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Featured articleWilliam Y. Slack is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on March 21, 2024.
Did You Know Article milestones
DateProcessResult
March 24, 2023Good article nomineeListed
June 28, 2023WikiProject A-class reviewApproved
January 7, 2024Featured article candidatePromoted
Did You Know A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on April 17, 2023.
The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that 161 years ago today, William Y. Slack was promoted to brigadier general, even though he was already dead?
Current status: Featured article

GA Review

[edit]
This review is transcluded from Talk:William Y. Slack/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Djmaschek (talk · contribs) 04:27, 18 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a. (prose, spelling, and grammar):
    Review 1 @Hog Farm: Please fix or argue your case for not fixing. Djmaschek (talk) 05:08, 19 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    • Infobox: Battles/Wars is missing his Mexican-American War service.
    • Done
    • Introduction, paragraph 1, sentence 2: "as a child an entered" (an > and).
    • Corrected
    • Early life and career, paragraph 1, last sentence: "Slack had also married" ("had also" are not needed in this sentence).
    • Done
    • Early life and career, paragraph 2, last sentence: "blocked a retreat route" (blocked the enemy's retreat route).
    • Done
    • Civil War service is really lo-o-o-ong. Suggest adding subheaders (Carthage, Wilson's Creek & Pea Ridge?).
    • Have split this up
    • I love the State Guard map. It might be helpful to move the map up to paragraph 2 where the article first mentions the 4th Division, MSG.
    • Done
    • Civil War service, paragraph 2: "but left the area in June" (What area? Suggest: northwest Missouri or Chillicothe area).
    • Clarified
    • Civil War service, paragraph 2: "the state capital" (Be specific. Suggest: Jefferson City, the state capital).
    • Done
    • Civil War service, paragraph 4: "time to reorganized" (reorganize).
    • Corrected
    • Civil War service, paragraph 4, last sentence: "Overall, the Federal lines repulsed three Confederate assaults, but withdrew from the field." (This sounds wrong. You're summing up a whole battle in one sentence. Replace "Overall" with Ultimately or At day's end? Replace "but withdrew" with before withdrawing? See what you can do with this.).
    • Have fleshed out some context on Wilson's Creek a little more
    • Civil War service, paragraph 5, sentence 1: (Needs a period at the end.)
    • Fixed
    • Civil War service, paragraph 5, last sentence: "The assigned" (Suggest: His assignment to command).
    • Tweaked the phrasing
    • Civil War service, paragraph 7: "that new of Slack's death" (news).
    • Oops, corrected
    • Civil War service, paragraph 8: "had a tendence to" (tendency).
    • Fixed
    • Civil War service, paragraph 8: "Slack's men "devotedly..." (Slack's men were)
    • Done
    • More illustrations (e.g. Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, map of Missouri with locations) would really look nice, but are not required.
    • I've an image of the cemetery he is buried in. I'm not over-awed by the accuracy of the historical prints of Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. There's some decent stuff for Lexington/Hemp Bales, but unfortunately Slack missed that one.
    b. (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a. (reference section):
    b. (citations to reliable sources):
    c. (OR):
    d. (copyvio and plagiarism):
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a. (major aspects):
    b. (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    Fair representation without bias:
  5. It is stable.
    No edit wars, etc.:
  6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
    a. (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales):
    b. (appropriate use with suitable captions):
  7. Overall:
    Pass/fail:

(Criteria marked are unassessed)

Initial review

[edit]

@Hog Farm: I want to do this one because I'm on a Civil War kick. Please note that I'm going to be out-of-pocket for a few days and may not get back to this until the middle of next week. Djmaschek (talk) 04:27, 18 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Djmaschek: - I've addressed all of these; sorry for the delay in getting to this. Hog Farm Talk 01:08, 24 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Hog Farm: GA class. I made one correction in the Early life section that I missed earlier. Djmaschek (talk) 04:22, 24 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

[edit]
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Bruxton (talk14:35, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  • ... that 161 years ago today, William Y. Slack (pictured) was dead when he was promoted to brigadier general? Source: Warner, p. 278. Can provide quote upon request
1894 engraving of Slack
1894 engraving of Slack

Improved to Good Article status by Hog Farm (talk). Self-nominated at 01:41, 29 March 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/William Y. Slack; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

  • Hi Hog Farm (talk), review follows: article promoted to GA on 24 March; article is cited inline throughout to what look to be reliable sources; sources are mostly offline so AGF on close paraphrasing, I did take a quick look at Bridges (1951) which is on JSTOR and found no issues; article is well written; hook fact is interesting, mentioned in the article and cited, AGF on offline sourcing (though Bridges also confirms the fact); image is used in article and correctly licensed; a QPQ is ongoing - Dumelow (talk) 08:21, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Just a thought, this could run on the anniversary of the promotion on 17 April with the possible addition of "161 years ago today" to the hook- Dumelow (talk) 08:23, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Hog Farm and Dumelow: I see he was referred to as a General while alive, but perhaps a form of respect? see here source. This one states that the rank was posthumously awarded. We could add one of these to the article so that it is easily confirmed online. Bruxton (talk) 14:32, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Bruxton: - As the text of the article makes clear, he was a general in the militia unit (the MSG), but ceded that commission to join the CS Army as a colonel. His promotion to CS general (the "real" rank) came after he passed on. Hog Farm Talk 15:20, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]