Homeschooling Chronicles: Making The Civil War Come Alive
Take your kids outside the box and attend a reenactment of the Civil War.
By ladyjane@kindoll.org
One of my children once asked me, "In what war did the most Americans die?" It was a fascinating question. After some thought, I guessed that the answer was World War II. We looked it up and discovered that I was wrong. The correct answer is, the Civil War. This surprised me, and also got me thinking about the enormity of the loss the United States endured.
Bringing the Civil War Back to Life
The complex issues surrounding the Civil War became clearer to me when I moved to the South. I visited battlefields, and touched bullets that were still lodged in the walls of peoples' homes. As I viewed these place, I was struck by the realization that these were the actual sites where people fought. To me, their lives were no longer just stories in a text.
This reality was again reinforced when I attended a Civil War battle reenactment. I wanted my boys to witness what war meant for the men on the battlefield. We located a reenactment and set out on a beautiful fall day to experience a battle that occurred 150 years ago. We arrived just in time for the start of the battle. Cannons reverberated through the quiet day causing us to jump and giggle with excitement. It was thrilling to watch. The cavalry was poised and ready for attack. Guns barked out warnings and soldiers seemed to advance and retreat simultaneously. As I told my boys that I found it is difficult to know who to cheer for, I was struck by what I had said. This wasn’t simply some game or sports match; it was a reenactment of a life and death situation.
A Reaction to the Performance
I was suddenly embarrassed at my cavalier attitude. I took in the sight of fallen men lying in twisted positions. Smoke clouded the sunny, blue skies. The sounds of a lone drummer echoed between the yells of "retreat" or "charge." When I looked closely, I realized that the drummer was a mere boy. He stood tall and proud in his grey uniform as he drummed out his beat. Suddenly, a blast caused him to fall to the ground. He didn’t get up or raise a hand, but lay where he fell. I was stunned and started to cry.
With tears running down my face, I gripped my younger son’s shoulder. I was overcome and distraught at the thought of these young men dying for their cause. So many people sacrificed their lives to fight for their beliefs. This reenactment concluded after an hour, but the actual Civil War raged for five years. That day, the fallen men clumsily rose ro their feet and the tapestry of the reenactment was erased. But the memory still lingered for me.
I approached one of the participants and mentioned my reaction. The man said he understood. The first time he had participated in a reenactment, he said that his emotions overcame him. He told me that he cried when he thought about the fact that he was sitting at camp alive, but many of the men who had participated in the Civil War did not have that luxury.
My family left the reenactment that day with a sense of gratitude for those who had risked their lives in order to fight for their beliefs. They fought with the hope that they would create a safe environment for their families. The beauty and the gift of history is that we can examine it with a sense of detachment. Hopefully, we are able to use the lessons of the past to make better decisions for the future.
Civil War Lesson Plans:
Students study the underlying issues that caused the Civil War and assess the ultimate outcome of the war. This lesson will further their understanding of this event in history.
This lesson sheds light on the role women played during the Civil War. Students research the lives of women from a variety of walks of life during this time, and complete a scavenger hunt and a letter-writing exercise.
In this lesson, students are introduced to the Civil War and examine it in-depth. They study the causes, casualties, medical practices, and destruction of the South during the Civil War.