“Resurrecting Lost Voices: DIY Digital Archiving” PowerPoint Presentation

Resurrecting Lost Voices
The George W. Gould Story
D.I.Y. Digital Archiving
Stan Prager, M.A. Public History

Dear Mother …
I received your letter of the twenty-third and was very glad to
hear from you and to hear that you were all well but Father I am
sorry to hear that he is sick but it is the common lot of man here
below and I think the more we suffer in sickness and affliction
will better fit us for that world to which we are all hastening if we
only make the right use of it. Life is short at the longest and we
ought so to live as to be prepared for death at any time for we
know not what a day may bring forth we are admonished of the
uncertainty of life every day one after annother [sic] of our
friends pass away and their places are left vacant never more to
[be] filled on earth . . . George W. Gould
www.resurrectinglostvoices.com

Who Was George W. Gould?
 George W. Gould was a private from Leicester MA in the
Massachusetts 25th Volunteers
 Gould was killed at the bloody Battle of Cold Harbor in 1864
 Letters of George W. Gould belonging to graduate student
Morgan Kolakowski loaned to Stan Prager for this project

Who Was George W. Gould?
Part II George W. Gould was born in Providence RI in 1832, and later moved to Leicester MA. A twenty-nine year old laborer, said to be 5’ 5 ½”
tall with light brown hair, blue eyes, and a light complexion, on July 10, 1862, he was paid a $125 bounty and enlisted as a Private in
Company F of the Massachusetts 25th Volunteers to fight for the Union, leaving his young wife Almira (“Mira”) and their three young
children Ada, Cora and Clarra Etta at home. His wife died of typhoid fever while he was deployed. He came home on furlough when he re-
enlisted on January 18, 1864, then returned to the front lines where he participated in Grant’s Overland Campaign against Robert E. Lee’s
Army of Northern Virginia, and lost his life in the fierce fighting at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.
 George W. Gould initially traveled by ship to New Bern, North Carolina, which had at that time recently fallen to Union forces. The
painting below, sourced from the Library of Congress, depicts Camp Oliver at New Bern.
 Stan Prager coincidentally read the first of the George W. Gould letters shortly after returning from a visit to the battlefield at New Bern in
the vicinity of where George had been stationed. The letters moved him to create a website honoring his memory.

Letter 101
Dear Mother:
Having received your letter & one from George on the same day, which was the 11th,
I will answer it, so you may know how & where he is, he wrote the 4 the same day
he got to Newburn [sic] he says they had a pleasant voyage they started from N.Y.
the 31st of July & got there the 4 he was very sea sick until the last day, they had
pretty hard fair [sic] on their passage, when they got to Cape Hatteras, they bought
there on board a lot of magetty [sic] crackers, which was all they had to eat for one
day & night but when they got into camp they had a good breakfast, he was in a
rebel tent, one captured when the place was taken, he was well then but very tired. –
Letter from Almira Gould to George Gould’s mother, August 13, 1862 ,
Worcester MA

Letter 102
Dear Mother:
There is not much news stirring here just now everything is quiet
in this department though there is stirring times in the army of
the Potomac I do wish this thing was played out but I don’t see
as it is any nearer to an end than it was one year ago but I haint
got but seventeen months longer to stay so you see my time is
most out.
– Letter from George Gould to his mother, May 14,
1863, Camp Oliver, New Bern NC

Letter 103
Dear Mother:
I see by the papers that they have had some pretty bloody work at the north
on account of this draft I am sorry to see there is not patriotism enough there
to help sustain the union I should have thought that the late victories would
have sent a thrill of joy to the hearts of the people there and they would have
been willing to turn out to a man and helped to close up this war but there is
too many copperheads there for that I see is just the worst time they could take
to rise if it had been when our side was being defeated I should not thought
strange of it but we must take things as they come but they may as well yield
for they will have to the government of the United States has got to be
sustained and the time has come when we got a government or else there is not
halfway work about it, every man refuses to do this at this time is a traitor to
his country and ought to be branded as such. – Letter from George
Gould to his mother, July 30, 1863, Camp Pickett, near
Washington D.C.

