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Subject: Interesting
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 18:10:48 EST


Civil War Treasures Go Online
Library Of Congress Putting Civil War Maps On Internet

Jan 10, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) 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.

The same day Vicksburg fell, more than 900 miles away Confederate Gen.
Robert E. Lee began retreating to Virginia from Gettysburg, Pa., following his
defeat there.

The National Archives and Records Administration recently drew attention to
a map of the Gettysburg campaign in its own collection. It records positions
of troops on July 2, 1863, when the South came close to winning the battle.

The agency has been looking at the back of some of its documents since it
worked with Walt Disney Pictures on the current film “National Treasure,” a
fictional story about a map to hidden treasure on the back of the original
Declaration of Independence.

The Gettysburg map, which is not online, went with Lee’s report on the
battle to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

On the back of Lee’s 14-page report was written: “Read with satisfaction
and returned to War Dept. Jeffer Davis Aug. 6. 1863”

Davis may have been relieved by the failure of Union Gen. George G. Meade to
pursue and destroy Lee’s retreating forces.

Gettysburg was a decisive defeat for the Confederates after a series of
victories. Lee surrendered to Grant nearly two years later, after terrible losses
on both sides.

The contribution of the Virginia Historical Society includes maps of
Virginia locations, created by Confederate officers.

They detail roads, bridges, waterways and buildings, including farms and
plantations with the owners’ names.

The Virginia society also presents the viewpoint of the Union side in a
diary and scrapbook that belonged to Robert K.

Sneden, an Army mapmaker. It includes battle plans and fortifications. The
society acquired it recently after it had been locked in a bank vault for
decades.

The Library of Virginia has maps that went with reports to the governor and
field maps of the southwestern part of the state, found in books that
belonged to Confederate Gen. William W. Loring.


(© 2005 The Associated Press.

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