UNIT 5: Civil War Final Battles Review & Paper

Review Units 1-4 regarding the civil war and the major battles to prepare for your final paper.

Unit 1 Overview of How it Began

1. Civil unrest in the North and South regarding slavery
2. Election of Abraham Lincoln
3. Economic and social strains
4. Growing hostility amongst the states and societal groups
5. First battle of Battle of Bull Run

Unit 2 Overview of Battles

1. The Union and Confederates gain forces
2. More expansion into the States
3. Weather and unsanitary conditions caused much death
4. Key battle of Shiloh

Unit 3 Overview of Continued Fighting

1. Emancipation Proclamation
2. Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg wins
3. Key leaders of Union and Confederates are injured/lose
4. How the Union was struggling

Unit 4 Overview of Final Battles

1. Turning points including the Union gaining strength
2. Groups weakening amongst the Confederates as more battles lost
3. How the Union began to win
4. Final Battle of Palmito Ranch

Other Content/Info

1. Spies in the Civil War
2. Navies in the Civil War
3. Cooking and everyday life in the Civil War
4. Artifacts and items found in Civil War
5. Battle conditions in the Civil War
6. Additional List of Books and Websites

Paper Outline:

1. Choose major battles from each year (1861-1865) focusing on the first battle and the last battle of the Civil War as well as significant battles in between.
2. Select the leaders of each battle on both sides (Union and Confederate)
3. Gather key ideas of the President, culture, society, social issues and slavery
4. Brainstorm and organize the content into something like this template outline

Civil War Essay Criteria (for grading purposes)

Write a 5-7+ paragraph essay about the Civil War from start to finish including:

1. How it started
2. Major battles
3. The significance of President Lincoln
4. Slavery and civil liberties
5. Everyday life during war
6. Life on the battlefield for Union and Confederates
7. Spies as warfare tactics
8. Battle strategies on both sides
9. Culture and social events
10. How the Civil War ended

Here’s a rubric template that I like to use for a general guidance when reviewing a middle school paper.

Final Thoughts

This final essay and summary unit can be modified as you see fit. I had our son work on this essay for a two weeks. Mainly, I wanted the first week for him to review the notes he had and get a good outline/organization of all the information. It’s important to review the content since this unit is multiple weeks and has a lot of reading content.

The second week he focused on writing the essay and using some of the elements of IEW, we revised the essay multiple times until he had at least briefly explained the ten items listed above in his essay. His essay turned into about a 7 paragraph essay after including the major battles of his choosing.

I believe essay writing is an important aspect of learning content because it requires the student to synthesize the information they have learned. Our son quickly realized his notes were not as “good” as he wanted them. He had to use many of the websites to refresh the information and make sure he had the correct dates and times of the civil war.

This gave flexibility and ownership to the content. He was given many resources and enjoyed doing his own research to discover what battles he wanted to write about. He also liked using our loose rubric as a guide.