Comments on: Google Earth and Civil War Battlefields

By: mike d

mike d — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:35:49 +0000

Thats all I do on rainy days is pore over Google Earth on CW sites. Just last night I was checking out Wilson’s Creek and Chicwamogwai. Bull Run is cool too. you can see straight down into the Henry House and also the way the modern turnpike tracks roughly with the Warrenton TP back in the day. the stone bridge is cool too, off of the modern highway just a bit.

WC: 37/06/52/ N, 93/25/00 W
Stone Bridge: 38/49/27 N, 77/30/12 W
the coolest thing about the stone bridge is that you can see two people walking from the parking lot to the bridge. From SPACE! Why is that cool? I dunno, it just is.

Burnside’s bridge, Antietam: 39/27/02 N, 77/43/55 W. Interesting how the Stone Bridge and Burnside’s bridge are both West Longitude 77.

Shiloh however, suffers from a lack of resolution. the Panaramio pix are great (I have Pitts Landing as my desktop wallpaper) but the reso doesnt go down far enough.

Chickamauga visitor’s center: 34/56/24 N, 85/15/35 W

Also interesting is Chattanooga, where unfortunately there are now houses all over around and through the Cracker Line. For that matter theres houses all over Lookout Mtn.

Stone’s River NMBP is surrounded on all sides by industry and residentia lareas. Let’s hope there’s some preservation-minded folks back there: 35/52/49 N, 86/26/04 W.

Ft. Sumter, you can swee rats running around on the grounds its so clear: 32/45/08 N, 79/52/28 W.

Anywho, great, uber cool website.

Aloha till next time

By: Fred Ray

Fred Ray — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:58:11 +0000

Fort Stevens, outside of Washington, is at 38 57′ 66″N , 77 01′ 70″W

By: admin

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:23:00 +0000

Note: I’ve added the link for the answers to the Google Earth Battlefield Quiz as well.

Brett

By: admin

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:26:11 +0000

David,

Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve added a link to your quiz at the bottom of the post.

Brett

By: David Woodbury

David Woodbury — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:45:44 +0000

A little over a year ago I used Google Earth photos of a Civil War battlefields for quiz on my blog. See http://tinyurl.com/34nwdx

Was planning to do another one, but it’s hard to come up with things that aren’t either too easy to identify, or too obscure to identify.

David

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:56:14 +0000

Thanks Brett.
I started “fronting” a lot of the battlefield “tours by markers” on my blog -
http://markerhunter.wordpress.com/battlefields-by-markers/

Probably the best set I’ve done to date covers Antietam:
http://markerhunter.wordpress.com/battlefields-by-markers/antietam-markers/

But I’m working hard to finish out Gettysburg before spring!

Craig.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:41:08 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys. Craig, that is an incredible tool you have! Thanks for letting me know about it.

Jim,

I added links to both of your Google Earth posts from December. I was busy enjoying my new little guy and was pretty absent from the Civil War blogosphere during that time.

By: Jim Beeghley

Jim Beeghley — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:21:56 +0000

Hi Brett,

You might also want to look at: http://blog.teachthecivilwar.com/uncategorized/google-earth-and-the-civil-war/

Jim

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:34:39 +0000

Brett,
Much of the feedback I get at Historical Marker Database references the similar use of the Google APIs to display the locations of historical markers. Our web developer/site owner has done a masterful job in the presentation (but of course I am a little biased!) .

There is a way to export the marker location definitions to Google earth. Importing the appropriate file into Google earth, all the selected marker entries show up on the map.

Or you can do it without downloading Google Earth, just by calling up the map views and toggling to hybrid mode. As we always include a photo of the marker, and most often add photos of the marker’s topic, you’ve got the “poor man’s” version of the Google Earth display, for those bandwidth challenged browsers.

Craig.

By: Jim Rosebrock

Jim Rosebrock — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Brett,
This is great. I live near Antietam and will hook in the Battle of South Mountain sites shortly. Great tool.

Thanks
Jim