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Teaching History in the Backyard
Andrew H. Myers
University of South Carolina Spartanburg
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FOR OVER TWO MILLENNIA, historians have gained greater understanding of the past by going to the places where events occurred. Herodotus is reputed to have traveled widely. Polybius made a personal journey across the Alps to confirm the route of Hannibal and his elephants. Visiting the ruins of ancient Rome moved Edward Gibbon to embark upon writing The Decline and Fall. I have tried to create similarly inspirational experiences for my students through Backyard Battles, a course I have taught for the last four years through the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina. The main purpose of this course is to help students recognize that the primary and secondary sources which they read and about which they hear lectures can tie directly into the physical surroundings of their community. Making this connection at the local level serves as a bridge to understanding the broader history of the state and region. Students also gain critical thinking skills and become exposed to some of the myriad ways that people enjoy and use the past. |
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The genesis for Backyard Battles came while I was a college undergraduate. During my sophomore year I wrote a term paper about Hannibal's crossing the Alps. Scholars have long debated about precisely where he crossed. The controversy dates back to Roman times when the historian Polybius laid out the route in terms of various landmarks and the number of days required to march between each one. He backed up his assertions by writing that he had verified his conclusions personally. His example inspired numerous others to do the same. Some have even taken elephants with them. |
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The summer after I wrote my term paper, I visited France and Italy. My bus tour just happened to pass through the same area that Polybius described. Having the chance to see the actual places brought to life the pages of the books I had read. Much to the horror of my family, I changed my plane ticket, purchased camping equipment, went back to the Alps, and spent several weeks on foot looking for Hannibal's route. The experience led me to become an historian. Over subsequent years, however, I learned that traveling to distant places to have this kind of adventure is not necessary. We need look no further than our own backyards. This insight is what I most want to impart to my students. |
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Though not a military history course in the strict sense, Backyard Battles takes advantage of South Carolina's rich martial heritage. Remnants of the American Revolution and the Civil War abound here. To them I add the fruits of my own research about war mobilization, military-social relations, and the racial desegregation of the armed forces in the South during the twentieth century. The military angle is a particularly useful one because battles and national institutions like the armed forces provide for students a clear link between local affairs and events of state, regional, national, even international significance. Nevertheless, similar courses could be taught about the history of protest movements, industrial development, suburbanization, or numerous other subjects that allow for frequent field trips. |
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I employ three teaching techniques
learned while serving in the United States Army infantry—the
staff ride, the sand table, and the walk-through rehearsal. The
first is a method of professional development in which participants
go to battlefields of the past to discuss tactics and leadership
principles. The second is a terrain model used for planning operations.
The third is a way to practice coordination and provide participants
a view of their role in the larger scheme of events. I modified
all three into hands-on, cooperative learning exercises. |
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Crawling Through Cowpens and the American Revolution
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I take a three phase "crawl, walk, run" approach with my students, the first phase simple and introductory, with the others each growing more challenging. My classes have numbered over the years from thirteen to twenty-three per class. The "crawl" phase of the course begins with a study of the Revolutionary War Battle of Cowpens, a 1781 patriot victory that blunted a British offensive campaign in the South and helped set the stage for George Washington's final triumph at Yorktown. Besides being a convenient location, the Cowpens engagement has the advantages of being manageably small, tactically interesting, amply documented, and the inspiration for the climax of a popular motion picture The Patriot. I start by giving a traditional-style lecture about the American Revolution in South Carolina. Students get ready for the subsequent class by reading overview material about Cowpens and preparing for a quiz. |
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I then teach them how to march according to Baron von Steuben's Revolutionary War drill manual. This activity imparts an appreciation for the spatial considerations of Revolutionary War fighting and allows them to identify more closely with the average soldier of the period. Acquiring this perspective is important because they will read first-hand accounts of Cowpens for their next homework assignment. Marching also requires them to work together, which lays a foundation for the many group endeavors that lie ahead. |
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After students have gained proficiency marching, I divide them into various teams of Continentals, patriot militia, and British Regulars. I walk them through the major phases of Cowpens using a flat area about the size of a football-field. They then reenact it themselves. The actual battleground is about twelve times larger, but this walk-through rehearsal reinforces visually and kinesthetically what they have read previously. |
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We return to the classroom for the next meeting. Students there encounter for the first time my four-by-six foot sand table, the contents of which I shape for the occasion into a scale model of the Cowpens battlefield. Remaining in their teams from the previous day, they must locate significant points on the terrain board like the positions of the patriot militia, Continentals, and British Regulars. These tasks require that they analyze primary sources like letters and pension applications to find geographical clues. Teams must also work with each other because the sources often locate one element in relation to another. For example, the sources suggest that the patriot militia stood to the right of a gully, which was 100 to 150 yards in front of the Continental line. The latter, meanwhile, was located to the left of a second gully. The British deployed along a creek that was several hundred yards in front of the patriot forces. (Whether "patriot forces" refers to the militia or the Continentals is an example of some of the kinds of issues that students might debate in this exercise.) |
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The "crawl" phase of the course continues with a field trip to Cowpens National Battlefield. Students stay in their teams from the class session before. What they previously applied to the walk-through rehearsal area and the sand table, they now must apply to the actual terrain. This task is a challenging one. Not only is the battlefield larger than what they have encountered previously, it is devoid of archaeological evidence. Additionally, the National Park Service markers are designed more with the tourist in mind than the historian. |
