Maps and Mapmakers of the Civil War

Earl B. McElfresh has performed a valuable service to students of the War between the States and lovers of vintage maps. He has gathered these maps from many sources and reproduced them in a single volume to be studied and admired. One can not only learn the topography of many sites and battlefields in the 1860s, but also gain insight into the methods used to produce such maps.Information on the topography was of vital importance to any army, whether planning a large campaign or a single battle. Both the Union army and the Confederate army employed many men capable of creating detailed images of the lay of the land. One of the most famous is Jed Hotchkiss, mapmaker to Stonewall Jackson. Several of his maps are reproduced in this volume. Using every medium at their disposal, from pencil to water color, he and others created detailed or rough drawings. Most are worthy of framing and hanging on the wall.This is a valuable reference work for students of the war and students of mapmaking. It is a large volume and the details stand out.

The heart and soul of this book are the numerous reproductions of original Civil War maps, most of them hand-drawn by topographical engieers. Some are familiar from their later, engraved versions which appeared in the atlas for the Official Records (although the originals shown here are always more vivid and immediate), while others have not been seen their original wartime use. Many are quite simply works of art, transforming the three-dimensional world into an exquisite two-dimensional rendition.But superbly reproduced maps are not the only treasures in McElfresh's book. The introductory chapters about the work and importance of topographical engineers to the Civil War is perhaps the best account of them yet published. And one-page biographies are provided for many of them, some famous for other, post-war careers (Ambrose Bierce and George Armstrong Custer, for example).This is a book which belongs in any collection of Civil War material.

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Easily the most important book on the Topographical Engineers since those by Goetzmann, Ryan, and Traas. Where these earlier books explained the role of the Topographical Engineers in western exploration and the Mexican War and the administrative history of the Corps, McElfresh has taken on the Civil War period of this illustrious group. The result is more than worth the money.

E. B. McElfresh has emerged has one of the experts of Civil War mapmaking. In addition to accumulating and presenting a treasure trove of never-before-published maps that so influenced the course of the campaigns, he also provides a wealth of entertaining and astute observations on this war. This is an important and beautiful book that holds valuable keys to this conflict for both Civil War buffs and bystanders.