The Official Atlas of the Civil War (review)

Book Reviews EDITED BY CHARLES T. MILLER B-Il University Hall Iowa City, Iowa The Official Atlas of the Civil War. Introduction by Henry Steele Commager . (New York: Thomas Yoseloff. 1958. Dimensions: IVA" x 14W ? 2". Pp. 202, including 165 plates. $40.00.) since time immemorial armies have entered the field, more often than not, ignorant of the topography that lay before them. This was certainly the case in the Civü War, for both Northern and Southern forces. Although mapping had been carried on for several decades by the Topographical Engineers, the Geological Survey, and the Coast and Geodetic Survey, most of the efforts of these agencies had been directed to the western frontier, the national boundaries, and the coastiines. Few of the inland areas where battles were to be fought and vast movements of men and matériel accomplished had been surveyed or mapped in any but the most generalized fashion. When the two armies finally realized the extent of their ignorance of the terrain, appropriate measures were taken to remedy the situation, but the resulting feverish activity could not entirely fill the gap. In few instances was the knowledge of terrain sufficientiy accurate to permit detailed planning of movements or positioning of troops. All too often the intelligence required for these purposes had to be gathered on the spot by means of field reconnaissance . Thousands of maps and sketches were prepared in the course of this activity, many of which were later lost or destroyed through one mischance or another. After the war, when the Official Records were being organized for publication, the remnants of the mapping of both armies were gathered together into an Atlas, designed to accompany tiiat report. The project required years to accomplish, andthen, unfortunately, many of the copies of the completed Atlas were apparentiy lost, or at least faded to become a part of the 128-voIume set of Official Records for which they had been intended. Needless to say, those copies tiiat found their proper niche have become increasingly valuable in the years since "Out of Print" became a part of their tide. 325 326CIVIL WAR HISTORY The present publication thus fills a long-standing need on the part of those many individuals and libraries who possess a set of the Official Records and yet cannotfollow easüy the movements referred to in those pages. Even those who have never dusted off the cover of a volume of the Records will find the Atlas very engaging, both as a source of information and as an example of the cartography of its day. Interestingly enough, many of the areas covered in this Atlas remain unmapped to die present time. Only in recent years have we produced adequate medium-scale coverage of the Soudieastern states, and broad gaps remain in our large-scale topographic coverage. So it would appear that in many instances the maps of the present Atlas are the only maps that enable an interested individual to trace movements or locate battlefield positions. Moreover, through the years place names have changed, towns have grown or have been deserted, and routes of transportation have been altered materially. To see the landscape as die participants of the Civü War saw it, maps of that vintage are indispensable. This new edition of die Official Atlas was beset by numerous difficulties attendant to its publication. The original plates could not be located, nor could die original map copy, if it ever in fact existed in a usable form. Thus the publisher was left with photographic reproduction from one of the original copies as his only reasonable means of producing a new edition. The result is a compromise. The maps are indeed available for use as a result of this edition, but it would be stretching a point to say that diey are available in all their originalbeauty, as the jacket description implies. Comparison of the new edition with the original reveals several differences. First, the beautiful coloration of the original edition had to be deleted for technical (and probably economic) reasons. Only the red and blue of the military position symbols have been retained. Hydrography, vegetation cover, and topography all merge in shades of gray and...