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Video Viewing Graphic Organizer #1

“Traitors and Patriots”

Directions: As indicated, some of the entries on the graphic organizer are to be completed individually and others are for discussion in small group. Complete the individual sections first As you view the video clip, complete the individual sections first, then meet with your group to discuss the other questions and take notes where space is provided. To begin, play the clip.

1. Write down some of the actions both sides took to prepare for war. Discuss the different attitudes people held on the eve of the Civil War.

INDIVIDUAL SECTION

Actions taken by the Union Actions taken by the Confederacy

GROUP SECTION Attitudes of Northerners Attitudes of Southerners

2. The war affected both men and women in varying ways. What important choices did men

and women have to make before the nation engaged in a civil war? Discuss the reasons

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men like Elijah Hunt Rhodes would enlist in the Union Army and Sam Watkins from Tennessee (who owned no slaves) enlisted in the Confederate Army.

INDIVIDUAL SECTION

Important choices for men Important choices for women

GROUP SECTION Reasons men like Eliza Hunt Rhodes

enlisted in the Union Army Reasons men like Sam Watson enlisted in

the Confederate Army.

3. Review the circumstances facing the Confederacy on the eve of the Civil War. How does the rhetoric and attitude of the men portrayed in the video clip seem to contrast with the reality of the Confederacy’s odds on winning the war? Why do you think this was the case?

INDIVIDUAL SECTION GROUP SECTION

Describe the circumstances facing the Confederacy on the eve of the Civil War.

How does the rhetoric and attitude of the contrast with the South’s odds of winning the war?

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4. Robert E. Lee was the Union military’s first choice for leading their forces. What was Lee’s dilemma in making his decision? Why did Lee reject the offer to be general of the Union forces, and instead chose the Confederacy? What did this decision portend for the future of the Civil War?

INDIVIDUAL SECTION Describe Lee’s dilemma in choosing sides: Reasons Lee chose the Confederacy:

GROUP SECTION What did this decision portend for the future of the Civil War?

5. The video clip describes what Grant, Lee, Sherman (and other soon-to-be important players in the Civil War) did in these early days. But the program also quotes men like Elisha Hunt Rhodes from Rhode Island, and Sam Watkins from Tennessee, men whose names were never destined to be remembered in textbooks. In studying their personal letters, what important information can we learn about the war, based on what these men wrote?

GROUP SECTION What important information can we learn about the war from the writings of people like Elisha Hunt Rhodes and Sam Watkins?

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If you were a man living during 1861, would you have enlisted? If you were a woman, would you have wanted your brothers, husbands and fathers to enlist?