Can your students make the decisions that would win the American Civil War?
What would you do if you were advising Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis during one of the most important conflicts in American history?
Our new American Civil War Interactive Simulation gives students the opportunity to step into the shoes of wartime leaders and confront the political, military and economic challenges facing the Union and the Confederacy between 1861 and 1865.
Rather than simply reading about the conflict, students must make difficult decisions, examine historical evidence and test their understanding as the war unfolds.
Become an adviser during the Civil War
The simulation is organised into 11 historical stages, each presenting students with a different challenge.
Students can choose to lead either the Union or the Confederacy, or compare both sides in a two-player game.
The challenges include:
- Establishing effective political leadership.
- Raising money and securing overseas support.
- Building and training an effective army.
- Developing naval power and overcoming blockades.
- Maintaining a strong wartime government.
- Financing the war through taxation, bonds and currency.
- Confronting the issue of slavery and emancipation.
- Using the telegraph to communicate military orders.
- Introducing conscription.
- Developing railway communications and supply networks.
- Making the strategic decisions needed to win the war.
Each decision has consequences, and students discover how their choices compare with the historical decisions made by the actual leaders of the time.
Historical source analysis and factual knowledge
The simulation combines two important elements of historical learning.
1. Source analysis
At every stage, students encounter a historical source or adapted historical extract. They must interpret the evidence and identify the conclusion best supported by it.
Students receive feedback and must interpret the source correctly before proceeding to the next challenge.
2. Factual knowledge
Each stage also includes a factual knowledge question, testing students’ understanding of the events and developments of the Civil War.
Scores are recorded separately for source interpretation and factual knowledge, allowing students and teachers to see how well they perform in both areas.
An interactive historical glossary
Key historical terms are highlighted throughout the simulation. Students can click on these to open a short explanatory popup.
Terms include secession, conscription, blockade runners, ironclads, emancipation, inflation and the Anaconda Plan.
This helps students develop their historical vocabulary without having to leave the simulation to look up unfamiliar concepts.
A supporting student worksheet
A downloadable worksheet accompanies the game. Students can use it to record important developments, organise their understanding of the conflict and develop explanations about the factors that shaped its outcome.
The worksheet also provides opportunities for extension and follow-up work, making the simulation suitable for individual work, paired activities or a longer classroom investigation.
Certificates of achievement
At the end of the campaign, students can generate a personalised certificate.
The certificate includes their name, campaign, historical decision score, factual knowledge score and source-analysis score. Each certificate also features a randomly selected Civil War illustration.
Students can save their certificate as a PDF.
Designed for the classroom
The simulation includes teacher notes explaining its purpose and suggesting how to integrate the accompanying worksheet into a lesson.
It can be used as a stand-alone activity or as part of a wider unit on the American Civil War.
Ready to take command?
PLAY THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR SIMULATION
An interactive ActiveHistory resource for secondary History students.