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With the connection established between the historical source and the historical place, we move to broader, multidisciplinary interpretations of the American Revolution. I have my students read Philip Freneau's poem commemorating the South Carolina patriots who fought in the Battle of Eutaw Springs, which followed Cowpens later in 1781. I also have them view The Patriot. Set in South Carolina during the Revolution, this film's climax is based roughly on the Battles of Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Guilford Courthouse. Almost all of my recent students have seen it before. In fact, one of them acted in it as an extra. Nevertheless, their experiences at Cowpens give them fresh insight. The class also analyzes issues of gender, myth, and memory through the story of Emily Geiger, who achieved renown in South Carolina during the Revolution as a patriot messenger. Some historians question whether or not she performed the deeds attributed to her. By this point in the course, students are well equipped to assess the truthfulness of the Geiger legend in terms of its larger chronological and geographical context. |
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Walking With General Sherman
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Having completed the "crawl" phase of the course with a Revolutionary War example, I move on to the Civil War. We study and experience Sherman's March for the "walk" phase. Specifically, we focus on events surrounding the burning of Columbia, South Carolina, on February 17, 1865. This conflagration was one of the more notable events in a campaign that crushed Confederate morale and hastened the end of the Civil War. As with Cowpens, the students piece together various primary sources to understand the larger sequence of events. They also make use of the sand table, which conveniently can be reshaped into a model of the Columbia area. Unlike with Cowpens, students must learn at a faster pace and grapple with larger numbers of people and greater distances. Sherman's army contained 60,000 men and cut a thirty-mile swath of destruction across Georgia and the Carolinas. |
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Students are often surprised on their field trips to learn that, also unlike Cowpens, actual traces of Sherman's March have survived. These include Confederate earthworks, the ruins of a key bridge, and commemorative markers erected by eyewitnesses. Shell-chipped stones on the State capitol provide clues to the position of Union artillery. The past becomes all the more real for them in that the route is not part of a park or museum. It follows modern roads and goes through heavily developed areas. Many students tell me that they have traveled past some of the remnants for years without realizing their significance. Some are outraged by the lack of preservation efforts. Others become interested in vestiges of the march that have disappeared completely. Every year, a number of students become interested enough to spend time outside of class puzzling over the location of a local Confederate prison for captured Union officers called Camp Sorghum. |
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Sherman's March and the subsequent destruction of Columbia additionally open the door not only for understanding the larger Civil War, but for discussing wartime morality and law. Few other United States cities have suffered first-hand the effects of total war as this city did. Furthermore, public controversy as to who was at fault for the conflagration have left historians with a wealth of affidavits and other primary sources. Understanding what happened locally in Columbia often leads my students to gain a greater appreciation internationally for the calamities visited upon places like Nanking, Stalingrad, Dresden, and Hiroshima. I expect that future classes of students will doubtless make connections to the atrocities of 11 September. |
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Students are ready to run by this time in the course. I take them on a field trip to the battlefield at Boykin's Mill, located on private property near the plantation of the famous Civil War diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut. This place is where the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry (featured in the film Glory) made its final charge in one of the last battles of the war. Students must use all of the skills that they have acquired thus far to determine the positions of the various battle elements. Additionally, they assess the strategic and tactical wisdom of the commanders, which provides an excellent exercise in critical thinking. |
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Running Through the Twentieth Century
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The gears shift somewhat as the class moves into the twentieth century. Rather than analyzing battlefields, students begin looking for the more subtle ways that the military shaped the regional economy and culture of the South. We visit, for example, a railroad spur constructed in 1917 to move troops and supplies into Camp (now Fort) Jackson. Although the military no longer uses the tracks, a number of local manufacturers have taken advantage of the location. Students can see firsthand how the armed forces can affect the domestic civilian economy and how defense spending helped to transform the "Benighted South" from an impoverished, agrarian region to the prosperous, industrialized "Sunbelt" of more recent times. |
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We also examine how the military shaped
race relations. Much of my research has focused on Fort Jackson—which
during the Korean War became the first Army installation within
the United States to desegregate on a large scale—and on the
effect of this event on the civil rights movement in Columbia. Students
work with unpublished raw materials that I have gathered. These
include declassified documents, newspaper clippings, and oral history
transcripts. The sources detail a race riot at Fort Jackson and
the beating of black civilians by white military policemen on the
streets of Columbia during World War II. They also provide information
about the blinding of an African-American war veteran by a local
sheriff, an event that contributed to President Truman's 1948 desegregation
order and to the 1953 arrest of an entire busload of black soldiers
by civilian policemen that rippled all the way to the Pentagon and
the White House. I take students to the places where these events
occurred so that they can analyze the spatial dynamics of cause
and effect. |
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Moving on in time, we do not have to venture far from campus to discuss the Vietnam War. Students tour the chapel where General William Westmoreland received an honorary doctorate in 1967 and the park where Jane Fonda led a rally in 1970. Many of them live in the dormitories that were tear-gassed by police and National Guardsmen during an incident of student unrest. They still use the same union building that protesters occupied in response to the invasion of Cambodia and the shootings at Kent State. One year, two of my older students shared with the class their personal memories of antiwar events at the University of South Carolina. |
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The final portion of the course deals
with the controversy in South Carolina surrounding the flying of
the Confederate battle flag atop the statehouse and on its grounds.
