Download Civil War Journal: Women at War

Civil War Journal: Women at War
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Civil War Journal
Civil War Journal provides in-depth accounts of the nation’s greatest tragedy with personal stories,
diaries, photographs and commentary by some of the premier Civil War historians of today. It is a video
exploration of the war that pitted the North against the South, and brother against brother. Civil War
Journal would be useful for classes on American History, American Culture, Military History, Geography
and Gender History. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.
OBJECTIVES:Students will analyze the effects of the Civil War on American life, political institutions,
economics, and culture. They will trace how political, economic and cultural issues culminated in a
divided nation and the consequences of a country at war with itself.
NATIONAL HISTORY STANDARDS Civil War Journal fulfills the following National Standards for History
for grades 5-12: Chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation,
historical research capabilities, historical issues-analysis and decision-making for Era 5.
Women at War
Women at War provides a unique and rare look at the contribution of and the experience of women during
the war, and can also bring to light a discussion on how women in history are sometimes slighted by the
traditional historical narratives.
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abolitionists
admonish
advocates
arsenals
capriciously
catapult
desolate
desolation
dysentery
eccentricities
emancipation
endow
espionage
falter
gallantry
itinerant
magnanimous
poignant
prostrate
© AIM Education, INC.
www.learn360.com
Civil War Journal: Women at War
Name:
Date:
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pyre
refugees
reputed
valor
vehement
Discussion Questions
1. Women are usually ignored in historical accounts of the Civil War. Why have women been
ignored? What does this say about the way women and history have been viewed?
2. Women who fought in the Civil War did so dressed and disguised as men. Why was it necessary
for a woman to adapt men’s clothing and a male persona in order to fight?
3. What did women prove during the Civil War?
4. Discuss the contributions women have made in the Civil War and in other American wars.
5. Men and women experience war very differently. Discuss the differences between women’s war
experiences and men’s war experiences.
6. Discuss the different Civil War experiences of Northern women and Southern women. Discuss
the different experiences for white women and African-American women.
7. Discuss the role of women in the abolition movement.
8. Examine the connections between the abolition movement and the suffrage/woman’s movement
of the nineteenth century.
9. Describe and discuss Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad. What were the railroad’s
contributions? How did Tubman change the course of American history? What was Harriet
Tubman often referred to as “Moses?”
10. How did the contributions of women during the Civil War remain within the traditional gender roles
of the period? How did women also step outside of these roles?
11. Why did Congress strip Dr. Walker of her Congressional Medal of Honor?
Extended Activities
1. Imagine that you are a woman disguised as a soldier during the Civil War. Create a journal or a
diary that records your experiences and feelings.
2. Imagine that you are a literary critic in the nineteenth century. Write a review of Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin for your paper. How might your review differ depending on whether
you live in the North or the South?
3. Write an essay on women’s contributions during the Civil War.
© AIM Education, INC.
www.learn360.com