Posted on 01/10/2005 5:32:30 AM PST by wallcrawlr
WASHINGTON -- Civil War buffs are getting access to a treasure trove of information - thousands of original maps and diagrams of battles and campaigns between 1861 and 1865, all posted on the Internet.
The Library of Congress is posting 2,240 maps and charts and 76 atlases and sketchbooks, while The Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia are adding about 600 items. Much of the collection is online now; the rest will be by the spring.
The items depict troop positions and movements, as well as fortifications. There also are reconnaissance maps, sketches and coastal charts and theater-of-war maps.
One plan of the Mississippi port of Vicksburg was done in 1863, the year Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant forced its surrender on July 4 in one of the war's most decisive operations. It gave the Union control of the river and cut the Confederacy in two.
It also won the attention of President Lincoln to his most successful commander. Lincoln wrote Grant a letter of congratulation and promoted him to major general.
The Vicksburg map includes fortifications, railways, levees, drainage, vegetation and even the names of a few residents.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Ping
Anyone have a link to the site that has the searchable base of all Civil War soldiers and sailors? I had it, but now can't find it.
ping
ping for further research. thanks!
THANKS!!!!!!
It looks like you might have copied down the wrong address. The correct address is http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps/. In the last part you have civil-war-maps, dashes instead of underscores.
ping
This is good that they are putting these maps on-line. It will be useful to folks who collect and who do research.
The map that is pointed to via the link you provided is the Ditterline Map, one of the first commercially produced maps about the Battle of Gettysburg (Prof. Jacobs had the other such map). The Ditterline Map has some flaws in how terrain is shown, e.g. woods instead of fields, etc.), but Ditterline was not a professional cartographer, I believe he worked at a dry good store during the battle.
I have a Ditterline that was presented by Col. H. Morrow of the 24th Regiment Michigan Infantry to B.G. James Rice, who at the time of the battle commanded the 44th Regiment New York Infantry. It was signed January 18, 1864.
Could kick myself, as I had a chance to purchase a Jacobs map and passed on the chance.
Should be "Sherman's Murder. Pillage, & Rape to the Sea.
Nah--that's just what sore losers who got fairly whupped in battle always say. Peddle it elsewhere.
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