Talk:Van Buren raid/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Ealdgyth (talk · contribs) 23:27, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

Oh, look! An Arkansas Civil War Battle... I wonder who wrote it (snickers). I'll get to this in a day or two. Ealdgyth (talk) 23:27, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (reference section): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

• General:
  • Suggest somewhere laying out a quick description of the geography of the battle area - the river and local mountains have more impact on this battle than some other battlefield locations, so it'd be useful to the reader to have an idea of the layout.
    • I've made an attempt at describing this, although it was hard to find a description of how nasty the Bostons would have been to cross at that time.
• Refs:
  • Not required for GA, but if you're aiming at FAC - need a OCLC or ISBN for Bearss' Fort Smith.
  • Also not required for GA, but for FAC - either use locations for all the books, or none of them (No location for Castel)
    • Added (Lawrence, Kansas)
  • And lastly, again, not required for GA, but for FAC - you want to either link all the publishers or none - I generally lean none (it's just clutter in the references)
    • Added for all except Piston, which doesn't have one (it's affiliated with Missouri State University somehow). When I read articles, I like to evaluate publisher quality by following the links there, so I tend to do that in the ones I write
• Lead:
  • "Beginning the raid on December 27, the Union troops struck at an outlying Confederate cavalry unit near Drippings Springs, north of Van Buren, on the morning of December 28." It may just be me, but I think of beginning the raid as the first attack - maybe "Setting out on December 27, the Union troops struck at an outlying Confederate cavalry unit near Drippings Springs, north of Van Buren, on the morning of December 28."?
    • Done
  • "and the Union returned from the raid, unable to keep a supply line across the Boston Mountains." This is going to be unintelligible to anyone not from Arkansas (or with ancestors from there). I suspect what you mean is that the Union forces couldn't retain control of Van Buren even though they had taken it, becuase they couldn't secure a supply line to Van Buren across the Boston Mountains, but ... it's not clear from the actual sentence in the article that that is the case.
    • I've tried to rephrase this a bit
• Background:
  • "moved most of the Confederate soldiers and supplies in the state of Arkansas east of the Mississippi River, leaving" non-Americans (and sadly, many Americans) won't realize that the Mississippi is the eastern border of ARkansas ... so moving the forces east of the river means moving them out of the state... (okay, technically, I'm sure there are like two or so tiny pockets of Arkansas east of the river because of the river changing it's bed but ... )
    • Clarified
  • "began moving across the Boston Mountains on December" where are these mountains?
    • I've removed the old map and have added an enlarged crop of a Civil War map on Commons that shows more clearly the location of the river and the mountains in relation to everything else. Will try to find a way to work a prose description of the location in as well. Hog Farm _Talk 18:22, 7 May 2022 (UTC)
• Pre-battle:
  • "despite Crump having previously been reprimanded for inattentiveness." feels tacked on but I'm not sure where it would fit better...
    • I've got no idea where else to put it
  • "which was 7 miles (11 km)[18] or 9 miles (14 km)[17][19] north of Van Buren" - okay, can we like use a map for this distance instead of conflicting historians (who, probably didn't consult a map or may be using different standards - direct or by road would be my guess...)
    • I've been trying to find a historical map that shows Dripping Springs and Van Buren, but since Dripping Springs wasn't much of a place and the USGS made their quadrangle boundary line run about halfway between Van Buren and Dripping Springs, I'm not having much luck. The earliest map I can find showing both is from 1947, but by then the Dripping Springs area was apparently known as "Stattler", the bend in the river mentioned in the article had become an oxbow lake, and a railroad had been built through the area. It's so close to Van Buren on the pushpin map that adding it there would just make the map unreadable. Hog Farm _Talk 18:22, 7 May 2022 (UTC)
  • "Holmes visited on December 21" - visited where? Last thing we were discussing was Crump so was the visit to Crump or to Van Buren?
    • Van Buren. Added
  • "forces to Lewisburg, Arkansas, where" ... how far, what direction?
    • I've clarified this in another part of the article. Lewisburg was where Marmaduke had been sent, and the direction/distance is given there so I've mentioned Lewisburg by name there.
