JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I was searching for the "Make Me a Map of the Valley" map, the Stonewall-Jackson-directive map, that was made to devastating effect by the Confederacy's leading cartographer, Jedediah Hotchkiss.[More on Hotchkiss here from the Encyclopedia of Virginia.] I saw this on display at the Library of Congress years ago--it is an enormous thing, about 22 square feet and more than 7 feet long (or tall, as it was displayed vertically then), filled with minutiae and just a splendid map of great detail put to extreme use by General Jackson (and Lee, and others). The LC has the Hotchkiss Collection, their "jewel in the crown" of the Civil War maps there, and there is a great amount of it on display on the LC website. The Big One, though, is not there in full. I copied a few of some of the maps most interesting to me, and at the bottom is a link to the other 120 or so maps online by Hotchkiss.
[Above: title for one of Hotchkiss' workbooks, Sketch book of Jed. Hotchkiss, Capt. & Top. Eng., Hd. Qrs., 2nd Corps, Army of N. Virginia : [Virginia], "Shows general maps of northwestern Virginia and parts of Montgomery County, Maryland, with some showing roads, troop movements, and the names of some residents..."
"The Hotchkiss Map Collection contains cartographic items made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-1899), a topographic engineer in the Confederate Army. Hotchkiss made detailed battle maps primarily of the Shenandoah Valley, some of which were used by the Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson for their combat planning and strategy. Several of the maps have annotations of various military officers, demonstrating their importance in the military campaigns..."--from the LC site. A good, long essay on the collection by Clara LeGear appears elsewhere on the LC site, here.
All maps are expandable after being opened.
Map of the Shenandoah Valley from Harrisonburg to Mt. Jackson, with topographical detail along the principal roads from Thornton's Gap to Swift Run Gap and along several valley roads in northwestern Virginia:
[Map of the Manassas battlefield area in Northern Virginia].
[Maps illustrating campaign of Gen. T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 1862.
Antietam Battlefield
The Wilderness, 1864
Map of a portion of the Rappahannock River and vicinity, Virginia :
to illustrate the operations of the Army of Northern Virginia C.S. and
the Army of the Potomac U.S. from the close of the Battle of
Fredericksburg, Decem. 15th 1862, to the Battle of Chancellorsville,
Saturday, May 2nd 1863:
1864. Map of 35 Miles Around Richmond (a published map and so does not show fortifications)
Many more located at the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division site, here.
Comments