interesting and helpful learning tool.

 

 

Link to my infograph: https://infogr.am/resources-in-1860-north-vs-south?src=web

Project Post

This semester,  the class did a research project. This project explored some of the causes of the Civil war. To present these projects, we were given an assignment to make a "scrapbook" in which we used pictures and captions to help explore the theme of conflict and compromise. We also included an introduction essay to make sure the reader had a brief knowledge before being shown our sources. This project was a fun way to show our learning and to present the information in a fun and informative way!

Link to my project on secession of the south: http://southsecedes.weebly.com

Picture of timeline which shows all groups project topics: