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- Dec 28, 2008
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- Pennsylvania
Just having posted in the Snyder/Slyder farm thread about how I remembered the difference between the two (The Slyder farm slid off of Big Round Top.) made me wonder how everyone else here "learned" the names of people and places on battlefields, and in the Civil War in general.
I tend to use mnemonic devices in my life for many different things--my mother is very smart but very forgetful and has always used them herself, and she taught me.
When it comes to the CW, it's especially handy, I think. I have learned dozens of names using it, at least to start: I picture a man in a general's uniform lounging on a couch (Darius Couch), two goats who are blacksmiths standing next to one another in a battle ("Extra Billy" Smith), and a man standing under the Gateway Arch with his toupee falling off (Louis T. Wigfall). Those are just a few. Eventually, as I learn more about each person or place, I don't need the extra help anymore, but until then, it's fun to do--and for me it works!
I tend to use mnemonic devices in my life for many different things--my mother is very smart but very forgetful and has always used them herself, and she taught me.
When it comes to the CW, it's especially handy, I think. I have learned dozens of names using it, at least to start: I picture a man in a general's uniform lounging on a couch (Darius Couch), two goats who are blacksmiths standing next to one another in a battle ("Extra Billy" Smith), and a man standing under the Gateway Arch with his toupee falling off (Louis T. Wigfall). Those are just a few. Eventually, as I learn more about each person or place, I don't need the extra help anymore, but until then, it's fun to do--and for me it works!
Bringing the