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Book III: Civil War
Unit 2: Battles of the Civil War
Lesson 2: Battles of Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, and
Gettysburg
Topic Overview:
The dramatic Civil War battles at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg are
indelible marks on American history. The military significance and social ramifications
linger over a century and a half later. In all three battles, Grant or Lee was personally
commanding the bloody outcome. At Fredericksburg, Lee’s entrenched Army of
Northern Virginia ended the Union Army of the Potomac’s drive to Richmond. At
Vicksburg, Grant’s Army of the Tennessee forced the surrender of the fortress city and
therefore took command of the Mississippi River. Finally, Lee’s drive to Washington
ended at Gettysburg, the turning point and bloodiest battle in the nation’s history.
Activity Overview:
In this recreation simulation students will act as soldiers in the Civil War and,
using rubber balls, will recreate the battles of Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, and
Gettysburg. They will experience the confusion of battle and why the North and South
were able to win their respective battles.
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 1
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Objectives:
1. Students will be able to describe the battles at Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and
Vicksburg.
2. Students will be able to explain why the North won at Gettysburg and Vicksburg and
why the South won at Fredericksburg.
3. Students will evaluate the decisions of the Generals at these battles.
Setup:
1. Requisition a large recreation area, such as a gym or a field. For the Fredericksburg
part of the activity, use newspaper for indoors and flattened pieces of cardboard
boxes for outdoors. Make a blockade in this area that is 8’ long out of boxes, desks,
or anything safely surmountable by students.
2. Use rubber balls that a PE teacher would use for the game of dodge ball.
3. Setup for each battle according to the four Diagrams.
4. Prior to the day of the activity, ask students to come dressed in either blue or gray.
Materials:
1. 30 rubber balls (Toy Box)
2. Blockade material
3. Confederate and Union flags with poles
4. Orange cones (Toy Box))
5. Flattened cardboard boxes or newspaper
6. Battle Diagrams 1-4 (p.12-15)
7. Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg Worksheet (p. 10)
8. Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg Worksheet Key (p. 11)
Activity in Detail:
1. After explaining to students that they will be recreating three Civil War battles, divide
them in half into the North and the South. For weapons, students will be using
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 2
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rubber playground balls. Stress to students that this is a recreation and not a game.
In this activity most of them will be hit with a ball to simulate being killed in battle.
When they are hit they need to “play dead” so as to understand the results of the
fighting.
2. Say to students: “Battles of the Civil War were both similar and different than those
of the American Revolution. Soldiers still fought in lines called ranks, shoulder to
shoulder. In previous wars, this fighting style was used because of the inaccuracy of
the weapons. It was the best way to ensure that, if enough people fired, somebody
would hit the targets. During the Civil War, however, advances in weapons
technology made this style of fighting very costly to both sides, especially to the side
that was attacking.”
3. Ask for 2 volunteers from each side to be the General and Colonel for each side, in
case the General dies. Tell students: ”During the Civil War, an experienced rifleman
could fire a bullet about every 20 seconds. Generals, you will have to count to 20
out loud before your team can fire. If someone dies from your side, you must close
ranks, which means reform your line by closing the gap where the dead person
stood.”
4. Battle 1: Fredericksburg: Go to the gym/field, but do not hand out the balls yet.
a. Setup according to Diagram 1
b. Read the Background Info: “The first battle we will recreate is the Battle of
Fredericksburg. Part of the North’s ‘Anaconda Plan’ was to choke the South by
taking Richmond, the South’s capitol. Between the North’s capital of
Washington, DC, and the South’s capital of Richmond was the little town of
Fredericksburg. The North had to go through Fredericksburg to attack
Richmond. Lincoln had fired General McClellan for being ineffective after the
battle of Antietam and had replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside.
