GDG- Timeline Problem

[John Leo]

Subject: Timelines

HI Folks,

         I've read with great interest the posts regarding
the creation of a believable timeline. I started to
create such a database 10 years ago and found the
work increasingly impossible. I had the opportunity
to discuss the timeline problems with Tom DeJardin
just as he was starting work on the Day 1 map for the
Friends organization. He was quite convinced that a
believable timeline for the battle was impossible
to recreate. The trustable data simply wasn't there.
Worse still, some might rely on a proposed timeline
and read into it "facts" that were actually guesses,
thereby having hundreds of researchers going off
onto wild goose chases. I seem to recall that the
duration of the Confederate canonade on the 3rd
varies from 30 minutes to 3 hours, a factor of 6!

         The best that seems to be honestly and beleivably
possible is to sequentially relate one event to another.
Only a few factors such as daily temperatures and sunsets
and moon rises are relatively well known.

         I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but consider
the timeline carefully before you put months of work into
solving, what I believe, is an impossible problem for all time.

Take Care,

John Leo
ble