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iphoto and my Gettysburg monument project
September 14, 2012
I recently bought a Macbook Pro to replace my Dell laptop that was having major hard drive issues. The Macbook came with Apple’s photo cataloging software, iphoto. There’s a more advanced version of iphoto called Aperture, but I haven’t felt the need to try it yet. I have been doing a lot of work on my website “behind the scenes” with iphoto. With iphoto, you can catalog all of your photos, add descriptions to them, etc. I have about 20,000 photos – yes, you read that right, I have 20,000 photos just of the Gettysburg battlefield! – that I’ve taken over the past seven years at Gettysburg. Using the catalog system through iphoto has made sorting this huge collection easy. What is particularly cool about iphoto going forward is that you can create what are called “Smart Albums” that include photos using different criteria. So for example, you can set up a Smart Album that includes the description “5th New Hampshire” and it will bring up all the photos of the 5th New Hampshire. It will also include all NEW photos added with that description, making it much easier to keep organized. I am still working with getting my monument project organized into iphoto, but I am definitely loving it as an organizational tool. It makes me happy I decided to get the Mac and not another PC.
June 23, 2012
I recently returned from a trip to Gettysburg where I obtained some new (improved) monument photographs. I have been slowly updating and adding the new photographs to the website. This was my third trip to Gettysburg in 2012 (I also made trips in February and March). All three trips featured predominantly good weather which made for a lot of monument shooting and re-shooting. On the photos featured on the site, I made two recent changes. First, I started using the ImageMagick plugin for rendering the images — ImageMagick is faster and provides better quality than the internal GD system used by WordPress (galleries on-site will continue to be run with Nextgen Gallery). Second, I made a change to the photo sizes for the main photograph of each monument, increasing the pixel size from 500 on the longest side to 650 pixels on the longest side. I hope you enjoy the larger and better rendered photos. Finally, WordPress recently upgraded versions and it seems to have broken the plugin that runs my contact form. (It also temporarily broke many of the thumbnails I use on the Archives pages here, but fortunately I was able to fix those.) I will try to get a new contact form up on the site within the next week or two. Until then, you can always email me directly by using the address jgoellnitz *@* gmail.com.
April 15, 2012
A gallery of photographs of Gettysburg at the end of March 2012. Spring came early this year due to unusually warm weather, with the magnolia trees flowering early in the National Cemetery. These photographs were taken between March 22, 2012 and March 26, 2012.
The Return of Smith’s New York Artillery Staute at Gettysburg
December 22, 2011
Gettysburg buffs will be happy to know that the “Cannoneer” on top of Smith’s 4th New York Independent Artillery monument has been repaired by the National Park Service and is finally back in place at Devil’s Den where it belongs. This monument was severely vandalized in February 2006. On this same day, two monuments on the Emmitsburg Road, the monument to the 11th Massachusetts and the monument to the 114th Pennsylvania in front of the Sherfy Farm at the Peach Orchard were also vandalized. The damage to the 114th Pennsylvania has been repaired, but the damage to the 11th Massachusetts monument still remains unrepaired. Sadly this is not the first time this monument, located in a very prominent location on Houck’s Ridge, has been vandalized. Vandals tore down the statue in 1995, but the NPS that time was able to simply remount it on the pedestal. (Vandalism has been an on-going problem since the beginning of the battlefield; the Smithsonian Art inventory notes that many monuments on the southern end of the battlefield were vandalized even going back as far as 1913.) On November 28, 2011, after six years and extensive restoration work (chronicled by the excellent Gettysburg Daily blog), the statue was replaced on the pedestal. These photographs were taken not long after that, on December 10, 2011.
