I was unable to meet up with the group on Wednesday because of a prior commitment, but I was able to talk to the group and begin work on my portion of the project. At this point I believe that I will primarily be working on the map of the Sabine Pass site.
To do this part I have begun looking at maps and accounts of the battle trying to determine what actually happened, so that we can accurately chart the movements of Dick Dowling and the Davis Guards. I have begun looking at military history books in an attempt to find the best description of the battle. Also I have taken the steps to acquire topo-maps and navigational charts of the battle site so that we can get an accurate image of the geography of the battle site.
I believe that we still need to find finalized direction for the project, but we have a concrete start. Also I still need to go to the library and become familiar with the ArcGIS software. I think that the next time we meet all of the little things will get resolved and we will have a clear direction for the project.
That’s great! Maps of the battle have been done before, but we have the opportunity to create a more interactive one. If possible, I think it would be really cool to do an animation of the battle, showing where the ships were, how they behaved, when they turned and left or how they were captured, etc. According to the assistant at the GIS center, the older animation software for the program is quite complicated, but she said newer versions have come out which are easier to use. I think the next time we go down there as a group, we should look into it. Or if you guys want, I can look into it on my own. Since apparently I’m the most computer-literate person in the group 😛 Well, I have worked with Flash before… it might be similar in some ways. I would be happy to take on the animation portion of the project, but first I need to see if it’s something I feel I can realistically handle. If you want, I can ask for an introduction to the animation aspect of the program and make that my mission, or one of my missions, for the coming week.
Ross, if you want to go down to the GIS center on your own, we’ve already set up a group folder for HIST 246, so be sure to tell one of the assistants you’re with us.
Sounds like exactly what I was thinking too. All of the maps of the battle I have found are very crude at this point so a map that is anamated map or a map with a few layers would be great.
That’s great you’ve been able to find some maps of the battle (even if they are crude). I had a difficult time tracking down descriptions of the battle. Topo-maps and navigational charts of the area should be useful too. I think making an animated/interactive map is a great idea if possible, but I suppose it will depend on how hard using the animation software actually ends up being. If it’s too difficult, we may have to settle for a slightly simpler depiction of the battle.
I like what is happening with the ideas for Sabine Pass. This website: http://www.theartofbattle.com/ has much of the same ideas: to animate a battle. While I think his use of Powerpoints to illustrate is a bit below our level, the idea of narrating the battle and showing troop movements is cool and something we should definitely try to include in our Sabine Map. Instead of blank green screens. Perhaps we can overlay the animation on a satellite map?
The idea of an animated map of the battle sounds cool, but I foresee some potential technical difficulties: (1) getting precise geographical coordinates for things like the fort and the ships’ location, which I presume you would need to have to use the ArcGIS animation; (2) figuring out the timing of movements and scaling those down for purposes of the animation–for example, how many seconds in the animation would translate into minutes of the battle?
If you decide to stick with doing an animation of the battle, probably the most useful resource for you will be Cotham’s book on Sabine Pass which is on reserve at Fondren and gives a detailed narrative of the battle. But one larger question I would pose is why, as you group, you think providing such an animation would be valuable. That something hasn’t been done before isn’t necessarily a reason why it should be done. That isn’t to say I think it’s a bad idea, but I do want to push you to articulate why it’s worth doing–what would you hope to show by providing the animation that someone couldn’t get from the other, static maps or descriptions of the battle? Before you finalize anything, these are questions you’ll need to discuss and come to some consensus about.
If the animation tools in ArcGIS interest you, you might also consider how else it might be applied in your project. What other geographical elements of Dowling’s story have “changed over time” and how might you be able to visualize that with an animation?
I should have clarified that if you go with Courtney’s idea of doing a Flash animation, then you would not necessarily have to have precise geodata about the positions of the ships. So there could be ways to do an animated map of the battle if you all decide that’s important for the mission of the group. As my last comment and my post emphasizes, though, your decision should be driven in large part by your more general decisions about what you want your maps to communicate.