Week 3

Today in class we got our soldiers! Mine is named Clemens Tretbar and so far he has been pretty interesting to learn about. Along with our files, we can see a lot of their paper work including things such as a master roll or an increase for pension form. From these forms, we can learn about how long our soldier served for and what kind of injury he sustained which is most important for our project. First, we had to review the files and write down important points from each page that would help us to organize and identify these pages. We had to see when they were published and try and make out the handwriting. It’s a little more difficult to read the handwriting then I thought it would be. It gives a good challenge but even sometimes I have no idea what it says. It makes this process a little more time consuming but it’s definitely worth it once you see all of the interesting facts about each individual. I’m really looking forward to seeing what my peers find out about their soldiers. I want to see if we can compare any facts that would relate our soldiers in any way. Going through each document will take a little bit of time but our next step is to make a list of information our soldier that could pretty much count as a bio. Information such as, hair, age at enlistment, company, enlistment date and place, muster date and place, date of death etc. This will help us identify our soldiers a little bit more so we can get a feel for how their lives really were. Like how historians study the past, we need to be able to place ourselves in their shoes during that time. It gives us a better understanding of what they went through and experienced. I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks finding out more about my solider and working further on this project.

February 7, 2014.     Category: Uncategorized.   No Comments.