Experiences while mapping

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Preview of my map

Although my experiences with mapping were very frustrating, I cannot deny that mapping is indeed very useful. For starters, as Bodenhamer mentioned in his article mapping provides for an “unparalleled ability to manage and visualize data within a spatial context,” and I whole-heartedly agree with this statement (17). Mapping can also allow for the researcher to make connections and observations, that could not have otherwise been made through the text.

For example, my classmates and I used ArcGIS in order to tell a story through James Merrill Linn’s diary entries. Through this exercise, I now have a much better understanding of Linn’s participation in the Civil War and his whereabouts. Through merely reading the diary entry, it is hard to understand and visualize where exactly Linn is topographically. The maps allowed me to learn that the terrain that Linn and the first brigade was marching through during the Battle at Roanoke was swamps. Linn does not mention swamps specifically in my diary entry, however, by collaborating with my classmate Sam and taking a look at his map I can hypothesize that this is the case. I can come to this conclusion because my map shows both General Reno’s first brigade and General Foster’s second brigade marching towards an area that is a swamp on Sam’s map. Additionally, I was able to learn of James’ Meriil Linn’s participation in the war since General Reno is James Merrill Linn’s commander, I think it is safe to assume that Linn is a part of this second brigade.

Secondly, as Bodenhamer mentioned, “GIS provides a way to manage, relate, and query events, as well as to visualize them” (21). This is definitely a true statement, as I was able to tell a story through10808098_10152962550098777_821413876_n my map. More specifically, on Sunday February 9th, Linn discusses in his diary entry going to see three forts. However, through his readings it is impossible for the reader to know which specific forts he is referring to. The one thing Linn does mention about each fort is how many guns is at each fort. Through this little bit of information, and with the help of the map, I was able to discover Linn’s path and which forts he visited on this day. I was able to do so because one of the maps had both the names of the forts and guns listed. I was able to connect how many guns mentioned in his diary to the number mentioned on the map to discover that Linn started south at Fort Bartow, then worked his way north to Fort Blanchard, and ended at Fort Huger. I would not have been able to make these connections without the help of mapping. I also liked the map notes feature of ArcGIS which allows us to attach notes to a point, path, etc. that we made. The map notes allows us to give the public evidence of our work. Overall, mapping provided me with an image that allows me to clearly visualize and better understand Linn’s journey.

Although there are many benefits that can come about from mapping, there are also many downfalls that I came across while using ArcGIS. While using ArcGIS I found myself questioning its reliability several times. When first working with ArcGIS, I was looking into battles that the north won during the Civil War in the year 1862. I was intrigued and began looking into the details of this war that ArcGIS provided. However, I was saddened when a lot of the statistics read -0.99. I remember specifically this was the number that appeared next to causalities. This does not make sense as a statistic, and when I asked one of my professors, they responded that this is the number that appears when the website does not know the statistic. I normally would not have had too much of an issue with this, but the website does not allow for the user to change the number. Therefore, even if I discover the correct number by doing research, there is no way for me to input that information which I find very frustrating. These observations also goes along with Bodenhamer’s argument that “the precision that is necessary for statistical work does not admit readily the sort of evidence used by most humanists” (20). Another issue I found relating to reliability was that on three different maps Fort Huger appeared in different places. These specific instances made me question in what other ways ArcGIS might also be unreliable.

Despite these downfalls, I definitely think that mapping can be used to help visualize and manage events in a spatial medium. I personally learned a lot about Linn through mapping his experiences, and I think mapping can also benefit others in similar ways for other projects.

This is the link to my mapping project: http://bit.ly/1BNvkrf