Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Marmaduke–Walker duel/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Buidhe via FACBot (talk) 8 February 2022 [1].


Nominator(s): Hog Farm Talk 18:40, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Two Confederate generals begin to dislike each other after the botched attacks at Helena, Arkansas. Things boil over during the Union advance on Little Rock, and the two eventually decide to hold an illegal duel. Both show up despite being ordered to stay in camp, and Walker is mortally wounded. Marmaduke is briefly arrested, but is released and suffers no long-term consequences, becoming Governor of Missouri after the war. Hog Farm Talk 18:40, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Source review - pass

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Further to my source review at ACR, the sources used all appear to me to be reliable. I am unable to find any other sources which would materially add to the content of the article. The sources referred to seem to support the text cited, insofar as I have checked them. I found no unattributed close paraphrasing. I consider the sources to be current, as these things go. Everything that I would expect to be cited, is. Gog the Mild (talk) 19:59, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Support from Gog the Mild

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Recusing to review. I looked at this at ACR, but let's see what else I can find to pick at. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:30, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

  • "until he resigned to join the Confederate States Army after the Battle of Boonville". Is it known when this was?
    • Not finding a good resignation date for Marmaduke, so I've specified when the battle was fought
  • "for seniority purposes". I suspect that many readers are not going to know what that means without assistance. I realise that there is a footnote later in the article.
    • I've moved the footnote up to here. Does that help? I'm not really sure how to explain this
  • Is the Battle of Farmington really referred to as "the Battle of Farmington, Mississippi"?
    • I was attempting to distinguish this from the Battle of Farmington, Tennessee, but the source (Warner) just refers to it as the Battle of Farmington here, so I've piped the link to remove the Mississippi
  • "During the attacks". Whose? Union or Confederate.
    • Done
  • Optional: "the reported statements had not been said". I am probably being picky, but this seems a bit clumsy. Feel free to ignore if you disagree.
    • I've tried to simplify this
  • "In the notes, Marmaduke stated". What notes? This is the first time they have been mentioned.
    • Some stuff got out of order when I worked in the material from Trimpi, this should be resolved now.
  • "Model 1861 Colt's Navy Revolvers". Why the "'s"?
    • Removed

That's all I have. Looks good. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:30, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Funk

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  • Looks interesting, haven't reviewed an article like this before. FunkMonk (talk) 10:49, 21 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • At first glance, I have a hard time figuring out what the map and its caption conveys. Perhaps clarify that it shows multiple locations related to the incident, if that's the case? Because by just looking at the caption, I'd think it was supposed to show the location of the duel, but it has three dots?
  • Link their names in the captions?
    • Done
  • I wonder if it would look more harmonious with this picture[2] of Marmaduke, as the crop and pose is a bit more similar to that of Walker (and less yellow)?
    • If I can find verification that it was indeed published before 1927, then I will swap out the image
      • @FunkMonk: - I'm not finding publishment of that one from before 1927 to prove PD status, although I did find an engraving in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War from the 1880s that would make a crop of File:John S. Marmaduke.jpg useable. I'm also finding several publishments of one of him without a beard, but as wartime images of Marmaduke generally show him with a beard, I'd rather not use the beardless one. Hog Farm Talk 04:00, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Not a big deal anyhow. FunkMonk (talk) 10:00, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Should Helena link to a place when not part of the battle's name?
  • "The communication had occurred through a series of notes" Do these notes still exist? Maybe there are some public domain pictures of them that could be used?
    • I haven't seen anything that states they still exist, and the lack of any images I can turn up supports that indirectly.
  • "It would be fought at a distance of 15 paces" Could we get some sort of conversion?
    • Unfortunately, a "pace" doesn't have a formal definition, so not really. I turned up a source that suggests it was unusually close, so I've added that (possibly b/c Marmaduke had bad eyesight
  • Link duel in intro?
    • Done
  • Support - not much to complain about. FunkMonk (talk) 10:00, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from Mike Christie

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Support. Well-written and concise. I only have a couple of quibbles, below, that don't affect my support.

  • "The communication had occurred through a series of notes": why "had"?
    • Removed
  • 'and that he had not used the word "coward" but that, in the words of historian Helen Trimpi, "would be responsible for any inference that might be drawn on his remarks".' As written there's no subject for "would be responsible"; I'd either delete the second "that", or make it '"[he] would be" in the quote from Trimpi.
    • I've removed "that"

-- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:42, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.