"Spy & Topog Duty Has Been . . . Neglected"

"SPY & TOPOG DUTY HAS BEEN . . . NEGLECTED" Ari Hoogenboom The scatological imagery in the following letter of 1863 is reminiscent of World War II, but its substance clearly recalls the Civil War: Geni. Hooker has found out that I know something of the country between —Richmond & Falmouth. I lived there 6 years and used to be good at topography. Their topogs have been 30 miles south of Fredericksbg, and have made a good map which I saw in the bureau yesterday. By being in front I could tell them if information was or was not reliable. I ought to go. Spy & topog duty has been more neglected by our folks than any other and is the principal cause of surprizes and defeats. If I was to tell our suspicious mil[itar]y authorities all I did know of the lay of the land & drainage of the country they would say I was leading them into an ambush . Ones ardour is thus dampened. I was shit upon on the Peninsula, and if I had staid with them they would have rubbed it in. Again I like boiled shirts and sleeping on a matress. Shall I lead a dogs life of it this summer as I did last that is the question. I could take a man with me that knows every hog path, but what shall I do? say Your friend always A. Womall Bum this [as] soon as you read. My information on that line, is or ought to be worth millions to the Gov't.1 Students of the Civil War are well aware that as intelligence agents the Pinkerton detectives of 1861-1862 were not all General George B. McClellan could have desired.2 That situation was remedied in 1863; but less well known is the neglect of topographical analysis, as pointed 1 A. Womall, if that indeed is the almost illegible signature, evidently resided in Baltimore when he wrote this letter on April 11, 1863. He was a close friend of Dr. Robert Montgomery Smith Jackson, to whom his letter is addressed. The first part of the letter discussing Womall's wife's eyesight has been deleted. Dr. Jackson maintained a sanitarium at Cresson, Pennsylvania, and is chiefly remembered for treating Senator Charles Sumner after his beating by Preston ("Bully") Brooks. Among Dr. Jackson's other correspondents were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Theodore Parker. The letter reposes in the Jackson Papers, Pennsylvania Historical Collections, Pennsylvania State University. 2 Warren W. Hassler, Jr., General George B. McClelhn: Shield of the Union (Baton Rouge, 1957), pp. 33, 145, 171, 188. 368 out in Wornall's letter. Professor Frederic Klein has noted errors in old and new maps of the Gettysburg campaign. For example, almost all maps have a different and wrong location for Pipe Creek and very few maps trace Meade's intended supply Une, the Western Maryland Railroad, from Baltimore to Westminster.3 If Federal maps of Union territory were deficient, those of the Confederacy were no better. Robert E. Lee frequendy used primitive maps. He was fortunate in that years before he had personally mapped Mexico City and its nearby defenses and battlefields,4 gaining invaluable experience that helped develop his talented eye for terrain. Such a gift was absolutely necessary considering the Civil War maps he had to work with. Although Confederate maps of Virginia improved as the war continued, thanks largely to Captain A. H. Campbell of the topographical engineers, Lee as late as May, 1864, had only a poor sketch of Spotsylvania showing none of the elevations. That his "Mule Shoe" Une was the best possible position resulted from his topographical genius, not from any map in his possession. Lee knew northern Virginia intimately and his quick eye could fill in detads with a hasty personal reconnaissance of the field.5 The Union made more topographical progress than the Confederacy, but it was slow. Grant, much less familiar with northern Virginia at the commencement of his 1864 campaign than Lee, sorely needed better maps. At his behest Brigadier General N. Micheler ordered maps of Virginia prepared, some on a scale of three inches to a mile, others one and one-half inches...