About Our Research
With the new historical concern of identifying and naming Civil War soliders, Group Two has been focused upon building a digital story about a common Civil War soldier. Our selected soldier, Numa Barned, made his mark on the war through service, injury and disability. Understanding his war experiences forged our ability to move forward at the National Archives to begin compiling his military and pension records.
While each of these items may have the perspective of that person who wrote the documents, when we saw his written name as part of the graffiti at Blenheim House (Fairfax, VA), this personalized Barned for us. All of a sudden it was not an agent's point of view rather his signature signature was the symbol of recognition. A validation of his existence in the maelstrom of war. From this foundation, we looked at his documents, scanned them, as well as touched them at the National Archives. These items made him permenant in conjunction with his signature (graffiti). The above photograph shows the group with a single focus to complete compiling primary source documents from which the digital story will be written by us. The National Building Museum gave perspective to how Barned's service records may have been processed. This building was called the U.S. Pension House in the late 1800's. And, seeing J.E. Taylor's office at the building gave meaning to his signature on Barned's pension requests.
The field trip to Gettysburg further personalized Barned having found his name on the backside of the Pennsylvania monument. As part of the exhibit is another photo of us sharing the experience of having found found Barned listed as a Private with his Regiment 73, Company B. Though his first name was spelled inaccurately, it did not take away from the experience of now knowing a complete stranger. Indeed, being able to read about the physical characteristics of our Civil War soldier provided an individualized visualization from which we could map his service locations in the Civil War, apply his service records, and consider his post-life life as a whole person, an ancestor to future generations. Each written area a story within a story; the camera shots a worm's eye view to the complete past story.
Using these resources provided us with fodder to interprete how this soldier lived his life. "Seeing through the image" (Dr. Bonner) let us consider Barned's vantage point, his "eyewitness" as provided through the service records. a vignette into cultural practices of Barned as through his post-war life. So that knowing his reginmental history and seeing his name listed as part of an identified group of soliders gave us the ability to honor him as a hero soldier through digital storytelling.