IRMS eighth-graders host Civil War Museum night

Students and families had an opportunity to glimpse into the past courtesy of local eighth-graders at Icicle River Middle School’s 8th Grade Civil War Museum night on June 6.

For the event, students from the classes of Todd Gilbert, Jodie Tremberth, Lea Boggs and Stuart Beckman chose topics from the Civil War and utilized math, English/Language Arts, history and science in their presentation. Some focused on their presentation on medicine, medical procedures and doctors while others picked technology and created machines used during the Civil War like a telegraph and periscopes. Others focused on the perspectives, people and causes that led to the conflict between the North and the South.

Tremberth said eight-grade band students made a playlist of music from the Civil War and picked different songs, explaining the significance of those ballads. 

During the event, students also gave live presentations on figures who were key players in the war. One performance featured student Emily Reyes portraying a solider who was wounded by a Minie ball and Lindsee Rodriguez as a surgeon. During the performance, Rodriguez demonstrated how surgeons performed amputations on wounded soldiers.

As she was researching her topic, Reyes said she and the group learned about the various medicines and procedures that were helpful to doctors and soldiers during the war.

“We also learned about dangerous medicines from the Civil War that we wouldn’t use today,” Reyes added.

Hailey Emry and Zoe Boggs were two of many students who chose to focus on espionage. They created an exhibit featuring famous Civil War era spies like Harriet Tubman and Mary Bowser. 

Both girls learned that many of Civil War-era spies were women who managed to smuggle guns, morphine, ammunition and other items in their skirts and bring them across enemy lines. Boggs noted that some female spies would smuggle secret messages and plans inside of their dolls and pins.

Emry explained that men during the Civil War era underestimated women and and believed their involvement would not impact the war, yet they played a vital role in the conflict.

“It was cool to learn that it was mostly women who were spies in the Civil War,” Emry added. “Most men thought that women were housewives, but really they were important in the war.”