The Civil War
This program focuses on how soldiers lived and fought during the American War period. Student volunteers are put into “uniforms” of the Union and Confederate armies for infantry, cavalry and artillery.
Everything depends on how long we have per class/session.
Typically, the setting is a small encampment. We have a section of the schoolyard where tents are set up to form “Camp Tucker.” Here we will cover some of the principal weapons of the war, from the popular Springfield and Enfield muskets to the newer breech-loading Sharps and the Spencer repeating rifles.
Naturally, we will cover some related trivia (“Why are the fragments from a shell called ‘shrapnel’ anyway?” and “Why were there ‘mounted infantry’ as opposed to cavalry?”) as well as learning about some of the not-so-famous generals that changed the war.
However, more time is focused the daily life of the soldier – who spent far more time in camp or on the march than he did fighting. The key problems of keeping camps disease-free, how soldiers kept diaries and early medicine are all vital topics.
(sometimes called the “daughter of the regiment”), wearing a
uniform-like dress, providing nursing, mending clothing and even
bringing water to soldiers in battle. (Some even carried pistols,
though they were not permitted to engage in combat.)
cisions
as to use chloroform, ether, morphine, laudanum or other anesthetic
– and how the impaired were treated when they returned home in the
19th Century.