Gaston County Museum

Lizzy's Reflection

At the Gaston County Museum field trip, I learned some fascinating things about the Civil War. I never knew that women were used as spies during the war. A few women would also dress like men so that they ,too, could part-take in the war. One interesting fact that I learned was that women played a major role during the war. Women that served as nurses had to risk their lives to dive in and get the injured. Those nurses had a lot of bravery and courage to be able to withstand the gruesome and gory things of the Civil War.

 Like I mentioned earlier, some women may have disguised themselves as men so that they could fight in the war. Most of them were caught, but a few had the opportunity to fight alongside other men during the war. Women are often perceived as innocent and petite, however, during the Civil War women used this perception to their own advantage and became spies. It was really cool learning about the role women played during the war. I've always just thought women stayed at home and watched over things while the men went to fight.

One thing I learned about Gaston County was that it holds a lot history and that a lot of soldiers came from Gaston County hoping to find some adventure. My favorite part of the presentation was when the speaker explained the transformation of a regular citizen to a solder. He explained the clothing and training soldiers received before actually going to war. I would highly recommend this trip to others. It gives you a better understanding of the history of Gaston County and how the Civil War affected our county today. I wouldn't change anything about this field trip. I enjoyed every aspect of the trip.

Kayla's Reflection

The thing I took away from the Gaston County Museum is that it was hard living in the time of the Civil War. Men had to go to war and women I had to stay home and take over what was left to them. The most interesting would be learning that women during this time did actually have a big impact on the Civil War
I would never of thought that a woman would stand up and do something so courageous back in that day. Another thing that was interesting to me was that the Confederates all either wore clothes they already had or were ones that their mom made for them, and the Union had their clothes made by the government. This interested me because It was kind of a win-lose situation, the Union had better clothing so it enabled them to fight superior to the Confederates.

Something new I learned about Gaston County was that there is so much to learn out of the Hoffman Hotel. There ass crack was a picture of Gaston College in the old days and I thought that was cool. The Hoffman Hotel also had many people who lived in Gaston County almost all of their lives up on the wall, and it just shows how much history we have. My favorite part was when we got to explore the Hoffman Hotel for a little. It was impressive of all the artifacts that still remain in that hotel until today. I also like the gun shooting part, even though it failed poorly.

 I would recommend this field trip to others. This is because it has a lot of history to give away, and its good for others to learn about these things. I think this trip should be a part of the Discovering Gaston theme in the future! The only thing I can think of with changing the field trip would have to be lunch time. It was really difficult to find a place to sit and bugs kept crawling around, and certain people didn’t want to give other people ice for their drinks. I don’t do picnics, but other than that it was a fun trip to take.