Wisconsin and The Civil War

Lesson 6: How Were Different Groups of
People Affected By The War

Picture
Cordelia Harvey
Lesson Essential Question:

Who fought in the war?

How were African Americans and Native Americans affected or involved in the war?

How were women involved?

NCSS Standards:
  • Standard 2: Time, Continuity, and Change
  • Standard 3: People, Places, and Environments
  • Standard 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

MMSD Standards:
  • Students will:
            1.  Identify the role and status of individuals and groups in the United States, past and present
            2.  Give examples of the importance of multiple viewpoints for understanding people, events, and issues
            3.  Give examples of valuable contributions to the United States made by many cultural, ethnic, and racial groups

UW Teaching Standards:
  • Standard 7: understands and adapts to multiple forms of communication
  • Standard 8: employs varied assessment processes
  • Standard 10: employs varied instructional strategies
  • Standard 11: uses technologies

Materials Needed:
  • Book:
            o  Malone, B. & Oberle, K. (2008). Wisconsin: Our State, Our History. Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
            o  Articles and info sheets from Wisconsin Historical Society Website                                                                                                                    Retrieved from www.wisconsinhistory.org/civilwar
  • Poster Paper
  • Markers, scissors, glue
  • Computer and printer (if needed for additional research and printing of images)

Objectives:
  • Students will learn about the men from Wisconsin who typically volunteered to fight
  • Students will be able to define the terms enlist and recruit
  • Students will discuss the reasons that various groups of people volunteered to fight (or not) 
  • Students will research and create a poster about specific individuals from Wisconsin who were involved in the Civil War in various ways
  • Students will discuss how African Americans and Native Americans were involved in the war and share their opinions about this topic
  • Students will discuss the segregation prevalent amongst regiments and think about whether or not this still occurs today

Lesson Context:

The students have learned about how Wisconsin got ready for the war and how many soldiers were trained at Camp Randall. Now they will be learning about specific people from Wisconsin who were involved in the war in multiple ways.

Lesson Opening:

I will explain to students that today we will be discussing who fought in the war- specifically people in Wisconsin. Even though Wisconsin was far from most of the battles, the people here were still greatly affected by the war in many ways. We will be discussing how men, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants were affected by and involved in the war.

Procedures:
  1. First we will read page 130 in Wisconsin: Our State, Our History, titled, ‘Those from Wisconsin Who Fought’
  2. We will discuss that the soldiers were men ages 18-40, though some lied about their ages. Most soldiers came from rural areas- farmers, miners, students, workers
  3. Discuss the difference between enlisting and recruiting
  4. Explain that usually certain groups formed their own regiments. For example immigrants:
    1. 9th WI Regiment: recruited German men
    2. 17th WI Regiment: recruited Irish men
    3. 15th WI Regiment: recruited Scandinavian men
  5. Then we will discuss why various groups of people did or did not want to fight in the war
  6. Immigrants:                                                                                                                                                                                                                             - some wanted to- felt patriotic, wanted to fight for freedom, antislavery, abolitionists                                                                    - some did not want to- felt that this was not their war
  7. African Americans                                                                                                                                                                                                               - wanted to fight because they were against slavery, were former slaves themselves
  8. Native Americans                                                                                                                                                                                                                - wanted to fight to protect their native lands, gain possible rewards for enlisting?
  9. Next I will divide the class into 5 groups of 4 or 5 and explain that each group will be responsible for researching a specific person from WI who was involved in the civil war. Each of these people had a different role and was from different backgrounds.
  10. I took 3 vignettes from the book Wisconsin: Our State, Our History about various people from Wisconsin that were involved in the war. I will also add additional sources/people to add more perspectives, for this complete list of people:
    1. Colonel Hans Christian Heg: Norwegian Immigrant and Colonel of the 15th Wisconsin
    2. Cordelia Harvey: Wife (and widow) of WI Governor Louis P. Harvey- Advocated for more hospitals for soldiers
    3. Lucius Fairchild: Colonel in the Iron Brigade
    4. Peter D. Thomas: former slave from Racine who fought in the 15th Wisconsin Infantry                                                  
    5. Adam Scherf: Native American soldier from WI
11.     Each group is to read their vignette or article and complete a fact sheet and poster that they will use to share out with                 the class. (students can print out or draw pictures of their person and do any additional research they’d like)
12.     Students will be encouraged to write answers to questions such as: who is their person, where are they from, how were             they involved in the war, what were their reasons for joining the war, what did they do after the war, etc.

Closing:

After students have worked on and finished their posters and fact sheets, we will display them around the room so that students can do a museum ‘gallery walk.’ During this time students will circulate around the room to read every poster. After the gallery walk, we will come together for a whole group discussion. We will talk about each person and I will ask some major question (who were they, how were they involved, etc.). Then we will have a discussion about how the war affected more people than just white men from ages 18-40. I will ask them what they learned about African American, immigrant, or Native American soldiers.

Discussion Questions:
  • Were you surprised that immigrants/African Americans/Native Americans fought in the war?
  • Do you think some didn’t want to? Why not?
  • Why do you think the US government first made it illegal for African Americans and Native Americans to volunteer to fight?
  • What made them change their mind?
  • Do you think this is fair?
  • Discuss how groups of men were segregated in different regiments- do you agree or disagree with this?
  • Are things the same or different in the military today? (meaning, is everyone allowed to enlist or are there any limitations? As well as- is there still segregation within the military?

Assessment:

I will formally assess students on their group poster and fact components. I will be looking to see that they did their research, participated and contributed equally, and included all of the required and necessary information on an easy to read, well designed poster.
I will also informally assess students on their contributions, effort, and participation.