About this Collection | Civil War Maps | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

Brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library
of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the
Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the
detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson,
General Sherman’s Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries,
scrapbooks, and manuscripts all available for the first time in one
place.

Most of the items presented here are documented in Civil War Maps: An Annotated List
of Maps and Atlases in the Library of Congress, compiled by Richard W. Stephenson in
1989. New selections from 2,240 maps and 76 atlases held by the Library will be added
monthly.

Civil War Maps contains items from the Library of Congress Geography and Map
Division, the Library of Virginia, and the Virginia Historical Society.

This presentation contains approximately 2,240 Civil War maps and charts and 76
atlases and sketchbooks that are held within the Geography and Map Division, 200 maps
from the Library of Virginia, and 400 maps from the Virginia Historical Society.

The maps, charts, and atlases depict battles, troop positions and movements,
engagements, and fortifications. Also included are reconnaissance maps, sketch maps,
coastal charts, and theater of war maps. An introductory
essay traces the development of mapping during the Civil War, with special
reference to maps and atlases in the Geography and Map Division. The Geography and Map
Division materials are based on Civil War Maps: An Annotated List of Maps and Atlases
in the Library of Congress, compile by Richard W. Stephenson in 1989. This bibliography
not only includes descriptions of printed, photoreproduced, annotated, and hand-drawn
maps made between 1861 and 1865, but also maps made later to illustrate or explain
specific events, movements, and battles of the war. The vast majority of the maps were
prepared by Federal forces or by commercial firms in the North, but there are also a
substantial number by Confederate military authorities and a few by Southern
publishers.

The largest group among the Confederate works are the 341 manuscript maps and sketch
books that make up the Hotchkiss Map Collection. Assembled by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss,
who served as topographic engineer with the Army of Northern Virginia, this remarkable
collection was acquired by the Library of Congress in 1948 from Hotchkiss’s
granddaughter, Mrs. R. E. Christian of Deerfield, Virginia. The entries for the
collection, described in a separate section, were prepared in 1951 by Clara Egli LeGear
and were originally published by the Library of Congress under the title The Hotchkiss
Map Collection: A List of Manuscript Maps, Many of the Civil War Period, Prepared by
Major Jedediah Hotchkiss, and Other Manuscript and Annotated Maps in His
Possession.

Included here are maps of the whole United States, maps of major regions such as the
Eastern or Southern States, maps showing all or parts of more than two states, and maps
of the Mississippi River. State maps are also included, with maps of specific battles,
cities and towns, and natural features listed alphabetically under each state.

In addition to the Hotchkiss Map Collection, the Sherman Map Collection is also
presented. Consisting of 210 maps and 3 atlases belonging to Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman, it was formed by the Library of Congress from three separate accessions. The
first, received in 1912, numbered some 58 maps that were included among the papers
presented to the Library of Congress by Sherman’s son, Philemon Tecumseh Sherman. A
second segment was obtained in 1942 from the general’s granddaughter, Miss Eleanor
Sherman Fitch. The final group of maps was obtained in 1955 from the William L.
Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in exchange for a copy of Joseph F. W. Des
Barres’s The Atlantic Neptune (London, 1774-1781). The collection includes a
significant number of maps and atlases owned by Sherman either before or after the
war.

The Library of Virginia’s map collection includes about 200 maps relating to
the Civil War. Of the maps included in this project, there are maps accompanying a
report to the Governor of Virginia, Confederate imprints, a variety of printed and
manuscript maps, mostly of Virginia areas, and a small group of field maps of
Southwestern Virginia found in books belonging to Major General William W. Loring,
C.S.A.

The Virginia Historical Society items include images created by officers of the
Confederate Army’s Engineer Corps of counties and regions within Virginia
(including the so-called Jeremy Gilmer maps). These manuscript maps are
distinctive in that they include not only roads, bridges, waterways, and major
buildings, but also identify farms and plantations by owners’ surnames. Another
set of images comes from the multi-volume diary and scrapbook of Union Private Robert
K. Sneden, who served with the Army of the Potomac. These consist primarily of battle
plans and details of fortifications both in Virginia and elsewhere. Some of
Sneden’s work has been reproduced in two recent publications, Eye of the Storm
and Images from the Storm. The few remaining images in the collection are drawn more
generally from the Society’s manuscript holdings, including those contained in
the letters of individual soldiers.

Most of the entries include a brief paragraph describing the contents of the map,
but no attempt has been made to analyze the maps completely or to evaluate them
critically.

All three libraries actively seek to enrich their cartographic collection and would
welcome information that may lead to the acquisitions of maps and atlases of the
American Civil War not already included in their holdings. Any new, original items
received by the Library of Congress will be included in updates to this online
collection. New selections from the Stephenson bibliography will be added monthly.