Name:
Date:
Formative Assessment Activity: Civil War Film Questions
Please observe the film and respond to the following questions.
Film: America The Story of Us—Civil War
Overview
The Civil War was America’s first modern war that combined technology, communication, and logistics
together--what happened behind the front lines, would determine the outcome of the war.
1862: Height of the Civil War
One person could prepare 3,000 mini balls a day;
It took the North 33 hours to produce and ship its products to the front line;
Alexander Hunter (CSA) and Horatio Chapman’s horrific accounts of the battlefield;
2% of the population is killed in the Civil War (600,000 lives).
Focus Question #1: Explain how the mini-ball will increase the death toll during the Civil War.
August 1862: Lee in Virginia
Second Manassas or Second Bull Run: 1700 Union dead;
Lincoln’s modern war hidden weapon: the railroad;
Lt. George Benedict and 600 troops;
The Northern integrated economy;
The telegraph;
Antietam: 6,000 dead and 17,000 wounded;
Battlefield medicine and amputations;
Surgeons William Watson and Theodore Diamond;
Clara Barton, hygiene, and bromine.
Focus Question #2: How was Lincoln able to use the North’s industrial might (i.e. industry, railroad,
telegraph, etc.) to his military advantage?
War on Public Opinion
War photography and 200 correspondents cover the war;
The embalming business;
Lincoln’s ultimatum to the South;
The Emancipation Proclamation;
Black soldiers;
The Gettysburg Address;
Focus Question #3: What impact do you think war photography had on politics during the Civil War? Do
you believe that it helped or hindered the Lincoln administration’s goals towards the war? Explain.
CLA Question #6: Explain and justify how President Lincoln made slavery the focus of the war when he
issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Focus Question #4: How did the Gettysburg Address transform the ideal of the war?
1864: Deadlock
A looming election and Peace Democrats;
Sherman’s MarchTotal war and the “Scorched Earth” policy;
Atlanta is won and Lincoln’s re-election;
Sherman’s march to the sea;
Lee’s surrender at Appomattox: ‘validating freedom and the industrial model.’
The nation is unified and becomes a modern, industrialized economy.
CLA Question #7: Based on what you have seen in this film and read so far, identify and explain how the
Civil War brought about dramatic social and economic changes in American society.
 How did the lifestyles of men and women living in the North and/or the South change as a result of
the Civil War?
 How did the U.S. change economically during the Civil War? How do you think this change will affect
the United States after the war?
CLA Question #9: Although the film may not specifically mention the details of this question, try to explain
and justify how the Civil War settled the long-standing disputes over states’ rights and slavery.
 How did the Civil War deny any state to leave the Union?
 How did the Civil War put an end to slavery?