Letter 104
Dear Mother:
I received your last letter and was very glad to hear from you and should have
written to you before but have not felt able my health is very poor and has been
this two months I have this fever and ague and it takes a fellow down pretty well
I got better and went on duty a few days and was taken down again and am
now on the sick list where I intend to stay until I am well enough to go on duty.
– Letter from George Gould to his mother, September 11, 1863,
Camp Pickett, near Washington D.C.

Letter 105
Dear Mother:
You have probably received my letter informing you of the death of Mira she was
taken sick the twenty seventh of August and died the 23rd of Sept. she was taken
very violently at first and did not sit up any after the first day her Mother was with
her all the time and they wrote me she seemed reconciled to the will of God and
expressed her willingness to die if it was His will. It is now about three weeks since
she died and I can’t realize that I shall see her no more but if I should live to get
home and see the vacant chair and the three little motherless children I shall then
realize my great loss – Letter from George Gould to his mother, October
12, 1863, Camp Pickett, near Washington D.C.

Letter 106
Dear Mother:
I had a letter from Leicester the other day they wrote the
children were all well then Ada and Etta were going to school
and Cora was as happy as could be they all seem to be
contented they wrote that Ada seemed to feel the loss of her
mother as much as any child of her age but they are hardly old
enough any of them to realize the great loss they have met with
they are well provided for at the present it was Mira wish that
her Mother should take care of them until I got back and Mr.
Mead kindly offered to have them come and I thought it would
be better to have them all together I can’t bear the thought of
their being separated . . . – Letter from George Gould to
his mother, November 3, 1863, Newport News VA

Letter 107
Dear Mother:
I guess I will tell you how we live here we have little A tents as
they are called about 10 [??] feet long and 8 feet wide with a
stockade about three feet high then we have three bunks built, two
large enough for two in each and the other just wide enough for one
the two wide ones go cross way and the other runs length ways at
the foot then we have a stove and wood in the other corner and we
have a space in front of a foot and a half for five of us to get
round in so you can see we have to be pretty good natured I forgot
to mention five guns and equipments [sic] that takes a conspicuous
place in front. There is three of us writing to night one is out on
guard and the other lays here asleep one of them has just sat down
in a bottle of ink and tiped [sic] it over and got his seat slightly
marked. – Letter from George Gould to his mother,
December 13, 1863, Newport News VA

Letter 108
Dear Sister:
I have got the blues to night and I’ve had them these two or
three days the reenlisting is going on pretty lively out here and I
am half a mind to go in a second time by so doing I can get a
furlough home of thirty days and what to do I don’t know I
want to come home bad enough but then three years after sticks
rather hard whether I can swallow it or not a few more days
will decide for if it is done at all it has to be done between now
and the fifth of next month so perhaps the next time you hear
from me I may be a veteran volunteer and I may not I can’t tell
tonight that is certain. – Letter from George Gould to
his sister, December 29, 1863, Newport News VA

Letter 109
Dear Brother:
In the first place have you given your heart to God and do you trust to Him
for guidance and eternal life if so then you are prepared to enter upon [sic]
the new year with joy and whatever happens it will be a happy new year to
you but if on the other hand you care for none of these things then are you
wretched indeed. It is just six years ago tomorrow since I experienced
religion and though I have not always lived as I ought to yet I can say that
they have been the happiest years of my life and I can say my dear Brother
that you will never regret it if you will only give your heart to God. then let
sickness or death come you will be happy if it had not been for that I should
have been the most miserable of all beings but that has sustained me to all
my trials and afflictions and I can look forward with the eye of faith to the
time when I shall be reunited with her that is gone before. – Letter from
George Gould to his brother, December 31, 1863, Newport
News VA

