Talk:McLean House (Appomattox, Virginia)/GA1

GA Review
The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.''

Reviewer: Hog Farm (talk · contribs) 19:10, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Criteria
1. Prose

2. Verifiability

3. Depth of Coverage

4. Neutral ✅

5. Stable ✅

6. Illustrations

7. Miscellaneous

Comments
1.
 * " Then owned by Wilmer McLean and his wife Virginia, the house near the end of the American Civil War served as the location of the surrender of the Confederate army of Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1865, after a nearby battle" - Link Confederate army to Army of Northern Virginia, give Lee's rank of General and link to General officers in the Confederate States Army. Also, consider splitting this sentence
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:23, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "farm of Wilmer McLean at Bull Run, Virginia," - Is there a way to rephrase this? Bull Run, Virginia makes it seem like a town, but it links to a river.
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:35, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "(In years past, the county seats of many rural counties, especially in Virginia, had names that were simply the name of the county plus "Court House"; some of these remain today.[6] The courthouse is about 3 miles (5 km)) from the Appomattox Station where the trains came into Appomattox, Virginia.[6]" - That's a really odd place for the ), I think maybe it should go at the end of the first sentence.
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:54, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "Major General Ulysses S. Grant III" - Link Major General to Major General (United States)
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:12, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Lee and Grant in the significance section are duplinks
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:12, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Link Pulitzer Prize
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:12, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "Eighty four years after the historic surrender" - I believe eighty-four is hyphenated
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:12, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

2.
 * The URL for the citation for "The courthouse is about 3 miles (5 km)) from the Appomattox Station where the trains came into Appomattox, Virginia" should be
 * ✅ - Fisk in better reference here. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:59, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "(the name of which was changed to "Appomattox Court House," having just become the county seat). Because of the name of the village, many mistakenly think the surrender was signed in the courthouse building. (In years past, the county seats of many rural counties, especially in Virginia, had names that were simply the name of the county plus "Court House"; some of these remain today." - I'm not finding this in the ref. I may have missed where it is, though.
 * ✅ - replaced with Fisk inline reference. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 12:03, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "Because the First Battle of Bull Run, fought on July 21, 1861, took place on Wilmer McLean's farm about 120 miles (190 km) to the north in Virginia, it can be said that the Civil War started in McLean's backyard in 1861 and ended in his parlor in 1865 (although neither event marked the true beginning or ending of hostilities). McLean was a retired major in the Virginia militia. He was too old to enlist at the outbreak of the Civil War and decided to move to get away from the Civil War. After the war, he would say of himself that he moved because he loved peace, but he made a small fortune running sugar through the Union blockade. He was also a slave owner, and there are slave quarters next to McLean's house. Nonetheless, in the morning of Palm Sunday April 9, 1865, the war came back to McLean when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at his home."
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 20:14, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "The table and chairs used by Lee and Grant when negotiating the surrender are now part of the collections of the Chicago History Museum and of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. " - The photo of the tables in the reference given is attributed to the Smithsonian, but the Chicago History Museum isn't mentioned anywhere that I saw
 * ✅ - Removed Chicago History Museum. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 12:36, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Find a grave is largely user-generated and is not a reliable source
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 12:10, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * "This plan fell through due to lack of total interest of all the investors involved.[7]" - Not seeing this in ref 7
 * ✅ - copy edited accordingly. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 14:03, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Citation needed for the quote from the Elizabeth Bacon Custer will. Also, it's best to enclose the direct quote in quotation marks
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 15:01, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Historical Marker database is largely user-generated, and isn't the most reliable source around.
 * ✅ - replaced with book reference. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 17:46, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * NRHP listing date needs a citation
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:05, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Marvel needs a page number
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:05, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Trim the sources not used, move the most relevant handful to a further reading section and nix the others
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:14, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Unclear which Marvel is being cited
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:14, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Ref 2 takes me to a search page. This source  is reliable and will take care of the added date and the listing number.
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:31, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

3.
 * Visitation statistic needs updated
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:31, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Lead could be expanded a little
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 19:24, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * NRHP listing should be mentioned in the body
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 18:48, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

4.

5.

6.
 * The 1865 image needs a PD-US tag
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:06, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

7.
 * Consider splitting the long history section into a couple subsections.
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:06, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

Placing on hold, this one needs a bit of work, especially on the sourcing work. Thanks for looking to improve this article. Hog Farm (talk) 01:38, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * All issues have been addressed. Can you take another look. Thanks. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 20:17, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

Round two
Only a few formatting things with the refs this time around


 * Ref 1 - Needs a publisher and accessdate.
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:07, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Ref 2 - needs a publisher and accessdate
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:07, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Ref 4 - needs a publisher
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:07, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Ref 6 - is is Fisk or Fiske? One spelling is used in the short ref and the other is used in the long ref.
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:10, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Ref 7 needs a publisher
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:17, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Ref 9 needs a publisher
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:17, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Ref 10 needs a publisher
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 10:17, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * I don't know if Boyer is reliable - Lulu is a big self-publishing company (see List of companies engaged in the self-publishing business), so Boyer probably isn't vetted as a source.  I'm having trouble finding RS confirmation of the inscription, but since it's a simple fact, I think it might be alright to cite a published image of the marker if you can find one.  I've seen images used as references for simple facts in GAs before.  I hope a good source for the inscription can be found somewhere. Hog Farm (talk) 03:35, 14 June 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ --Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:11, 14 June 2020 (UTC)
 * All of Round two issues addressed. Can you take another look. Thanks.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 11:11, 14 June 2020 (UTC)