Visit Project Project Details
This ongoing project features a cross-section of soldiers killed at the battle of Gettysburg whose lives-and deaths-provide a lens into key themes & questions about the larger Civil War era. Researched & written by Gettysburg College students, each profile unfolds in 3 parts: Section 1 explores the soldier’s community/home life on the eve of war & the soldier’s motivations for fighting. Part 2 explores the soldier’s wartime experiences leading up to July, 1863 & at Gettysburg itself. Part 3 chronicles the impacts of the soldier’s death upon his comrades, family, & community, as well as how individual & collective sacrifice have been memorialized on the battlefield's commemorative landscape. An interactive & interpretive StoryMap traces each soldier's final footsteps across the battlefield.
Subjects or Themes
Civil War and Reconstruction, Antebellum America, Military History, Social History, Cultural History, Memory
Project Language(s)
English
Time Period
Geographic Location
Project Categories
Content Type
Text, Images, Mapping
Target Audience(s)
Creators
Peter Carmichael, Kevin Lavery, Ashley Whitehead Luskey
Year(s)
2017
Host Institution / Affiliation / Project Location
Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College
Software Employed
Labor and Support
This project began as a class project under Dr. Peter Carmichael in the Spring of 2017 and has now been transferred to the management of Dr. Ashley Whitehead Luskey at the Civil War Institute. Student workers from both the CWI's Fellows Program and volunteers from the First Year Experience Program work in close collaboration with Dr. Luskey when producing these profiles. Each profile takes approximately one semester to research, write, and post. Research often involves trips to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., trips to the Gettysburg National Military Park library, and other culling of more easily accessible primary and secondary sources from the college library and on Fold3 that are pertinent to each profile. Students engage in multiple peer review workshops of their drafts and maps with Dr. Luskey and also participate in at least one historiographical discussion about contextual secondary sources prior to beginning their individual research. Students have also participated in digital technology tutorials with specialists from the college library and with Dr. Luskey, and have led mini-battlefield talks and tours focused around their respective soldier's story for their peers.
Project Cost
Partnerships, funding sources, or grant-funding acknowledgement
This project exists in large part through the assistance of numerous partners to whom we owe special thanks: First, to Carolyn Sautter, Amy Lucadamo, Catherine Perry, and the whole staff of Special Collections and College Archives at Musselman Library, Gettysburg College for access to their collections and recommendations for how to make the most of them. Brian Martin and History Associates provided indispensable advice during the planning process, as did Scott Nesbitt and Emily McGinn from the University of Georgia. Trevor Plante from the National Archives and Records Administration and John Heiser from Gettysburg National Military Park have also graciously assisted us with our research in their respective facilities. Thank you to all of our partners and friends, and to our readers for whom this project exists.