Burnside hoped to cross the Rappahannock River into Fredericksburg before the
commander of the Southern troops, General Robert E. Lee, arrived there. When
Burnside arrived, he realized that his army had failed to bring pontoon boats to
cross the Rappahannock. So, while Burnside waited for the boats, Lee took
position on the heights above Fredericksburg. As they waited for the boats, the
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 3
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North started constructing a bridge to cross the Rappahannock. The South was
ready for them. As Northern soldiers worked feverishly to create the bridge,
Southern sharpshooters from Mississippi shot at them from concealed positions.”
c. Union Goal: Create a bridge connecting 2 cones spaced about 15 feet apart.
d. Confederate Goal: “The South may “fire” in a row to lay constant “fire” on the
bridge. If a Northerner is hit, he/she dies and the next Northerner can jump in
and continue building the bridge. The Northerners have 1 minute to build under
fire.”
e. Begin Sequence 1: Send Union troops one at a time to attempt to build the
bridge as Southerners throw balls. Northerners should be unsuccessful.
f. Begin Sequence 2: Ask the North: “What alternative do you have, since now the
boats have arrived? Sail across and dislodge the Mississippi shooters. The
North must join hands to cross the Rappahannock. Three of the Southern
shooters must retreat and stand on the ‘heights,’” Begin again. Allow the North
to cross the river and continue the fight. The North should suffer some casualties
but then defeat the South.
g. Read the Results: “The battle was not over. The South still controlled the
heights of Fredericksburg, which meant that the North had to attack the heights.
General Burnside planned two attacks: one to the left flank and a smaller one to
the front. The North sent more troops in the frontal attack and paid a heavy
price. Burnside stayed across the river and could not see Southern forces
behind the thick, rock wall along Sunken Road. Due to it being a popular travel
route, Sunken Road was a street lowered a couple of feet. The rock wall
provided the South a perfect position from which to fire. The Southerners stayed
behind the wall and put their best shooters in front. Soliders in the rear reloaded
the rifles to keep constant fire.”
5. Follow Diagram 2 to line the Southerners up behind the barriers in 5 rows of 3. Put
the balls behind the last person in each row. Line up the North about 30 feet away.
Have them line up into two ranks with their shoulders touching. Place the balls they
will use about 10 feet away from the barriers.
6. Before commencing the battle, practice without the balls. Call out names of students
Teacher Lesson Plan©
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to practice dying and reforming ranks. Have commanders practice counting to 20
and then firing. Begin the recreation. Play until most or all of the Northerners have
been killed.
7. Gather the students and say: “The North suffered 13,000 casualties, those killed and
wounded, compared to 5,000 casualties for the South. Most of the Southern
casualties came from the flank attack, not the frontal one. After Fredericksburg,
Lincoln fired General Burnside and replaced him with General Joseph Hooker.
Hooker would later lose to Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville. At this point the
Northern morale was low after suffering two crushing defeats. The North had more
troops, but was losing battles. Lee was aware of the poor morale in the North, and
even though he was low on supplies, he tried to bring an end to the war by going on
the offensive. He marched North into Pennsylvania to a little town only 85 miles
from Washington, DC, called Gettysburg.”
8. Battle 2: Gettysburg: Setup according to Diagram 3. Have the North stand on one
side and the South on the other. Give the North most of the balls, placed about 15
feet away. Have one student with 3 rubber balls act as a cannon. In the middle will
be the fence. Have the South practice calling out people who died. Have them lay
down and the rest of the South practice closing ranks. Also, show them from where
they can fire. The South will have to get over the fence and reform ranks before
they can march. Have the commanders practice calling out firing times. Begin the
recreation.
9. Afterwards, say: “What began as a small skirmish would turn into a three day battle
and the turning point of the Civil War. After unsuccessfully trying to take the high
ground and flanking the North in Gettysburg by the third day of fighting, Lee ordered
a frontal assault. One of the commanders of the 15,000 Confederate soldiers was
General George Pickett. He led this assault on the heights that came to be known
as Pickett’s Charge. To get to the North’s line the South had to cross a dangerous
mile of open space with a tall fence in the middle.”