Here—within walking distance of the campus—is an example
of how the area's martial past continues to flavor state and regional
politics. Perhaps more importantly, it demonstrates how location
does indeed matter. |
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Learning Beyond the Battlefield
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Backyard Battles focuses heavily
upon place, but the course covers other important aspects of history
as a field of study. Students are exposed to different types of
sources, different kinds of museums, different purposes for which
those museums exist, and different ways in which people experience
and enjoy history. I have developed a custom reader that contains
a variety of sources that historians use. Excerpts from textbooks
and entries from reference books provide overviews for students
who need additional background. Secondary sources include reviews
and selected chapters from relevant monographs. I also use literary
sources like poems and parts of novels. Primary sources, however,
form the bulk of the book. Most of the latter exist in the public
domain, so royalty fees are low. The total cost of the book for
students has averaged $30.00. The need for information while on
field trips precludes extensive use of the Internet, which may actually
be a good thing. Students today—history majors among them—are
often unfamiliar with the rich sources that exist beyond the reach
of their favorite search engine. My text thus helps to fill an important
need. |
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The many museums and archives that students encounter during the course introduce them to public history at multiple levels. We go to a local museum that was built by private citizens and donated to the municipality. The interpretive center for a factory destroyed by Sherman that we visit is part of a county-run botanical garden. The Confederate Relic Room and State Archives have a regional focus and fall under the auspices of the South Carolina government. The Cowpens Battlefield and Fort Jackson Museum are federal facilities with a national outlook. Students learn as well about the numerous ways that people can experience or use history. The director of the Cayce Museum, for example, is an avid artifact collector who has ranged widely across South Carolina with a metal detector. He normally sets up a special display for the class. This year, the director of the Confederate Relic Room shared with students his expertise in analyzing a Civil War flag to determine the year and city of origin. The director of the State Archives explained the complex legal issues surrounding ownership of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley and how the recovery and excavation is funded. The archivist at Fort Jackson discussed with students how drill sergeants use the museum to teach trainees about Army history and values. |
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Occasionally, I have invited visitors to share their passion about the past. One year, I asked a World War II veteran to show his artifact collection to the class. He arrived in full dress uniform with an impressive display of materials from the Allied occupation of Germany. During a subsequent year, a masters' degree candidate discussed with the class her research about Emily Geiger and how it pertained to the state and national movement for women's suffrage. |
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Serendipity often comes into play. Once, while the class was in a Columbia neighborhood examining the remains of a World War II camp for German prisoners-of-war, a resident brought out of her house newspaper clippings from the time when one of the former inmates had returned to the area for a friendly visit. During a field trip to a local cemetery, the groundskeeper saw the class and dug out some old photographs from his shop. At the State Archives, the person assigned to work with my class coincidentally turned out to be the author of one of the articles in the readings book. At another place, the curator regaled the class with a dramatic story about how a South Carolina Air National Guard pilot diverted his fighter jet from maneuvers over the Atlantic Ocean and flew to Columbia in order to deliver his uniform from the Persian Gulf War for the historical display we were examining. The curator did not know that the pilot's wife happened to be a student in that year's class! According to her, the delivery had been far more mundane. The class learned an important lesson about how stories can become exaggerated over time. |
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Reactions to Backyard Battles have been overwhelmingly positive. "I wish there were more opportunities," said one student in an anonymous end-of-course evaluation, "that allowed students to actually experience the subject the way this class did.... This was the most interesting class I've taken in my three years at USC." A second commented: "I have lived in Columbia for twenty-two years and was embarrassed at how little I knew about my hometown." Said a third: "It didn't even feel like I was in class." A fourth described the experience as "history brought to life." A fifth thought "more courses should be taught that provide students with opportunities to experience history and the locations of events." |
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Considerations for Teachers
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Courses similar to Backyard Battles
can be taught—and not just about military history. Many of
the techniques used are ones I learned in the Army, but they are
simple, common sense ideas that have wide applicability for educators.
