Tag Archives: reenactments

Looking Through Lee’s Eyes

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I went to the Smithsonian site through another link, but found this new article (penned by Tony Horwitz!) in the sidebar.  A fascinating look at how technology can be used to evaluate historical mysteries, such as why Lee pressed an assault at Gettysburg when Longstreet was convinced it would fail.

Her principal tool is geographic information systems, or GIS, a name for computer programs that incorporate such data as satellite imagery, paper maps and statistics. Knowles makes GIS sound simple: “It’s a computer software that allows you to map and analyze any information that has a location attached.” But watching her navigate GIS and other applications, it quickly becomes obvious that this isn’t your father’s geography.

First, a modern topographical map of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, appears on her screen. “Not enough detail,” she says, going next to a contour map of the same landscape made in 1874, which she has traced and scanned. “Here’s where the carto-geek in me comes out,” she says, running her finger lovingly across the map and noting how it distinguishes between hardwood forest, pine woods and orchards—the kind of fine-grained detail that is crucial to her work…

What emerges, in the end, is a “map” that’s not just color-coded and crammed with data, but dynamic rather than static—a layered re-creation that Knowles likens to looking at the past through 3-D glasses. The image shifts, changing with a few keystrokes to answer the questions Knowles asks. In this instance, she wants to know what commanders could see of the battlefield on the second day at Gettysburg. A red dot denotes General Lee’s vantage point from the top of the Lutheran Seminary. His field of vision shows as clear ground, with blind spots shaded in deep indigo. Knowles has even factored in the extra inches of sightline afforded by Lee’s boots. “We can’t account for the haze and smoke of battle in GIS, though in theory you could with gaming software,” she says.

via Looking at the Battle of Gettysburg Through Robert E. Lee’s Eyes | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine.

Lincoln Debates McClellan

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Dressed in his signature long black dress coat and instantly recognizable with his jet black hair and beard, President Abraham Lincoln and his lesser-known, albeit dapper, presidential challenger and former New Jersey governor, Gen. George McClellan, stood before a crowd of lunching history buffs as they verbally sparred over issues of national importance circa 1864

The Coalition of the Northwest Bergen Historical Organizations hosted the Oct. 18 event at the Brick House, offering a look back at history as they pondered, "What if Lincoln and McClellan had debated?".

In the wake of election-time debates, this sounds like it was a fun event. I would love to have seen Lincoln mop the floor with McClellan in debate. One imagines he’d be Nixonian in his levels of flop-sweat.

via In Wyckoff, a what if: Lincoln debates McClellan : page all – NorthJersey.com.

In The Steps Of A Civil War Photographer

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Between an intense work contract and a lingering cold I caught soon after, I haven’t updated here in weeks.  Sadly, I missed some interesting events, as well as the 150th anniversary of Antietam, early this month.  Here’s a cool feature by NPR, showing a modern wetplate photographer’s retracing of Alexander Gardner’s steps on the battlefield.  Make sure to click through for the before/after shots!

The image you see below was shot in 2012 by wet plate photographer Todd Harrington. He retraced Gardners steps at Antietam, using the same type of equipment: a stereo wet plate camera and glass plates. If you toggle using the “now” and “then” buttons, another image fades in and out: Thats what Gardner captured in 1862.

Whats striking is how, actually, not much has changed. Trees have gotten bigger and roads have been paved. If you look closely at the Dunker Church image, youll see portable toilets in the background; telephone poles along Hagerstown Pike; construction cones sitting on Burnside Bridge. But whats haunting is that the major difference between now and then is a lack of bodies.

via Retracing The Steps Of A Civil War Photographer : NPR.

Civil War Ballooning Reenactment

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T.S. Lowe’s Intrepid flies again!  This is quite the way to reenact!  If I wasn’t terrified of heights I’d make my way down to NY for this.  The tickets are very reasonable considering the expense of running such a project.

Officials at Genesee Country Village & Museum decided that replicating a Civil War balloon that had been christened Intrepid would be an ideal way to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the war.Peter Arnold, the museums president and chief executive officer, said the $400,000 project, which has been partially offset by numerous donations, has triggered intense interest.Starting today and continuing into October, visitors will be invited to board the tethered balloon when weather permits and float several hundred feet above the picturesque landscape, getting a taste of what the first military pilots experienced a century-and-a-half earlier. The cost of 15-minute flights is $10 for museum members and $15 for non-members, charges that are in addition to general admission.

via Civil War air power on display – City & Region – The Buffalo News.

‘Mary Lincoln Insanity Case’ Podcast

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I haven’t yet listened to this, but it’s an intriguing podcast offering.  Mary Lincoln’s last years were even more troubled than her earlier ones, the poor lady, and her only remaining (and least loved) son trying to get her institutionalized was the final blow life dealt her.

The star-studded April 16 Statehouse discussion of the Mary Lincoln insanity case can be heard now at “From Out of the Top Hat,” the blog of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

The discussion featured two separate panels, both moderated by author Scott Turow, so the ALPLM has split its podcast into two presentations as well.

Panel 1 discussed historical, cultural and legal aspects of the case. The podcast is an hour and six minutes long.

