Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Boot Monument
Boot Monument edit
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- Nominator(s): Relativity (talk)
Boot Monument (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
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If you travel to Saratoga National Historic Park, you will probably come across this somewhat bizarre monument of a boot. Its honoree's name is never mentioned on it, and it would take some research to figure out that it's actually honoring Benedict Arnold. I am nominating this for A-class because I'd like to take this to FA and so I would need to see what further improvements need to be made to it to get it there. Thank you! Relativity ⚡️ 00:47, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
This is all way outside my area of expertise. I presume that Benedict Arnold was rehabilitated long ago. Article looks more like a GA than an FA. Some comments:
- Can be have a consistent date format? Three different ones are used. (Recommend using dmy and adding a {{use dmy dates}} template.)
Done
- "Arnold's betrayal to the British" implies that someone betrayed him.
- Changed to "Arnold betrayed the Continental Army for the British Army"
- Do we know what Arnold's actual, rank was? (Same for Clinton, Gates and Lincoln)
- Yes, and Done
- Yes, and
- Is there any reason why the town of West Point was worth twenty thousand quid?
- The lead says he "attempted to give crucial information about the fortification of West Point to the British" but the body says "offering Arnold £20,000 for the capture of West Point. Arnold met with British Major John André, who Arnold had solicited communication through, and André was later captured on his way back to New York with the plans for West Point being discovered"
- Good catch, reworded in the lead to "He later attempted to help the British capture the fortification of West Point but was discovered and fled to the British army."
- "solicited communication through" sounds awkward to me.
- Reworded to "Arnold met with British Major John André so he could pass on information on how to best attack West Point,". Let me know what you think.
- "College boys on a trip stole the toe and spur from the Boot Monument,[21][22] and they were only discovered when an anonymous informer informed the battlefield official that the toe was stolen by "a graduate of a New York State educational institution."[23] The monument underwent restoration after Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, financed it." Do we have dates for these events?
- Unfortunately no. All of the newspapers used as citations are from around the same time but there is no actual specified date when this happened.
- "The monument is made of white marble[2][43] and is four feet tall." Source required for the height. And add a conversion for those of us living in the twenty-first century instead of the eighteenth.