behind AotW

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

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.

Writing previously on this subject, I worried about a soldier’s wartime letter disappearing into a private collection, never to be seen again. That was as nothing compared to what I found online today. Oh how I wish now I’d gone for the money instead of personal satisfaction and life-balance in my career choices.

Cowan Auctions is selling a mass of Americana on November 16th. There are some truly magnificent finds for the student of the American Civil War listed in the catalog. This looks like a wide array of archives and artifacts.

I’d be overjoyed if collectors of historical ephemera would publish online, or loan to museums, or at least make scans or transcriptions of their treasures available to the rest of us. In the meantime, I’m snatching digital samples related to Antietam and the Campaign as they go by.

After a little more research, I expect to use some of this material on AotW:

W.W. Blackmar

I have a special fascination with Medal of Honor recipients. One I’d not previously associated with the Maryland Campaign is Captain Wilmon Whilldin Blackmar of Boston. That’s him above, from a gilt-framed CDV, part of Lot 232 (est. $3,000-4,000). Blackmar

… enlisted as Corporal in Company K, 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry in August 1862. The novice regiment participated in the Maryland campaign before transferring west to join the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 …

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No more fooling with theory and generalities. Its time to get started with your new web project. How better to learn?

Off we go, then.

We’ll start with a very simple, single-page project. We’ll get the development server up and running and use it to demonstrate how the XHTML, PHP, and database components work together, in more concrete terms. This will not, I hope, turn into an extended tutorial, there are plenty of those already out there, but this will give you a starting point for noodling around on your own.

Step 1: Install the XAMPP package on your home PC

Download the basic package – the 33 MB Installer [MD5] version. Ignore the Devel and Upgrade packages, and the Add-Ons. Do the full installation, and say “yes” to all the defaults. This will only take a few minutes. When finished, the following structure, very similar to that which you’ll use on your hosting service’s box, will be in place: