Life in the Civil War

AHTC 2009 Summer Institute-Reform, Reformers and Reformatories

By Staci Ward

Lesson 2: Life in Andersonville

To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.

Goal:   Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to analyze photos of Andersonville Camp and use a graphic organizer to list the availability and condition of the basic elements of survival for the POWs that were sent there. 

Overarching Essential Questions:

What are the essential elements of survival?

Lesson Specific Essential Question:

What were the conditions like in Civil War prison camps?

Materials:   notebook paper/journals, chart paper, markers, pencils, photo analysis sheet for each student, graphic organizer for each student

Primary Sources:

Photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Documents A and B

Procedures:

Part 1

· Review the book Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. Remind students of the discussions held in the previous session about thoughts of how the lives of Pink and Say were similar and different after they were caught.

· For discussion, ask the students, ‘What are some things we need to survive?’ (possible examples: food, water, shelter, health care, clothes) and record their answers on chart paper as a list or as a graphic organizer. Ask, ‘should these things be the same or different for people who have to be sent to jail and why?’

· Discuss with students that Andersonville was a prison camp for prisoners during the war. There were prisons for people who had committed crimes and sometimes they had to be put with those criminals depending on space and sometimes they were just held at their own camps like Andersonville. In their journals, have students respond to the following questions: What do you think life should be like for people who are sent to prison? Should there be different conditions (activities, supplies, etc.) for Prisoners of War? Explain your thoughts.

· Students should share their entries with the whole class as the teacher records some of the ideas on a sheet of chart paper. This chart should be done reviewed throughout the unit so that students can add or change things as new ideas are formed.

· Tell students that in order to help us understand what was valued and how things in our lives have come to be, we study primary sources. (Students should be familiar with primary sources before starting this lesson)

· Give each student or student pair a copy of the photo analysis sheet and photo 1 (Andersonville Camp). Go through the analysis with them so that they are comfortable analyzing photos for clues of the past. After they have analyzed and discussed the photo. Tell students that it is a photo of Andersonville camp. Have them refer to the chart or graphic organizer of essential elements of survival that you created earlier. For each category, have them list things according to the categories that are present in the photo. (See sample graphic organizer, this could be used in place of the photo analysis sheet after you have discussed with them how to analyze photos.)

· Have students act like historians and try to find as much information as they can about life in the prison camp. Continue to analyze (as a class or with partners) photos 2 (map of camp), 3 (field hospital), 4 (overabundance of prisoners) and fill in evidence you find for each category on the graphic organizer or chart.

Part 2

· Continue to analyze photos 5 (passing out food to POWs), 6 (preparing for an amputation), 7 (amputation kit). In addition, present students with Documents A (ration tablet, record of food for POWs) and B (newspaper article that lists cause of death of POWs).

· After students have analyzed the photos and documents, have students think about what they’ve learned about the camp. Help them to draw conclusions by having some discussion and or sharing with a partner.

· If needed, help them to see that the camps were severely overcrowded and as a result, food and water was unsanitary, shelter and clothing were minimal and health care suffered due to unsanitary conditions and few medical supplies.

· Based on the information that they’ve learned, refer back to the story of Pink and Say. Ask, ‘What do you think happened to the men while they were at Andersonville?’

· After students have had sufficient time to write the answer in their journals, share with them the very last three pages of text in the Pink and Say book and discuss whether or not the students journal entry thoughts were similar to what really happened to the men.

Assessment:

Review the journal entry to be sure that students have included relevant information gathered from their own thoughts and the graphic organizer.