Great new Gettysburg Battlefield website
Charles Kann has created a very interesting new website that might be of interest to those Cannonball readers who enjoy contributing to wiki-style sites. Entitled Encounter at Gettysburg, the fledgling website, once completed, should be a very useful resource for battlefield visitors.
Eventually, Kann hopes to have all the major monuments listed, with photographs, background information, and, perhaps of most value, scalable Google maps giving the approximate location of the monument (standard view, satellite view, or hybrid view).
Still in its infancy at this stage, the Encounter at Gettysburg website does have some completed sections that are interesting. For example, go to the Main Page and click the link to "Monument Maps." Look to the menu on the left, where it says "Monuments associated with state(s)." Scroll down in the box and highlight PA. Then click "Get Map." A new screen will appear, with a map depicting the Pennsylvania regimental and state monuments that have so far been listed.
There, you can view a transcription of the monument's inscription, photos (sometimes from multiple sides), and other information, plus links to the eventual Wiki page for each unit and additional photographs. You can also sort by location on the battlefield (or nearby, such as the Imboden cavalry marker at Cashtown) and by type of monument (such as bronze statues). Kann welcomes assistance from the public, but all information uploaded must be factual and all photos assigned to the public domain (as with the usual policies for wikis).
Another particularly interesting view is that of the locations of the individual brigade markers. The Google map is color coded with gray and blue icons depicting the major troop positions.
Take a look, and check back over time as this effort progresses. I applaud you Charles for this massive effort to get this organized and started, and I look forward to seeing the completed wiki site.