Artillery Pieces at Gettysburg
December 19, 2011
The Gettysburg National Military Park is currently home to 371 cannons, displayed in various locations around the park. (At the turn of the century there were over four hundred cannons on display, and at one time or another, the park owned approximately 800 pieces.) Many cannons (approximately 270, mostly of the howitzer variety) were melted down, and their bronze used by the War Department to fashion the various brigade markers around the field, as well as to supply the bronze for the park’s many large equestrian monuments, including that to General Meade. Each cannon on the field represents a battery of artillery present at Gettysburg. Most (301) are authentic, but some are replicas. I am far, far, far from an expert on Civil War artillery, but this post is intended to serve as an introduction to some of the cannons and artillery pieces on display in the park. (The best reference for learning about artillery at the Gettysburg National Military Park is Silent Sentinels: A Reference Guide to the Artillery at Gettysburg by George W. Newton. On the web, your “go to blog” for Civil War artillery is Craig Swain’s excellent To the Sound of the Guns) 12 Pounder Napoleon (and their replicas) There are 133 authentic 12-pounder Napoleons at Gettysburg and 15 so-called “false Napoleons” — replicas of the originals. They are named for French Emperor Napoleon III, and the most popular was the Model 1857. It was the most popular smoothbore cannon used during the Civil War. These guns now have a greenish patina from their bronze weathering. The gun pictured to the left is a piece that represents Bigelow’s famous 9th Massachusetts Battery at their location on the Wheatfield Road. (More Napoleons representing this unit are located at the Trostle Farm). It is one of many of the park’s authentic Napoleons. The replicas are 6-pound guns modified to “look” like 12-pound guns. (To see a “false” Napoleon, head over to South Hancock Avenue and visit the guns of Ames’ Battery.) Confederate manufactured Napoleons tend to have a darker color than Union manufactured guns — the bronze used for these guns was of varying quality in the Confederacy. The Confederate manufactured guns also lack the muzzle “swell” present on Union guns (leaving off the swell was a way to save on the amount of bronze necessary to manufacture each ...
January 25, 2009
This is a companion post to my Union losses post back in December. It looks at casualties for the Army of Northern Virginia. Confederate Losses by Corps and Division First Army Corps – James Longstreet 20,935 men engaged. 7,739 casualties. 1,607 killed, 4,045 wounded, 2,087 missing. 37.0%. The First Corps suffered the: Most loss by percentage – Confederate Corps. 2nd most loss by total number – Confederate Corps. Most loss by percentage – Confederate Division. (Pickett’s) 3rd Most loss by total number – Confederate Division. (Pickett’s) 2nd most loss by percentage – Confederate Brigade. (Garnett’s) 3rd most loss by percentage – Confederate Brigade. (Armistead’s) 2nd most loss by total number – Confederate Brigade. (Armistead’s) Hood’s Division 7,735. 2,372 casualties. 503 killed, 1,332 wounded, 537 missing. 32.2%. Law’s Brigade: 1,933. 500 casualties. 99 killed, 253 wounded, 148 missing. 25.9%. J.B. Robertson’s Brigade: 1,734. 603 casualties. 152 killed, 313 wounded, 138 missing. 34.8%. G.T. Anderson’s Brigade: 1,874. 722 casualties. 152 killed, 468 wounded, 102 missing. 38.5%. Benning’s Brigade: 1,420. 519 casualties. 95 killed, 275 wounded, 149 missing. 36.5%. Henry’s Battalion: 403. 27 casualties. 5 killed, 22 wounded, 0 missing. 6.7%. McLaws’ Division 7,153. 2,294 casualties. 475 killed, 1,368 wounded, 451 missing. 32.1%. Kershaw’s Brigade: 2,183. 649 casualties. 179 killed, 419 wounded, 51 missing. 32.1%. Barksdale’s Brigade: 1,620. 804 casualties. 156 killed, 470 wounded, 178 missing. 49.6%. Semmes’ Brigade: 1,334. 432 casualties. 80 killed, 261 wounded, 91 missing. 32.4%. Wofford’s Brigade: 1,627. 370 casualties. 48 killed, 184 wounded, 138 missing. 22.7%. Cabell’s Battalion: 378. 52 casualties. 15 killed, 37 wounded, 0 missing. 13.8%. Pickett’s Division 5,473. 2,904 casualties. 599 killed, 1,223 wounded, 1,082 missing. 53.1%. Kemper’s Brigade: 1,634. 703 casualties. 171 killed, 367 wounded, 165 missing. 43.0%. Armistead’s Brigade: 1,950. 1,223 casualties. 187 killed, 447 wounded, 589 missing. 62.7%. R. Garnett’s Brigade: 1,459. 948 casualties. 231 killed, 393 wounded, 324 missing. 65.0%. Dearing’s Battalion: 419. 29 casualties. 9 killed, 16 wounded, 4 missing. 6.9%. Corps Reserve Artillery 918. 169 casualties. 30 killed, 122 wounded, 17 missing. 18.4%. Alexander’s Battalion: 576. 139 casualties. 22 killed, 111 wounded, 6 missing. 24.1%. Eshleman’s Battalion: 338. 30 ...
