Civil War Game by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Social media sites like Skype.com and Gotomeeting.com have enabled
people of both sexes, ages, physical ability, and language ability to analyze
battles to see if modern technology could have changed the course of a battle
and eventually the outcome of a war.
The outcomes of war usually determine national languages, textbook versions of national history taught to children, and what language the laws of the country will be written in.
Outcomes of wars and battles
are important, because victors write new constitutions and other laws and
usually write their version of history in textbooks.
Most battles take place in
areas that have certain similar geographical features despite taking place in
different countries and at different times in history. (This is why it is important to study
geography, history, and foreign languages.)
For example, the Battle of
Fredericksburg (Virginia) is a perfect case study of an uphill battle.
All uphill battles against a
supposed superior force appear to be unwinnable unless some conditions might be
present:
-the opposing side runs out
of food and water
-there is loss of
communication ability for relaying battle commands
-there is mutiny among the
enlisted due to pay or pension for themselves or spouses
-lack of accurate weather
information (This was a crucial element at Waterloo)
-poor morale cause by media
criticism, especially of women and children
-lack of money due to
disruption of commerce and therefore tax revenue base
In this large battlefield
leading up to the hill where cannons and
artillery fired down on troops stood a house that is still standing. Neither side wanted to ruin it.
This house may have been a
pantry, canteen, library, and first-aid station like most Southern homes, but
maybe there were some other reasons why that home was allowed to stand.
This is a little game and
your Level I tast is to find why that home is still standing. Is there a well? A clean toilet? Figure it out.
Level 2 – find out what those
6 conditions were like at Fredericksburg.
A lot of this information is available in the book The Civil War Battlefield Guide published
by The Conservation Fundand edited by Frances H. Kennedy.
Could modern technology have
changed the outcome of the battle.
Analyze this situation using the 6 conditions above and some others like
electricity, rodents, disease, and strength without arms. (Read Redwall by Brian Jacques to see what
I mean by this.)
This is a stay-at-home or
play-with-friends-at-home activity that teaches you about technology, history,
and culture. Victors decide who gets national
arts grants.
Level 4 in this battlefield
game is to analyze each battle in The Civil War Battlefield Guide in
the way I outlined above. Once you have
your analysis done, go to Level 5.
Level 5 – Analyze the
American Civil War by looking at what our industry was like.
France and England bought
cotton from the South for their fashion industries. Fur was bought by these same countries for
fox collars for the fashion industry as well from places like Wisconsin and
Montana.
Were people in New England
the middlemen for purchases of cotton such as New York and Philadelphia?
Did Chicago sell fur and food
to England and France?
Find the tax base for money
to run the government.
How would you sell these
items today to keep money more money in the US and not go to war over cotton,
fur, and interest on bank loans?
Cheat 1:
This book is rather old, but it contains information on traditional immigration and settlement patterns in the United States - The Nine Nations of North America by Joel Garreau.
Cheat 2:
Read President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. In this short speech Lincoln states that this battle and this war were very important for determining what the United States was going to be as a nation now that it was free of the British.
The Civil War is looked at in terms of North and South now, but the Mississippi Purchase orchestrated by President Thomas Jefferson also brought in a "West" element to this conflict.
Lincoln grew up in Kentucky and went to Illinois to run for public office. He was viewed by both the New England, New York, and the South as a Westerner coming from the rather unsavory and uncivilized territory of Illinois at the time. He also did not have a college education or law degree.
Those were attributes, though, when dealing with the marauding British and Spanish navies and merchant marine companies as well as French interlopers from Canada.
Cheat 3:
Look up Hampton Roads Virginia for a clue and that is all for right now!
Cheat 4:
There are some clues to why the Civil War turned out the way it did in an older book called The Negro in the Making of America by Benjamin Quarles.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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