10. Gather students, seat them, and say: “Why was Pickett’s Charge unsuccessful? It
was unsuccessful because of dangerous open ground, the fence, and the cannons.
Pickett’s charge lasted just 30 minutes, and half of the Confederate soldiers were
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 5
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dead or wounded. In the three days that Gettysburg was fought, the South suffered
28,000 casualties to the North’s 23,000. It is the bloodiest battle in all of American
history. This was the ‘high watermark of the Confederacy,’ the turning point in the
Civil War. Lee was so close to DC, but so far away from ultimate victory. Southern
armies would never attack in the North again. The South was on the defensive for
the rest of the war. Happening at the same time as the Battle of Gettysburg was a
battle on the Mississippi River in a town called Vicksburg.”
11. Battle 3: Vicksburg: Setup according to Diagram 4. Barricade Vicksburg well on
all sides. Tell students: “Part of the North’s Anaconda Plan was to choke the South
off at the Mississippi River delta. To control the Mississippi, the North had to take
the Southern city of Vicksburg, a town right on the River. Vicksburg was well
fortified and protected, with the mighty Mississippi to the west and murky swamps to
the north. Union General Ulysses S. Grant was in charge of trying to take the city.”
12. Ask the North: “How would you attack the city?” If they say “from the North,” tell
them that Grant tried that and failed. Say: “The plan that Grant finally came up with
was to march his troops to the South of the city on the opposite side of the river and
then use his ships to ferry them across the Mississippi. To do so he had to get his
ships past the big guns of Vicksburg.”
13. Divide the North in half. Half of them will be the ships trying to outrun the guns of
Vicksburg. The other half will wait for the ships in the South. The South will shoot at
the ships as they pass. The ships that survive have to “fireman’s carry” Union troops
over the Mississippi without their passengers touching the ground. Begin the
recreation. Allow ships that were sunk to rejoin the North.
14. Once the North has made it tell students: “Grant marched his troops to Jackson,
Mississippi, and was able to take the city. This allowed Grant to attack the city of
Vicksburg from the East. But Vicksburg was well fortified and on the top of a hill.
Northerners: What would happen if you tried to attack a well fortified position? You
would die. Grant tried and failed to take the city, so he decided to besiege the city.
As in ancient warfare, Grant decided to starve the city and bombard it until it
surrendered.”
15. Give the North all the balls and have them stand about 20 yards from the
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 6
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fortifications of Vicksburg. Tell the students that the North will bombard the South. If
Southerners get hit, they have to leave the city. Perform the recreation for 1-2
minutes. If there are Southerners still left, ask them: “If you were eating rats for
dinner, and being bombed all day, would you want to continue? No. Eventually the
South surrendered. Thirty thousand Confederate troops marched out of the city and
laid down their arms on July 4, 1863, the same day that the North defeated Lee at
Gettysburg. These battles were turning points in the war. The North had split the
South in half, controlled the Mississippi, and put the South on the defensive. The
war would end two years later.”
18. Escort students back to the classroom to complete the Fredericksburg, Gettysburg,
and Vicksburg Worksheet.
