Civil War Border States
Sort states into Confederate, border and Union groups on the map.
Civil War Border States is a U.S. history map game. States are grouped by their side in 1861: the 11 Confederate states, the four border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, and the Union free states. The child learns which group a state was in and why the border states mattered, since they were slave states that stayed in the Union.
The game goes beyond the map. Children answer questions about Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, Fort Sumter, Gettysburg and Appomattox, and the years 1861 to 1865. It is plain about slavery as the main cause of the war and about the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. The map uses today's state shapes.
What children practice
- Sort states into Confederate, border and Union free groups
- Name the four border states and explain why they mattered
- Place Fort Sumter, Gettysburg and Appomattox in the right states
- Match Lincoln, Davis, Lee and Grant to their roles
- Put Civil War events in order and match them to years
- Connect slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the war
Levels
- Level 1: Which side?
- Level 2: Tap the group
- Level 3: Border states
- Level 4: Names and places
- Level 5: Slavery and freedom
- Level 6: Mixed review
How it works
- Early rounds show a color key on the map, and the mixed review asks about plain maps with no help.
- Questions mix choosing an answer, tapping states on the map and putting events in order.
- Level 4 covers names, places and years, and level 5 covers slavery and freedom.
- Wrong answers can be retried, each right answer gets a short explanation, and questions can be read aloud.
Best for: A good fit for grades 5 to 8 when a child is studying the Civil War and needs the geography of the two sides to make sense.
Tip for parents: This is a heavy subject, so ask your child what stood out after a round. Talking about why a state like Maryland or Missouri stayed in the Union can open a good conversation about how divided the country was.
Questions parents ask
Why are West Virginia and Nevada plain gray on the map?
They did not fit the three simple groups in 1861, so they are drawn in pale gray and never asked about. The same goes for the territories and Washington, D.C. This keeps every question clear and correct.
Does the game cover why the war happened?
Yes, at a child's level. It says that slavery was the main cause, that the Confederate states left the Union to protect slavery, and that the 13th Amendment ended slavery everywhere in the United States in 1865.
Are the state shapes the ones from 1861?
No. The game draws today's state shapes as stand-ins for the states of 1861. Children are learning which side each state took, not the old boundary lines.
Ready to try it?
Civil War Border States is free with a parent account. A parent adds a child profile, and the child's progress is saved.