Panel 2, an hour and 10 minutes, covered medical and legal issues.

‘Mary Lincoln Insanity Case’ on podcast – Springfield, IL – The State Journal-Register.

The Forgotten Navy

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I don’t usually bother with articles about reenactors, but this guy’s got a terrific angle, and I love his enthusiasm for teaching. It’s a short article, and worth a read beyond just these interesting facts:

There were advantages to serving in the Navy during the Civil War.

Sailors had a higher survival rate than soldiers, in part because disease could be quarantined to one ship’s crew rather than allowed to spread throughout an Army camp, Dispenza said.

On the steam-powered Navy ships commonly used on rivers — uncertain winds made sails unreliable — sailors typically poured off drinking water from the steam condenser, he said. The boiler process killed bacteria in that water.

Sailors typically ate better than soldiers because they rarely outran their supply line, Dispenza said. If the crew needed food, they could go ashore and buy, steal or hunt what they needed.

The Civil War Navy also was racially integrated, Dispenza added. Slaves were considered illegally held by the South, so many surrendered to Union gunboats and served as enlisted sailors.

“As the war went on, there were black petty officers giving orders to white sailors,” Dispenza said, noting “that would not happen in the Army.”

via The Navy: Civil War's unseen force – News-Sentinel.com.

Civil War Reenvisioned

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Here’s a novel twist on reenacting: Recreating the technological, rather than the social, aspects of the war.  I love the witty spin he puts on it by photographing reenactments. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the station wagon unless it was pointed out to me.

This Civil War photograph was …wait, are those porta-potties in the background? And a station wagon? Yes, this photograph is less than a year old, but you can imagine someone cropping it and using it as a Civil War photo sometime in the future. Photographer Richard Barnes shoots Civil War reenactments using techniques authentic to the period, such as wet-plate photography.

via Civil War Reenvisioned.

Visualizing Emancipation

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The University of Richmond has posted an interactive, online map that charts the activity of the Union army and (sometimes unrelated) slavery/emancipation events across the states from ’61 to ’65.  It’s interesting to note how the red dots (emancipations) generally precede the blue dots (army investments), and to observe the profusion of red and blue dots that signal Sherman’s marches.

The map plots more than 3,000 emancipation-related events from 1861-1865 in 10 categories that range from government actions to abuse of African-Americans. An additional 50,000 entries show Union troop locations during the Civil War, making it easy to see the impact of opportunity on an animated timeline of the war years.

“It tells us that the end of slavery was this really complicated process that happened all over the South, but more in some places than others during the war,” said Scott Nesbit, associate director of the lab.

“The chance for freedom came about on water and on rails. That’s where the Union troops were. But at some places in the South, people remained enslaved the entire war, long after the Emancipation Proclamation.

“And, just because you get to Union lines doesn’t mean you’re going to start having a good time. These first years of freedom, if we can even call it that, were filled with coercion and danger. … (In the contraband camps,) African-Americans were treated as essentially free, as free as someone can be who is impressed into service by the military and not allowed to leave.”

via UR effort maps the end of slavery | Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The Atlantic on Gettysburg’s Cyclorama

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As I mentioned yesterday, The Atlantic Monthly is knocking the sesquicentennial celebrations out of the park. This piece on the Gettysburg Cyclorama is fantastic, and is making me greatly regret declining a ticket on both my trips to the park.

Four hundred feet long. Fifty feet high. It was art on an astonishing scale. All four versions were housed in massive, purpose-built rotundas. In Boston, for example, visitors walked through a grand crenelated archway, paid for their tickets, and proceeded along a dark winding passage toward the viewing platform. They ascended a winding staircase to another time and place. “The impression upon the beholder as he steps upon this platform,” one reviewer wrote, “is one of mingled astonishment and awe.”

July 3, 1863. The Battle of Gettysburg rages on for a third day. From just behind Cemetery Ridge, visitors watched Pickett’s Charge crash against the Union lines. There, in the distance! General Lee and his staff. Much closer, an artillery caisson explodes. All around, soldiers crouch, charge, level rifles, bare bayonets, fight, die.

A dozen different twists heightened the illusion. Drapes hung over the platform from the ceiling, limiting and directing the view and leaving the viewers shrouded in shadows. The indirect lighting shone most brightly on the top of the canvas, illuminating the sky in brilliant blue. The canvas bowed outward by a foot in the middle, receding as it approached the ground and horizon. Tinsel lent a convincing gleam to the bayonets and buckles in the painting.

What most astonished observers, though, was the diorama, which began near the edge of the platform and ended at the painting, 45 feet away. Hundreds of cartloads of earth were covered in sod and studded with vegetation, then topped with the detritus of the battlefield. Shoes, canteens, fences, walls, corpses: near the canvas, these props were cunningly arranged to blend seamlessly into the painting. Two wooden poles, painted on the canvas, met a third leaned against it to form a tripod. A dirt road ran out into the diorama. A stretcher borne by two men, one painted and the other formed of boards, had its poles inserted through holes in the painting. “So perfect is the illusion,” as the Boston Advertiser voiced the common sentiment, “that it is impossible to tell where reality ends and the painting begins.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/the-great-illusion-of-gettysburg/238870/