Ove the last three years the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College has been compiling the life stories of men killed at Gettysburg in 1863. You can access the Killed at Gettysburg project here. The Civil War Institute describes the soldier profiles:
Researched and written by students of Gettysburg College, these soldier profiles address a cross-section of soldiers killed or mortally wounded in the battle of Gettysburg whose lives—and deaths—speak to broader themes and questions about the Civil War era as a whole—soldier motivation, evolving political ideologies, military leadership, Civil War medicine, ethnicity, Victorian notions of death, religion, and gender, memory, and commemorative monumentation, to name a few. Students have culled through compiled service records, widows’ pensions, census records, period newspapers, and extensive secondary scholarship to gain insight into the experiences and worldviews of their specific soldier within the broader context of 19th-century politics, society, and culture.
Each soldier’s story unfolds in three parts: Section one explores the soldier’s community and home life on the eve of the war, as well as the soldier’s reasons for fighting. Part two explores the soldier’s wartime experiences leading up to July of 1863 and at the battle of Gettysburg itself. The third section chronicles the impacts of the soldier’s death upon his comrades, family, and community at home, as well as the enduring legacy and memory of his sacrifice as represented in the commemorative landscape of the Gettysburg battlefield. Viewers can also choose to trace each soldier’s final footsteps in battle by following his journey across the Gettysburg landscape through an interactive and interpretive StoryMap.
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