Letter 110
Dear Sister:
I received your letter yesterday and was glad to hear from you once more but am sorry to hear
that Mother is still sick though I hope she is a good deal better now. My health is very good now
and I have reenlisted for the term of three years longer unless sooner discharged and expect to
start for home tomorrow or next day and I shall make my appearance before you at no distant
day and then I will give you my reasons for the course I have taken till then good bye. Please give
my love to Father and Mother and Brothers and receive a large share yourself. Please excuse
haste and tell Mother she must make haste and get well by the time I get home but I must close
hoping this will find you all much better I remain your affectionate Brother, G. W. Gould –
Letter from George Gould to his sister, February 8, 1864, Newport News VA

Letter 111
Dear Mother:
We started from Boston last Wednesday noon and arrived at this place last Saturday
night about 6 oclock pretty well tired out and today is the first time we have had
shelter that is all of us there being but eight tents for some 75 men some laid out
doors and others staid [sic] at the Cavalry quarters I among the rest so I got along
very well only the weather is very cold and disagreeable. We have just had orders to
be ready for a march at a minutes notice with one hundred rounds of cartridges but
where we are going I don’t know but such is the fortunes of war. – Letter from
George Gould to his mother, March 29, 1864, Camp Wellington, near
Portsmouth VA

Letter 112
Dear Mother:
I have been in three engagements where the shots and shells blew pretty fast we have
lost quite a number in killed and wounded there have been two killed and a number
wounded in our company . . . When I look forward to the future and think where
this will all end it looks dark and gloomy and God only knows whether my life will
be spared to ever return I sometimes think I have seen my children for the last time
on earth and you all but remember there is a better land above where I hope to meet
you all. it seems hard to leave my little ones to the cold charities of the world but I
trust God will raise up friends that will protect them and in that belief I commend
them to the care of the Almighty God and resign myself to his will. – Letter from
George Gould to his mother, May 15, 1864, no location specified

Letter 113
Dear Mrs. Gould:
I have sad news for you. Your son George W. Gould was
killed and left on the battlefield during a furious charge on a
rebel work yesterday morning. We were repulsed & it was
impossible to bring his body off of the field. The enclosed diary
was in his breast pocket &it tells where the ball hit him. He
was a good soldier always doing his duty. You have the
consolation that he was a christian soldier too & has only gone
before. The diary was taken from his pocket by Sgt. Spalding
of Co. F Yours with a brother Soldiers Sympathy – Letter
to George Gould’s mother from John Simonds,
Commissary Sergeant, June 4th 1864, In the field near
Gains Mills

Who Was George W. Gould? Part III
 George W. Gould was thirty-one years old when he was killed at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.
 The 25th Massachusetts suffered a staggering 69% casualty toll that day: 215 men fell out of 310 on the field and 74 of those died,
including George Gould. The photograph below depicts Union remains at Cold Harbor.
 Stan Prager was so touched by reading this small handful of letters by George W. Gould – someone who died fighting for the
preservation of the Union nearly a century before he was born – that he determined to share them. Resurrecting lost voices like these
includes an obligation to let many others hear them. And George’s letters, although only a tiny microcosm of the Civil War experience,
represent for us a very critical one, especially because he was such an ordinary man and like many ordinary Americans sacrificed their
lives for the United States. I launched this website in his honor on Memorial Day 2016, nearly 152 years after his death.

Who Was George W. Gould? Part IV
 The body of George W. Gould was disinterred and returned to
Massachusetts, where he was buried with Almira in Paxton MA. His
children were left orphans.
 Ada L. Gould (1855-1872) died at seventeen years old, most likely in a
Worcester orphanage, and was buried near her parent’s grave.
 Cora M. Gould (1859-1897) was raised by the executer of her father’s
estate, George S. Bond. Her second marriage was to James McKinstry, a
fellow soldier who appears to have served in the Mass 25th along with her
father. She survived him only a short time and died at thirty-eight years
old. She and McKinstry were buried at the Bond family plot in Leicester.
 Clarra Etta Gould (1857-1920), whom George called Etta, was adopted by
Charles & Sarah Hatch and renamed Nellie Elizabeth Hatch. She married
Stillman Moulton and died his widow, at sixty-two years old, and was
buried with him in Worcester. Like her sisters, she left no children so there
are no direct descendants of George W. Gould to share these letters with.
 Still, the long lost voice of George W. Gould has been resurrected
through this website!

