Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Civil War Maps, 1862, Accession #11217, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These maps were transferred to the Manuscripts Division from the Rare Book Division, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, December 21, 1995, and bear no restrictions.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of three items, 1862, chiefly two Civil War maps, "McClellan at Harrison's Landing," 1862, and "Potomac Border," depicting various sites in Virginia and Maryland. Both maps, drawn in ink on tracing paper, were discovered in a Rare Book Division bound volume of the Washington Intelligencer, a Washington, D.C. newspaper, December 9 ("Potomac") & 11 ("McClellan"), 1856. Several other antebellum issues of the Intelligencer were previously owned by Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-1899) ["J. Hotchkiss," Bridgewater, Rockingham County, and Mossy Creek, Augusta County, Virginia], a Confederate Army engineer and chief mapmaker for General Stonewall Jackson. The volumes later came into the possession of Charles William Kent (1860-1917), Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English Literature, 1893-1917, University of Virginia.
The first map,
"McClellan at Harrison's Landing," measures 30 x 38 centimeters and is on brown tracing paper in black ink with a two penciled sites. According to The Hotchkiss Map Collection (1977) it is perhaps a preliminary sketch of one prepared by Confederate Engineer Captain William Willis Blackford (1831- 1905): "Sketch of McCelland's [sic] position, July 7th, 1862" (reproduced in Mapping the Civil War, 1992). It depicts several natural features and residences at Harrison's Landing, Charles City County, Virginia. There are some artistic similarities between this and the Blackford map.¹ Union General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac retreated here at the conclusion of the Peninsula Campaign on July 3, 1862 and remained until August 20, 1862. McClellan's army occupied an area from Herring Creek, the estates of Westover [Harrison's Landing] and Berkeley (not shown on map) to Kimages' Landing, with the James River, patrolled by Union gunboats as depicted on the map, safeguarding its flanks and rear.² This Confederate military reconnaissance map includes an area labeled "Enimies Pos" [Enemies' Position] of Union defensive works consisting of batteries and abatis. Adjacent to this is an area labeled "Obstructions on Road." The headquarters of three Confederate generals, A(mbrose) P(owell) Hill (1825-1865), Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (1824-1863) and Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) are also shown. During the campaign Blackford was under the command of Confederate Brigadier General Jeb Stuart (1833-1864) who launched an unsuccessful attack on Union forces from Evelington Hills on July 3, 1862. Various topographical and natural features (hills, creeks and woods) include: East Branch/Run [of Herring's Creek], Herring Creek, and West Run [of Herring's Creek]. Other prominent features are Bradley's Store, Carter's Mill, East Berry, Evelington Hills [Evelington Heights], a ferry, Kimmages' [Kimages'] Landing, the direction to Charles City Court House [Charles City], River Road [James River Road], Roland's Mill [Roland's Mill Pond], Staggs Road, Turkey Island [Turkey Island Creek Bridge], Westover Church, West Berry and West Branch/Run [of Herring's Creek]. Incorrect positions of [the mouth of] the Appomattox River and City Point (both should be farther west), also "Shirly," are marked out in pencil. Residents and residences include: D. Adams, L. Adams, J. Barlow [pencil], Bcornet? [Barnett], Charity, Clark, Clarke, Dr. Crenshaw, Crenshaw, Dority, John Harrison, Ackerman, Miles, Pearman (two residences), [Edward] Philips, Pollard, Roach, Shirly [Shirley; an incorrect position is marked through in pencil], Stagg, Talman's, Upshers [pencil; Dr. Upshaw], Westover [McClellan's headquarters] and Col. Wilcox. This map's approximate cardinal points are north (Gen. Lee's headquarters), south (James River), east (Col. Wilcox) and west (Shirley).
The second map,
"Potomac Border," ca. 1862, is on brown tracing paper and measures 37 x 52 centimeters. It is possibly an unfinished copy of "Map of Loudoun County, Va., and parts of Fairfax County, Va., Jefferson County, W. Va., and Washington and Frederick Counties Md."³ It depicts natural and manmade features of Virginia [Fairfax and Loudoun counties] and Maryland [Frederick, Howard, Montgomery and Prince Georges counties]; roads are shown in red, railroads and towns in black and elevations by brown hachures. Among the displayed natural features are: Ball's Bluff, Big Patuxent River, Blue Ridge Mountains, Catoctin Mountains, Difficult Creek, Goose Creek, Monocacy River, Potomac River, Seneca Creek, Shenandoah River, Short Hills, Snicker's Gap and Sugarloaf [Sugar Loaf] Mountain. Included towns, cities and villages are Alexandria, Annapolis Junction, Bailey's X Roads [Baileys Crossroads], Beltsville, Berlin, Bladensburg, Dranesville, Ellicott's Mills [Ellicott City], Falls Church, Flint Hill, Frederick City [Frederick], Georgetown, Great Falls, Harpers Ferry, Highsville, Hillsborough [Hillsboro] Laurel, Leesburg, Lovettsville, Monocacy, Mt. Airy, Mt. Gilead, Oatland Mills, Point of Rocks, Purcellville, Rockville, Seneca Mills, Snickersville, Tennallytown, Vienna, Washington, Waterford and Wheatland. Military sites include Chain Bridge, Fort Lincoln, Fort Pennsylvania (Fort Reno as of late 1862), two batteries and three signal stations; other interesting details include the locations of several private residences, the National Road, unidentified railroads, and distances to and from various towns to Alexandria and Washington. This map's approximate cardinal points are north (National Road), south (Flint Hill), east (Washington) and west (Blue Ridge Mountains). A paper hand tracing accompanies this "Potomac" map.

1. Clara Egil LeGear, The Hotchkiss Map Collection (Washington, 1951; reprinted Falls Church, Virginia: Sterling Press, 1977), 26, number 99; Christopher Nelson, Mapping the Civil War: Featuring Rare Maps From the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.: Starwood Publishing, Inc., 1992), pp. 64-65. Selected map features confirmed in Samuel J.T. Moore, Jr., Moore's Complete Civil War Guide to Richmond, rev. ed. (Richmond, Virginia: printed by the author, 1978), 182-185, and Major George B. Davis, Leslie J. Perry, and Joseph Kirkley, The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War (New York: The Fairfax Press, 1983 ed.), Plate 19, Map 1, and Plate 13, Maps 3 & 4; Plate 17, Map 1; Plate 22, Map 1; Plate 66, Map 7 and Plate 92, Map 1.

2. William Allan, The Army of Northern Virginia In 1862 (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892), 139-142; Stephen Sears, To The Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992), 339, 340.

3. LeGear, Hotchkiss Map Collection, 15, number 44.