A Web Field Trip through United States History
The
Civil War, 1861-1865
The nation had not
yet celebrated the one hundredth year of its existence when it plunged
into the cataclysmic Civil War that could have shattered the nation forever.
The origins of the Civil War were long in the making. Sectional differences
that drove the North and the South to separate paths had already begun
to form during the colonial period. Despite the passage of time and
the formation of a united national government under the Constitution, the
sectional divide became deeper and more defined. During the 1850s,
compromise, that had long served the nation, was replaced by confrontation
and a growing willingness to resort to violence in the defense of sectional
differences. Divisive sectionalism exacerbated by the election of
Abraham Lincoln as President in 1860, stimulated
the secession movement with the departure of South Carolina
from the Union. President Lincoln's position to defend federal
property in the seceded states led to the bombardment of Fort Sumter
which turned the sectional differences into one of the most deadly wars
in the nation's history. Numerous battles were fought, largely in
the South, as southerners sought to defend the Confederate States of America
and as the North or Union forces sought victory to reunite the Union and
end slavery.
One of the major battlegrounds in the Civil War was over the port city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River. Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in July 1863, played major roles in the defeat of the Confederacy. So, let's take a trip to that historic and crucial Battle of Vicksburg.
To go to the Vicksburg National Military Park site, please click on the URL http://www.nps.gov/vick/ . Once at the home page of the Vicksburg National Military Park, please click on the "Site Index." At the new screen, scroll down to "Park Tour." At the next screen, scroll down and click on "Tour Stop 2-Shirley House." Read the information and click on your back button. Click on "Tour Stop 6-Thayer's Approach," view the site, and then repeat that process for "Tour Stop 8-Vicksburg National Cemetery" and "Tour Stop 9- Fort Hill." If you want to visit tour stops in addition to those mentioned, you certainly may; but for the purposes of this official trip, you need only to visit stops indicated. Once finished with "Tour Stop 9," go to the black box at the very top of the page and click on "Cairo." Read the material on the new screen then click on "View the USS Cairo Gunboat." Read the material and follow the arrow prompt at the bottom to take the tour from "Explosion" to "Paddlewheel." After visiting "Paddlewheel," click on "Cairo Gunboat," click on the "Return" arrow, and then click on "Cairo Crew" in the slender blue bar at the top of the page. Scroll through the list and look at the "Personal Data" and "Personal Characteristics" of the crew. Do you find anything unusual about the crew of the Cairo? After viewing the crew list, your visit to Vicksburg is finished. You may be able to return to the field trip by clicking the Back or Go command or the site may be available by clicking on the "FrontPage" icon on the bottom tool bar.
Please respond to the following questions on your answer sheet.
1.
What is significant about the Shirley House?
2. After
failed assaults, what did the Union commander Brig. Gen. John Thayer decide
to do to
about subsequent attacks on the Confederate position?
3. How
many Union soldiers were buried at the Vicksburg National Cemetery?
How many Union
soldiers were buried throughout the South and then reinterred after the
Civil War?
4. Fort
Hill guarded the river approach to Vicksburg. Did it successfully
guard against a Union
naval operation conducted on the Mississippi River in mid-April 1863?
5. What
was the U.S.S. Cairo and what happened to it in December
1862?
6. The
sinking of the U.S.S. Cairo was a first
for what?
7. What
was the purpose of the two foot thick oak timbers?
8. What
kinds of canons were on the U.S.S. Cairo? How many
were there and what was
their range?
9. What
kind of fuel did the U.S.S. Cairo use, and how much did it
use?
10. What propelled
the U.S.S. Cairo and where was it located?
11. Do
you find anything unusual about the crew of the U.S.S. Cairo?