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The American civil war then and now – interactive

41 points by yitchelle 11y ago

kissickas 11y ago
Great content, but the auto-change on scroll was annoying. They should have at least implemented a small delay. Anyone know why the trees at Antietam Dunker's Church appear to have shrunk? Or is that just a trick of the lens? I find the trees to be the most interesting part of these comparisons. The Brompton oak is beautiful.
- jbattle 11y ago
  They are almost certainly new trees - the originals having been cut down in the decades after the battle. I'm not sure when the programs started, but I know a lot of the battlefields have been intentionally restoring tree lines to their original appearance at many of the battlefields - although this is of course going to be a decades-long process.
- projectileboy 11y ago
  They were all cut down over time, and then replaced. There is relatively little old-growth forest in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_old-growth_forests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_old-growth_forests
rcarrigan87 11y ago
This is really well done. I only wish they had a little more historical explanation to go with each photo. I'm not sure if it was the Guardian, but there was a WWII article where they did a similar photo overlay effect. I can't find it. Anyone remember this?
- ptaipale 11y ago
  I suppose you mean this one from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/06/scenes-from-d-day-then-and-now/100752/ http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/06/scenes-from-d-day-t...
Lorento 11y ago
History really distorts things. Do we have to wait 200 years to see fights with ISIS in a similar "noble tragedy" kind of light, where there are no clear baddies and nobody's assigned blame for the killings? Maybe some of those dead people were "baddies" fighting for something we don't believe in anymore? In that case, surely we should be celebrating the fact that they died. If not, then maybe we should be complaining about the violent people who killed them? It's not a natural disaster where nobody wants it to happen. Soldiers actively fought for some purpose or other that we presumably either accept or not today.
- fennecfoxen 11y ago
  In the case of the American Civil War, we have ample context in these times to hold nuanced understandings of the matter. The Confederate army was comprised of men, many of whom died defending their homeland from what they perceived to be the aggression of an imperialistic outside force determined to impose an alien set of values on their society, obliterating their capacity for self-determination. The sad fact that these men were commonly quite racist and supported the oppression other human beings (the slaves) does not erase that, and does not mean their deaths met in war were a form of high Justice. We have been gifted with a powerful legacy, the triumph of the Union and the cause of freedom, and it would be an abuse of that legacy to trivialize the matter. Instead, if we choose to invest the death of one of an enlisted Confederate army private with dignity and respect, one of the "baddies", we are exercising the same respect for our common humanity that impelled our forefathers to sacrifice their lives lifting the slaves out of slavery to begin with.
  - joshuapants 11y ago
    Well said, thank you.
  - Frondo 11y ago
    I'm unwilling to separate out "they were defending their values" from "their values included chattel slavery". I find nothing noble in holding values dear that are so wrong.

41 points by yitchelle 11y ago

Great content, but the auto-change on scroll was annoying. They should have at least implemented a small delay. Anyone know why the trees at Antietam Dunker's Church appear to have shrunk? Or is that just a trick of the lens? I find the trees to be the most interesting part of these comparisons. The Brompton oak is beautiful.

jbattle 11y ago
They are almost certainly new trees - the originals having been cut down in the decades after the battle. I'm not sure when the programs started, but I know a lot of the battlefields have been intentionally restoring tree lines to their original appearance at many of the battlefields - although this is of course going to be a decades-long process.
projectileboy 11y ago
They were all cut down over time, and then replaced. There is relatively little old-growth forest in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_old-growth_forests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_old-growth_forests

rcarrigan87 11y ago

This is really well done. I only wish they had a little more historical explanation to go with each photo. I'm not sure if it was the Guardian, but there was a WWII article where they did a similar photo overlay effect. I can't find it. Anyone remember this?

ptaipale 11y ago
I suppose you mean this one from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/06/scenes-from-d-day-then-and-now/100752/ http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/06/scenes-from-d-day-t...

Lorento 11y ago

History really distorts things. Do we have to wait 200 years to see fights with ISIS in a similar "noble tragedy" kind of light, where there are no clear baddies and nobody's assigned blame for the killings? Maybe some of those dead people were "baddies" fighting for something we don't believe in anymore? In that case, surely we should be celebrating the fact that they died. If not, then maybe we should be complaining about the violent people who killed them? It's not a natural disaster where nobody wants it to happen. Soldiers actively fought for some purpose or other that we presumably either accept or not today.

fennecfoxen 11y ago
In the case of the American Civil War, we have ample context in these times to hold nuanced understandings of the matter. The Confederate army was comprised of men, many of whom died defending their homeland from what they perceived to be the aggression of an imperialistic outside force determined to impose an alien set of values on their society, obliterating their capacity for self-determination. The sad fact that these men were commonly quite racist and supported the oppression other human beings (the slaves) does not erase that, and does not mean their deaths met in war were a form of high Justice. We have been gifted with a powerful legacy, the triumph of the Union and the cause of freedom, and it would be an abuse of that legacy to trivialize the matter. Instead, if we choose to invest the death of one of an enlisted Confederate army private with dignity and respect, one of the "baddies", we are exercising the same respect for our common humanity that impelled our forefathers to sacrifice their lives lifting the slaves out of slavery to begin with.
- joshuapants 11y ago
  Well said, thank you.
- Frondo 11y ago
  I'm unwilling to separate out "they were defending their values" from "their values included chattel slavery". I find nothing noble in holding values dear that are so wrong.