By JOHN R. HÉBERT
How can a war proceed without maps? And how does one obtain maps for a region of the United States that had not been adequately mapped from a military point of view? Could maps be used to depict other issues related to the Civil War—for example, the extent of slave-holding, by county, in the South?
Those questions and more were answered May 20 during “Re-imagining the U.S. Civil War: Reconnaissance, Surveying and Cartography” at the annual conference of the Geography and Map Division/Philip Lee Phillips Society held at the Library of Congress. The Phillips Society is a friends group that over the years has provided much support to programs of the division.
The conference featured six speakers who explored elements of cartography, from the creation to the use of maps introduced or continued during the war.
Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond, spoke about using modern geographic information systems and geospatial data to explore more deeply the social reactions to the conflict.
Susan Schulten of the University of Denver explored “Mapping the Strength of the Rebellion” by considering, among other themes, the introduction of thematic maps on slavery or agricultural production in the South at the outset of the war.
Richard W. Stephenson, a Civil War maps authority and a former member of Geography and Map, provided an overview of cartographic preparedness on each side of the conflict as the war ensued and progressed.
John Cloud of the National Ocean Survey described both the nautical and topographical contributions of the U.S. Coast Survey during the war, revealing the substantial role played by the Survey in providing vital data for the blockade of Southern ports and on topographical mapping during the Sherman campaign.
Adrienne Lundgren of the Library’s Conservation Division described then-new methods used to reproduce maps and documents in the field.
Robert Mergel of Ohio State University and Columbus Community College provided a re-enactment of the activities of one of the Union’s important mapmakers, William E. Merrill.
The presentations provided new insights on a topic that’s been studied for some 150 years—for example, the use of geographic information systems to analyze and depict the movement of freed slaves; the immediate realization North and South of the inadequacy of contemporary cartographic data to inform the militaries of the lay of the land; the littleappreciated but deep contributions of the U.S. Coast Survey to an effective coastal blockade by Union forces; and the capabilities of both sides to reproduce multiple copies of vital, fresh cartographic data in the field, comparable to modern-day photocopying.
The Civil War clearly was not just a story of decisive battles and movements but also of the development of cartographic techniques that expanded knowledge of the conflict area.
The U.S. Geological Survey was formed some 20 years later with the mission of providing detailed mapping of the United States. But access to current data didn’t exist during the Civil War, and mapping initially depended on securing copies of contemporary county maps or consulting large state maps, if either existed.
Mapmakers in the field otherwise made observations on the fly—often to the peril of combating the speakers illustrated.
The Geography and Map Division hosted the conference as a contribution to the understanding of the war during this 150th anniversary of the conflict. In addition, the division placed digital files of its holdings of Civil War-era maps online and launched a website, Places in History, which documents on a weekly basis the conflict as it developed 150 years ago.
The division also provided tours of its collections for conference attendees and held an open house, displaying its rich Civil War map collection, the next morning.
Additional material regarding the cartographic history of the war is available at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps and www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/placesinhistory.
John R. Hébert is chief of the Geography and Map Division.