Selection of topic is one of the most important considerations.
Teachers wanting to create courses similar to Backyard Battles
should search their surrounding areas to identify museums, genealogical
societies, archives, and other history-oriented organizations. They
should read books about their communities and develop contacts with
local experts. They should select subjects that have broader historical
significance at the state, regional, or higher levels. The sites
visited and activities performed should connect to available primary
and secondary sources. The goal is not just to motivate students
through innovative teaching techniques, but to point out future
directions for them to expand their historical knowledge. |
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Thorough planning is imperative. Field trips require coordination ahead of time with museums and private property owners. Terrain boards can weigh hundreds of pounds and take hours to construct properly. Lesson plans must be detailed with an eye toward keeping students involved and interested. A day or two before each field trip, I try to do a reconnaissance of the area to make certain that there are no surprises like road construction along the intended route. Transportation also must be considered. I prefer using an old school bus for field trips because the vehicles are spacious enough for discussions and lectures. Unfortunately, buses and drivers are expensive. I have also tried using fifteen-passenger vans. These do not hold fifteen adults, however, and are too cramped to do much other than ride. Vans are expensive, too. Most of the times I have students form car pools. The prospect of students driving naturally raises concerns about accidents. In fact, my institution requires that all of them sign waivers indicating that they take the course and go on the trips at their own risk. They also must sign waivers to enter Fort Jackson. |
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Regardless of liability, I emphasize
safety as a matter of moral and professional responsibility. My
syllabus makes clear that students must inform me about any pre-existing
allergies or medical conditions. It also suggests that they wear
sturdy shoes and long pants and that they take water, sun screen,
and insect repellant. On field trips, I carry with me a supply of
cold water, a first aid kit, and a cellular phone. Additionally,
I warn students about specific hazards that they might encounter
at a particular location and provide instructions as to where they
can seek help during an emergency. These kinds of precautions have
proven to be wise. The warning in the syllabus helped me to identify
two diabetic students who wore insulin pumps. Consequently, I was
able to take steps to protect them when the outdoor temperature
went over one hundred degrees. I have also had to accommodate a
person recovering from foot surgery and one who was seventy years
old. The class has even encountered an alligator and a poisonous
"cottonmouth" water moccasin—fortunately from a safe distance. |
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A certain amount of physical hardship can enhance learning if done safely. After walking long distances and trampling through brush in hot weather, students tend to remember the moment they discover the trench or historical marker they were seeking. Sharing these trials bonds the class together and builds esprit. I pay close attention to group dynamics. Careful management of teams prevents the class from fragmenting into cliques and fosters a positive learning environment. Early during the term, students remain in the same teams for several different assignments. After they get to know each other, and after I learn more about their individual strengths and weaknesses, I mix them more frequently. Often, I split roommates, fraternity brothers, and romantic couples across different teams with the hope that their ideas will cross-pollinate during after-class conversations. |
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The focus on cooperative learning makes evaluation more difficult than in a more traditional setting. I give generous credit for attendance and participation. Quizzes during the early part of the course encourage reading and provide feedback. The preponderance of a student's final grade comes from some kind of major assignment. These have varied. My preference has been for students to do research projects about military topics not covered in the syllabus. They then make a brief presentation to their colleagues during the exam period. This assignment requires them to apply what they have learned and to make field trips on their own. I provide a list of potential subjects, and I encourage students to select ones that have personal meaning if possible. They often have derived tremendous satisfaction from this assignment. One young woman, for example, had not known the extent to which her great-great-grandfather had been responsible for Fort Jackson being located in the Columbia area. Student projects also have provided me with good ideas for future use. The growing popularity of the course, however, has resulted in too many students to make this option practicable. I have more recently begun to require a written portfolio instead. Most of the assignments in it complement the group work and are designed to promote deeper reflection after class. Some of the ones later in the course require students to read, write, and think independently. I check the portfolios periodically so that I can monitor progress and provide students with feedback. |
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Grading and pedagogy aside, Backyard Battles provides an environment in which participants can experience the thrill once felt by great historians like Herodotus, Polybius, and Gibbon. I have sensed the same excitement in my own research, and it is one of the main things that drew me into this field of study. I can think of few things more rewarding than helping students to feel the same. |
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