  • Is Van Buren on the Arkansas River? (I'm more familiar with the sw corner than the nw corner of Arkansas - family is from the Ouachitas...)
    • Yes, this is covered in the geographic introduction now
  • Bearss says that it was two brigades left behind - but brigades of what? Who does Shea says commanded the forces left behind?
    • Roane's brigade was Texas cavalry. Cooper's is just stated to be Native Americans. Shaler was infantry. Shea doesn't say, the reference in Shea 2009 is just one regiment of Texas cavalry and one brigade of Arkansas infantry. If I had to guess, that's a reference to Crump and Shaler, but I have nothing to back that up. Shea's footnote sheds no light on the matter.
  • "Hindman began to move the sick and any supplies not needed for Roane and Cooper out of Fort Smith on December 23" ... which sounds like we've decided that Shea is wrong and that Bearss is correct that Roane and Cooper were left behind? I suggest instead "Hindman began to move the sick and any supplies not needed by rearguard out of Fort Smith on December 23"
    • Done. On a second reading of Bearss, Roane/Shaler and Cooper were to defend Fort Smith and the Indian Territory, so I've clarified that in the article (which does make more sense as to why Cooper wasn't at Fort Smith during the raid)
  • Okay, so "Hindman began to move the sick and any supplies not needed for Roane and Cooper out of Fort Smith on December 23." but the very next sentence is "The Confederates began withdrawing on December 26" ... which date is correct?
    • I've clarified that it was the main force leaving on December 26 - the supplies and sick would have moved slower than the healthy soldiers, so it makes sense to give them a head start.
• Battle:
  • "On the morning of the 28th, Blunt's cavalry led his force." Uh, didn't cavalry usually lead forces? Perhaps "On the morning of the 28th, Blunt's cavalry was at the head of his forces when a halt was..."
    • Done
  • "One of the Union mountain howitzers fired on the ferry" - ferry in Van Buren or somewhere else? We've just been discussing locations downstream... so this is a bit confusing. If it IS the ferry in Van Buren, suggest beginning a new paragraph here as we're changing subjects back to Van Buren.
    • Clarified that it was the one in Van Buren and have moved the paragraph break
  • "and took three ammunition wagons and 27 wagons " per MOS:NUMNOTES "Comparable values nearby one another should be all spelled out or all in figures, even if one of the numbers would normally be written differently" so either "and took 3 ammunition wagons and 27 wagons" or "and took three ammunition wagons and twenty-seven wagons"
    • Done
  • Suggest "Rose Douglass, Key West, and Frederick Notrebe were returned to Van Buren[42] by the early afternoon.[43]"
    • Done
  • I detest the habit of milhist of using the 24 hour clock for articles on US battles ... frankly, it's just an affectation in my mind - most of your readers are going to assume it's a 12 hour clock for something like "10:00" and wonder if it's am or pm. (mutters) Did the US or Confederate militaries even USE a 24 hour clock in the civil war?
    • It would not have been common at that time; I've switched to am/pm time
  • "When Cloud arrived, the position was held by Tilden's Missouri Battery and part of Hunter's Missouri Infantry Regiment and had been sent there by Frost." Awkward - suggest "When Cloud arrived, the position was held by Tilden's Missouri Battery and part of Hunter's Missouri Infantry Regiment who had been sent there by Frost."
    • Done
• I copy-edited as usual, please make sure it didn't break anything.
• I purposefully reviewed with an eye towards FA, given your comments on your talk page, so be aware that not everything is absolutely required for GA.
• I randomly googled three phrases and only turned up Wikipedia mirrors. Earwig's tool shows no sign of copyright violation.

I've put the article on hold for seven days to allow folks to address the issues I've brought up. Feel free to contact me on my talk page, or here with any concerns, and let me know one of those places when the issues have been addressed. If I may suggest that you strike out, check mark, or otherwise mark the items I've detailed, that will make it possible for me to see what's been addressed, and you can keep track of what's been done and what still needs to be worked on. Ealdgyth (talk) 14:56, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

@Ealdgyth: - Thanks for the review! I've attempt to address all of the concerns. I'm surprised it already was showing in mirrors; I had to do a 100% word-for-word rewrite because the prior author had some copyvio issues. Hog Farm _Talk 19:33, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Those changes look good, passing this now. Ealdgyth (talk) 13:28, 10 May 2022 (UTC)