behind AotW

a companion to Antietam on the Web

Author: Brian

  • James Madison Cutts of Washington, DC

    I like to think I would have got to him eventually, but an email query from distant descendent Gene Siscoe brought Captain J.M. Cutts, Jr. (1837-1903) to my attention yesterday. The question concerned his actions on General Burnside’s staff at Antietam in 1862. Sadly, I can’t help much there, Cutts is only listed as present in Burnside’s after-action report.

    But the Cutts story does have tendrils reaching interesting spots and connects with some names you’ll certainly know.

    J.M. Cutts (etching)
    etching by B. Wall from A Lincoln Reprimand (1950)

    Cutts served for about 6 weeks in mid-1861 as Private in the 1st Rhode Island Volunteers, and then accepted an appointment as Captain in the new 11th United States Infantry. He was then about 24 years old. By Antietam he was an Aide-de-Camp to Major General Ambrose Burnside, under whom he had served in the 1st Rhode Island. Because of his apparent lack of previous military experience, I’d guess his US Army commission and staff postion were based on family connections. (more…)

  • Grubby details of digital history: link checking

    This past week I was reminded of a website maintenance chore I’ve been neglecting. An observant and sympathetic reader noted our link to the Meade Archive was broken because the site had moved. This kind of thing happens all the time, of course.

    Cross-linking to other information is the best thing about the Web, but also its Achilles’ heel. Sites move, change, and disappear at an alarming rate. I have, at this point, thousands of links from within AotW to other sites. If there were dozens or even a hundred, I might be able to click on them every three months or so, to check to see that they still work.

    Xenu button

    Since that’s not practical, I depend on a lovely little automatic tool called the Xenu Link Sleuth (review w/screenshots). It’s a Windows desktop program–written by Tilman Hausherr–that runs through the site checking every link and reporting results. It’s quite fast, and also free. I’ve using it for 4 or 5 years now, and recommend it highly.

    Xenu produces a variety of reports to show broken links, redirects, and other link issues. You can control how deeply Xenu spiders your site, include or exclude directories, and configure the reports to meet your needs. Very easy.

    Word to the wise for our new digital historians: check those links, prevent link rot. ‘Course, now that I’ve done my first check in about a year, I have a huge pile of issues to chase down and resolve.

    It’s not all glamor and glitz, you know.

  • From the bayou to Gettysburg: V.J. St. Martin

    Mr Erik Himmel of Schriever, Louisiana has kindly sent me a pile of information about his great-great-grandfather, the late Captain Victor Joseph St. Martin, for use in a biographical sketch on Antietam on the Web. Captain St. Martin was wounded and captured in action at Sharpsburg while commanding Company K of the 8th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry.

    St. Martin CDVclick to see larger image
    V. J. St. Martin (CDV courtesy E. Himmel)

    St. Martin returned to his Regiment, but was later killed on Cemetery Hill Ridge at Gettysburg. (more…)

  • Digital history rubber 3

    I chanced yesterday upon another of those people doing great history online.

    Yeager stone
    stone of Major Thomas Yeager, 25th & 53rd PA Infantry (photo: E. Carr)

    Low profile, but not to be missed is the work Everette Carr is doing–and blogging–on behalf of the Union and West End Cemetery of Allentown, Pennsylvania. I really appreciate the perspective and insight to be gained learning about an individual at War, and Mr. Carr does a very nice job of presenting some interesting people. A fine example of digital history ‘rubber’ hitting the road, as he blogs about his charges.

    Typical of his nicely written posts are biographical tidbits for members of several local military units, including the ‘First Defenders‘, 5th Militia, and 128th Pennsylvania Infantry–rookies at Antietam. He has also put up excerpts from the wartime Allentown Democrat newspaper, for additional color and flavor.

    Thanks to Everette for his hard work both on the cemetery and the history, and for sharing the results. I look forward to reading more.

  • Rufus Pettit: solid artilleryman, vicious jailkeeper

    I should avoid online Civil War discussion groups. They just give me more research threads to pull. Like I need more.

    I’d been following a discussion about artillery over on the American Civil War Message Board. I was thinking I could contribute on a question about unit organization, which referred to Battery B, 1st New York Light Artillery, as an example.

    Capt. Rufus D. Pettit
    R.D. Pettit, c. 1861-65

    First, I looked to see what that battery was doing at Antietam, and noticed the commander was Captain Rufus Petit (above). I didn’t have much on the Captain, but did know that he had been dismissed from the service in 1865. I wondered why. He seemed to have served honorably on the Peninsula and at Antietam. “Dismissed” is usually bad. (more…)