A Staggeringly Complex Infographic Of The Civil War, Drawn 116
Years Ago  Consider it a humble reminder that computers are just
tools. A rich history of data visualization lived long before
bits and bytes.  You’re looking at the Civil War as you’ve
probably never seen it before--not as an 11-hour Ken Burns
documentary--but as a regional, battle-by-battle blow of North
vs. South told in an instant.  That said, it took me a solid 15
minutes to figure out what was going on here. On one hand,
that’s not the most flattering point to make about a data
visualization. On the other, it’s a testament to the data
complexity with which information designers worked in 1897, when
the the Comparative Synoptical Chart Company published this
history of the Civil War along with other data-dense works.
Once you understand the underlying gimmicks, it’s an impressive
piece to be sure. The United States is broken down into a series
of columns in a grand vertical timeline. In the loosest possible
terms, the Union was working its w