Taking a Walk through Civil War History

Students who take “American Civil War and Reconstruction” with Professor of History Dr. Paul Fessler get fully immersed in the Battles of Wilson’s Creek and Pea Ridge.

They read multiple textbooks about the battles, analyze battlefield statistics and data, and learn all they can about the generals and majors involved. Then, the class travels to southern Missouri and northwest Arkansas to engage in a staff ride, where they walk the battlefields and discuss at length what took place more than 160 years ago in those fields and forests.

“The students spend about eight hours each day talking, debating, and arguing about what happened on the battlefields,” says Fessler. “The students have put in the work to learn all they can about the battles—they have done the research, written a 20-page paper, and taken a 75-minute test on the specifics. As a result of that hard work, when we are out walking together, it’s as if the battles come alive.”

The experience wouldn’t be as powerful for students if Fessler didn’t “ensure that every student in the class has a masterful knowledge of the content by the time we stand on the battlefields,” says Noah Dykstra, a history education major from Yakima, Washington. Still, the maps that felt theoretical in the classroom become more real when the students walk through corn fields and across the meadows.

Dykstra says studying the battles and terrain gave him an idea of the distance traveled, but being able to view the landscape completely changed his perspective.

“It is difficult to imagine the rough roads, long sweeping hills, trenches, rivers, and creeks that pocket the battlefields,” he says. “Seeing the terrain firsthand brings the battle closer to home; you are forced to think tactically from the ground. It helped explain why so many mistakes and much confusion can happen on the battlefield due to unknowns.”

“We ask, ‘Why did the generals and majors make the decisions they made? Were they right or wrong?’ You can also better understand how even the smallest decision could cost the lives of many,” says Fessler.

That’s what stood out to Brynn Torrenga, an elementary education major from Oostburg, Wisconsin, who participated in this year's staff ride. “We climbed ‘Bloody Hill’ to view the valley where Union and Confederate soldiers once stood. It made me realize the Civil War was fought by human beings who made mistakes, decisions, and experienced a life of their own—just as I do,” she says.

Seeing the battlefields helped Torrenga understand that “history is much more than faraway events, dates, and lists of people; it's an ongoing story where worldviews and ideologies create ripple effects that we experience today.”

Fessler led his first staff ride in 2008, when he took 9 students to the two battlefields. He had become interested in conducting a staff ride while serving as a fellow at West Point. “We did staff rides at Gettysburg, Saratoga, and Antietam. When I returned to Dordt, I knew I wanted to put together a similar experience for my students.”

That staff ride in 2008 left an indelible mark on many who participated, including Elijah Palmer (’09). Growing up in Virginia, Palmer knew he had ancestors who fought for the Union, and he had been to plenty of battlefields. “But diving into more depth, having to research your assigned commander and units, really brought a different understanding to the battlefield and the history,” he says.

Now, as curator and director at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia, his primary focus is “interpreting material culture (artifacts),” but there are similar themes to a staff ride.

“In our work, we try to understand why people did what they did, using what they had at a specific time, for a particular aim. The museum is right next to the battlefield at Petersburg, Virginia, so while usually Army historians lead the staff rides, I have been shadowing them to also learn how to facilitate these important learning opportunities for Army leaders. The staff ride with Fessler’s class all those years ago laid the groundwork for my ideal of how to engage with these historic sites.”

Sarah Roth (’11) says the staff ride was one of her best memories from her time as a history major at Dordt. Looking back at the experience, she sees how a staff ride is not “only an immersive way of learning history; it also teaches empathy and leadership skills.” One class activity is a leader assessment, where students looked at the strengths and weaknesses of leaders’ command styles, use of subordinates, relationships with superiors, and more. They discuss leadership qualities and pitfalls—characteristics that apply beyond the battlefield and the classroom.

“Having to learn and explain the facts from a particular point of view pushes students to think through the nuances and motivations that go into history,” she says. “This enriches the students’ understanding and also gives them practice with seeing life through another’s eyes.”

“Staff rides work particularly well for Christians studying history, as we learn the value of the individual within the sovereignly designed story and evaluate the consequences of ideas and actions,” adds Roth.

Torrenga says that this course, along with her other Dordt history classes, have taught her “true Christian scholarship by helping me to inquire deeper into how human nature has played a role in human history, to seek out the patterns of worldview laced into every major historical event, and to approach the objectivity of history through a biblical lens.”