D.I.Y Digital Archiving
The Process …
Scanning: Careful document handling while digitizing
Storing: Dropbox
Reading: iPad
Transcribing: OCR or Voice Recognition or Typing
Researching: Online and On Foot
Sharing: Website Creation

Scanning
A quality scanner is essential: Mine is the Epson GT-1500
Letters were scanned to PDF format

Storing
Uploading to cloud storage with services like Dropbox permit you to access your work
anywhere from multiple devices and even share with other researchers.

Reading
iPad or other tablet works well for
reading and examining scans
iPad, shown on copy stand here, makes
reading portable and comfortable

Transcribing: OCR
For typed documents, Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) software can
transcribe for you, with limitations
ABBYY Finereader is very powerful
OCR software that sends the finished
product to Word or to PDF format

Transcribing: Voice Recognition
Letters in cursive do not work with OCR.
Dragon voice recognition software is an
alternative to typing, with limitations
Wearing headset, with PDF open on iPad
on copy stand, or split-screen on PC, you
dictate & Dragon transcribes into Word

Transcribing: Proofreading
Proofreading is essential whether you use
OCR or voice recognition. Do not trust
technological results to be 100%
Use [SIC] to designate spelling errors
from the original document, [brackets
are also useful for explanatory notes]

Research: Online & On Foot I
Online: the web has revolutionized
research. I utilized an online database to
locate George W. Gould’s grave
On foot: I then drove to Center
Cemetery in Paxton MA & photographed
his grave and those of his relatives.

Research: Online & On Foot II
Online: Inquiry on Facebook to G.A.R.
for City of Worcester located a plaque in
Leicester MA memorializing Gould
On foot: I then drove to the Leicester
Town Hall & photographed this plaque
which was once housed in a G.A.R. Hall

Sharing: Website Creation I
WordPress is an excellent option for
creating a free web page for sharing your
research for public access
Premium sites are $99/annually, are rich
with additional features and permit you
to link site with a unique purchased URL

Sharing: Website Creation II
All kinds of content
can be added, including
art, photos, PDFs, links
and embedded videos. It
is easy to create separate
pages and to index these.
A website is always a
work-in-progress. It can
and should be edited and
updated with new data,
content and analysis.
Share link to your site
with other researchers. Adding a “Blog” can enhance your site

Sharing: Website Creation III
WordPress includes the facility to track the visitors
to your website by geography, source and specific
pages visited by day, week and month. Visitors can
also “like” your site, comment and contact you
with additional information. Social networking
links can also be added, as well as a variety of
widgets and other enhancements. Caution: don’t
make your site too “busy” with flashy components.
Keep it clean and simple and highlight your
content. Share your site by email, on social
networking, on academic webpages and anywhere
that will encourage more visitors with research
similar to your own. If you are lucky, you will
obtain new information on your subject from
visitors that you attract.

About the Author
 Stan Prager has spent a lifetime studying history and much of his
professional life in the technology arena. Stan’s current focus is on the
marriage of history and technology. Stan has an online profile at
www.stanprager.com
 Stan has a M.A. Public History from APUS, with a focus upon digitization
 Stan is owner and president of GoGeeks Computer Rescue, a computer
services company in East Longmeadow. More info at www.gogeeks.com
 Stan also launched a new venture, Digital Archive Solutions, to offer
onsite grant-friendly digital archiving services tailored to small institutions
that lack the requisite resources to facilitate their own digitization goals.
More info at www.digitalarchivesolutions.org
 Stan serves as technology consultant and appears weekly on a “Tech Tips”
segment on Western Mass News television
 Stan authors a book blog of reviews & essays at www.regarp.com
 Stan plans to continue to research and augment the materials at

Special thanks to Morgan Kolakowski for sharing the letters of George W. Gould
Stan Prager, M.A. Public History

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