Debriefing:
Major Battles of the Civil War
I. Battle of Fredericksburg, VA: December 13, 1862
A. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia defeated Burnside’s Army of the Potomac
1. One of the most one-sided battles of the War
2. Confederate defenders were entrenched on the heights behind the city
3. Ended the Union’s drive to the Confederate capital of Richmond early
B. Results for the Union
1. 12,653 casualties (2 Generals killed)
2. Disastrous tactics: futile frontal assaults
3. Burnside was “relieved of command”
4. President Lincoln came under strong criticism
5. Lincoln wrote, "If there is a worse place than hell, I am in it"
C. Results for the Confederacy
1. 5,377 casualties (1 General killed)
2. Joyful response from the Southern press
a. Richmond Examiner: "a splendid victory to the defender of the sacred soil"
b. Charleston Mercury: "the army has yet known no such word as fail"
II. Battle of Gettysburg, PA: July 1-3, 1863
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 7
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A. Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeated Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia
B. Bloodiest battle of the Civil War and in US history
1. 51,000 total casualties
2. 7,000 deaths
C. Results for the Union
1. Halted Lee’s drive to Washington, DC
2. Distracted Confederate forces from helping in Vicksburg
D. Results for the Confederacy
1. The turning point of the War (the “high water mark”)
2. Ended Lee's second and final invasion of the North
3. Lee had overestimated the strength of his army
a. Due to huge success at Chancellorsville in May and Gettysburg on July 1
b. Many of Lee’s commanders were new and inexperienced
E. The Aftermath
1. Burial catastrophe
a. Dead bodies lied in the hot sun
b. 5,000 horse carcasses were piled and burned
c. Local citizens became violently sick from the stench
d. The Federal Government accepted per-body price bids for burial services
2. Gettysburg Address at dedication of National Cemetery (in November)
a. Lincoln re-dedicated the US to the war effort
b. Lincoln emphasized that no soldier - either North or South - died in vain
III. Battle of Vicksburg, MS: May 18 – July 4, 1863
A. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee defeated Pemberton’s Confederate Army
B. Grant besieged the city for 6 weeks and it starved
1. Confederate troops caught scurvy and malaria
2. Horses, mules, and dogs disappeared daily (food)
3. Shoe leather was eaten to survive
C. Results for the Union
1. Command of the Mississippi River
2. Split the Confederacy in 2
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 8
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D. Results for the Confederacy
1. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4
2. The 4th of July holiday was not celebrated by many in Vicksburg until WWII
Assessment:
1. Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg Worksheet
2. Essay Question: Why were the Battles of Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg
significant?
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 9
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Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg Worksheet
1. Why was the South able to win the Battle of Fredericksburg?
2. Why was the North able to win the Battle of Gettysburg?
3. How did the North defeat the South at the Battle of Vicksburg?
4. What was the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg?
5. What was the importance of the Battle of Vicksburg?
6. How did the Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg turn the war for the North?
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 10
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Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg Worksheet Key
1. Why was the South able to win the Battle of Fredericksburg?
The North attacked a well fortified South, causing many casualties and retreat for the
North.
2. Why was the North able to win the Battle of Gettysburg?
Pickett’s Charge across a mile of open field exposed the South to the North’s line of
fire, causing many casualties.
3. How did the North defeat the South at the Battle of Vicksburg?
By charging their ships past the guns of Vicksburg, then attacking the city from the
East. Eventually Grant lay siege to the city, causing the South to surrender in it.
4. What was the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg?
It stopped General Lee from attacking the North and put the South on the defensive
for the remainder of the war.
5. What was the importance of the Battle of Vicksburg?
It split the South in half and gave the North control of the Mississippi.
6. How did the Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg turn the war for the North?
Since both happened on July 4, 1863, it boosted morale for the North and put the
South on the defensive.
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 11
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Diagram 1
Battle of Fredericksburg
Crossing of the Rappahannock
The South armed with rubber balls
Desks
Flat cardboard or newspaper
Rappahannock River
The North holding cardboard or newspaper
Teacher Lesson Plan©
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Diagram 2
Battle of Fredericksburg
Frontal Attack/Sunken Road
5 feet
SOUTH- balls behind students. Students pass
the balls to best shooter in the front.
Barricade/Sunken Road
30-40 Yards
Balls for the North waiting on the ground
NORTH
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 13
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Diagram 3
Battle of Gettysburg
North
10-15 Yards
Student Cannon
Balls for the South waiting on the ground
10-15 Yards
Fence, South must climb over and reform ranks
20 Yards
South
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 14
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Diagram 4
Battle of Vicksburg
Northern Ships, must run
pass Vicksburg
30-40 yards
South barricaded, armed
with balls
North after they cross
the river can bomb South
until they surrender.
Balls wait for them here.
Northern soldiers
waiting, must be carried
over the Mississippi
without touching the
ground
Teacher Lesson Plan©
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Page# 15