behind AotW

a companion to Antietam on the Web

Month: March 2006

  • History going private?

    I know this kind of thing goes on every day, but I’m struck by it this evening – there’s something not-quite-right.

    There’s a letter for sale on an upcoming eBay live auction. Written by a soldier of the 90th (later 11th) Pennsylvania Infantry, Nathaniel B. Dilhorn.

    I can make out the first page, but that’s all that’s posted …

    Camp 1 1/2 miles from Sharpsburg, Md.
    Sep 26th 1862

    Dear Victoria,

    I received your letter with one from your Mother yesterday. I’m glad after so long a time to hear from you and Isabella & Watty [?]. You do not say a word about your Father. I suppose he is several years beyond the claim of a draft. In Virginia men have been drafted up to the age of 60. I am glad your Father is not included. It would be felt very much by you should such be the case. As it is I think you do not feel the sad effects of this War as many have. Albert is safe & I trust will go safely through it but how many have suffered and fallen & brought sadness to the door of their dwellings. We trust the Angel of of [sic] Death will pass by your door post. You speak of Bell and Watty going to market and will soon be home with good things for their dinners – how I wish I could sit down by them once more. What [a] glorious meal it would be & how grateful we would be at the thought – but we have much to go through yet. Perhaps a long tramp over Old Virginia again. But I hope not, I have seen as much of it as I desire to see. Mr. Duff gave me a cann [sic] of Tomatoes (a Quart Cann) – I found them very good indeed. I promised to Mr. D a Rebels Gun, but I find those who have them are not disposed to keep them. By & bye I will get one for him. Some one will drop a gun on a march then it will not cost much to pick it up. Another Battle may throw many into our hands and then perhaps I can have a choice … [page ends]

    I’d love to read the whole letter, but can’t buy it. (more…)

  • Keeping Crampton’s Gap alive

    South Mountain on horizon, Crampton's Gap center (photo: T. Reese)

    Back in 2002, Timothy J. Reese launched his Crampton’s Gap website. Before that, the 1862 battle was woefully underrepresented online. Prior to his books (1998, 2004*), the battle was underrepresented in print, as well.

    I believe his crusade to get Crampton’s respect and formal recognition as a battlefield park were the original motives for putting the website up. The political winds strong against him, he has taken the site down. Taking a break. Tired of banging against it.

    I was very sorry to see the work he’d done online disappear, so I asked him to let me pull it over onto AotW and get it back on the air. For the last few days I’ve been importing his page content and illustrations, and formatting them to work with the rest of the AotW site. Assuming Tim approves of what I’ve done, I hope to have it up this weekend.

    [Tim’s Crampton’s Gap material begins here]

    Although the decision to save his stuff was instinctive, I am expecting to hear from people who do not agree with his perspective. (more…)

  • McClellan and intelligence

    A recurring theme in the study of George McClellan’s record with the Army of the Potomac is his apparent propensity for overestimating the size and mettle of the opposing force. I really don’t have a good understanding of why this was or what his sources of information were. Except for a nodding acquaintance with Pinkerton (below), I don’t understand his intelligence apparatus at all.

    A. Pinkerton

    I’m now reading Edwin Fishel’s The Secret War for the Union [more at Amazon], and I think there might be some help there. I have to admit I skipped ahead when I first got the book, Sunday last, looking for tidbits on the Maryland Campaign. Fishel has some very fine specifics on events of early September 1862 that I’d read of in summary elsewhere. I appreciate well documented details, though it doesn’t make for light reading in this case. Now that I’ve got a good feeling from the author in my small area of expertise, I’ll go back and begin at the beginning of the book. I promise.

    Side note: I went to school and played music with a Fishel in the early 70’s in Arlington (Va). Great trumpet player. I knew his father, slightly, as a Dixieland bandleader and jazz musician. Had no idea he was a spook. Now I know “the rest of the story”.

    There has been a discussion recently on H-CivWar about Antietam. About whether it was a draw or victory, and some of the common “what-ifs” have made their appearances: if only McClellan had insert cliches here … the usual suspects. (more…)

  • Footnotes in online history

    Back in September, Jeremy Boggs asked how historians use or should use footnotes on the web. A brief discussion of when they’re useful and what they should contain followed.

    Coincidentally, I had just recently finished the database structure and some basic code to process references and citations on AotW for that very purpose. Jeremy’s entry made me think about the subject a little more.

    Not being an academic, I felt unqualified to comment then, but it seems to me that footnoting on the web has nearly the same benefits and requirements as it does in print. So to footnote or not isn’t a tough decision; it just depends on what kind of website you run. Where you put the notes (i.e., bottom, side, tool-tip) and how you jump back from the note to the text again seem minor distinctions as well. Finally, on whether to hyperlink directly to online sources, I do it in the footnote rather than in the body text so as not to lose the reader entirely. (more…)

  • AotW Turns Green

    I laughed this morning, after a double-take, on loading AotW. It’s all green! I’d forgotten about a little code I put in a couple of years back which automatically loads the St Patrick’s day style sheet on March 17th. It looks very odd. But it’s green.

    Happy St Patrick’s Day! Ask the Wild Geese to find you a parade.

    There should be lots of material out there in the blog-o’sphere today. (Other) Civil War junkies will wax eleoquent about Irish Brigades and regiments. As well they should.

    P. Kelly

    Here’s one of ours, LCol Patrick Kelly. He was in command of the 88th New York Infantry at the Bloody Lane at Antietam. Lost his life in action later in the War at Petersburg, Virginia. Saints preserve him.