Mapping and Empire: Soldier-Engineers on the Southwestern Frontier (review)

Exploration has long been a fascinating topic for historians and casual readers alike. The excitement of new visual discoveries within terra incognita, the augmentation of scientific knowledge, and the impact on peoples and empires throughout the world have enlivened that interest. Yet, many of the studies have focused upon the adventures and accomplishments of individual explorers, and upon subsequent efforts to colonize the areas they traversed. Less attention has been given to the maps and reports compiled by the cartographers and annalists who accompanied these expeditions.

To partially address this neglect, faculty members at the University of Texas at Arlington sponsored the First Biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography in 1998. The occasion spotlighted some of the six thousand maps and written records contained within the University's Center for Greater Southwestern Studies. Seven papers that were originally presented at that conference have now been compiled and are a welcome addition to the scholarly literature. Unlike most conference papers whose length is severely limited, these essays have been expanded into sizable chapters that explore their topics in considerable depth.

The first three chapters examine aspects of Spanish exploration along the Gulf of Mexico coast and in California. In virtual encyclopedic fashion, W. Michael Mathes describes the charting expeditions that ranged between Florida and Texas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The earliest charts were highly speculative since explorers could not view much of the interior landscape. Likewise, the maps and reports were jealously guarded by Spanish and French authorities so as not to aid the colonizing efforts of their rivals. More biographical in approach is David Buisseret's essay on the specific military engineers who designed and built the fortresses that guarded New Spain. Likewise, Dennis Reinhartz discusses the key figures who assembled maps and reports on the interior regions in Spain's northernmost buffer zone between 1750 and 1821, especially in today's New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

Among the most valuable chapters is Ralph E. Ehrenberg's extensive analysis of the U.S. Army's elite force of explorer-scientists known as the Topographical Engineers. In addition to his well-written synthesis of their various expeditions, Ehrenberg provides sixteen pages of endnotes that are keyed to the original published and unpublished reports. More specialized information on the role of military engineers is found in Gerald D. Saxon's biographical profile of Lt. Henry Washington Benham who served in the Mexican War and produced some of its most detailed cartographic work on the areas of northern Mexico.

Two additional chapters round out the collection. First, Paula Rebert examines a neglected phase of international cartography by demonstrating how the Mexican Boundary Commission did a credible job in mapping the border between Mexico and the United States following the 1846–48 war between the two countries. Their American counterparts have received considerable attention in the public record, and it is good that Rebert draws new attention to the other half of the boundary work. Finally, John Hebert provides a brief overview of the importance of the soldier-engineers in opening the frontier areas and leaving a commendable record of what they found.

This well-written book deserves a place in all university and public libraries. Unfortunately, its reproductions of dozens of maps can be used only for demonstration purposes. A trip to the University of Texas at Arlington is still essential for the researcher who wishes to examine the cartographic records for their intrinsically rich detail.