December 14, 2008
UNION LOSSES BY CORPS AND DIVISION FIRST ARMY CORPS – JOHN REYNOLDS 12,222 men engaged. 6,059 casualties. 666 killed, 3,231 wounded, 2,162 missing. 49.6%. The First Corps suffered the: Most loss by percentage, Union corps. Most loss by total number, Union corps. Most loss by percentage, Union division. (Robinson’s) 2nd most loss by percentage, Union division. (Wadsworth’s) Most loss by total number, Union division. (Wadsworth’s) 2nd most loss by total number, Union division. (Doubleday’s) Most loss by percentage, Union brigade. (Paul’s) 2nd most loss by percentage, Union brigade. (Rowley’s) 3rd most loss by percentage, Union brigade. (Stone’s) Most loss by total number, Union brigade. (Meredith’s) 2nd most loss by total number, Union brigade. (Paul’s) 3rd most loss by total number, Union brigade. (Cutler’s) Wadsworth’s First Division 3,857 men. 2,155 casualties. 299 killed, 1,229 wounded, 627 missing. 55.9%. 1st Brigade: 1,829 men. 1,153 casualties. 171 killed, 720 wounded, 262 missing. 63.0%. 2nd Brigade: 2,017 men. 1,002 casualties. 128 killed, 509 wounded, 365 missing. 49.7%. Robinson’s Second Division 2,997 men. 1,690 casualties. 91 killed, 616 wounded, 983 missing. 56.4%. 1st Brigade: 1,537 men. 1,026 casualties. 50 killed, 343 wounded, 633 missing. 66.8%. 2nd Brigade: 1,452 men. 649 casualties. 41 killed, 258 wounded, 350 missing. 44.7%. Doubleday’s Third Division 4,701 men. 2,103 casualties. 265 killed, 1,297 wounded, 541 missing. 44.7%. 1st Brigade: 1,361 men. 898 casualties. 111 killed, 557 wounded, 230 missing. 66.0%. 2nd Brigade: 1,317 men. 853 casualties. 109 killed, 465 wounded, 279 missing. 64.8%. 3rd Brigade: 1,950 men. 351 casualties. 45 killed, 274 wounded, 32 missing. 18.0%. Artillery Brigade: 596 men. 106 casualties. 9 killed, 86 wounded, 11 missing. 16.8%. SECOND ARMY CORPS – WINFIELD HANCOCK 11,347 men engaged. 4,369 casualties. 797 killed, 3,194 wounded, 378 missing. 38.5%. The Second Corps suffered the: 2nd most loss by total number, Union corps. Caldwell’s First Division 3,320 men. 1,275 casualties. 187 killed, 880 wounded, 208 missing. 38.4%. 1st Brigade: 853 men. 330 casualties. 57 killed, 260 wounded, 13 missing. 38.7%. 2nd Brigade: 532 men. 198 casualties. 27 killed, 109 wounded, 62 missing. 37.2%. 3rd Brigade: 975 men. 358 casualties. 49 killed, 227 wounded, 83 missing. 36.7%. 4th Brigade: 851 men. 389 casualties. 54 killed, 284 wounded, 51 missing. 45.7%. Gibbon’s Second Division 3,608 men. 1,647 casualties. 334 killed, 1,202 wounded, 101 missing. 45.6%. 1st Brigade: 1,366 men. 768 casualties. 147 killed, 573 wounded, ...
