Assume those of you with HPS know about the below. >Resent-Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 12:56:15 -0700 >X-Original-Sender: [email protected] Mon Jan 10 12:56:14 2005 >From: <[email protected]> >Old-To: <[email protected]> >Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:55:25 -0500 >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2527 >X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.38 >To: [email protected] >Resent-From: [email protected] >Reply-To: [email protected] >X-Mailing-List: <[email protected]> archive/latest/4388 >X-Loop: [email protected] >Resent-Sender: [email protected] >Subject: [NC-PCFR] Civil War Maps Placed on the Internet > >This article appeared on the Internet today. Link is at the end of the >article. > >Eleanor Allen > >Civil War Maps Placed on the Internet >January 10, 2005 11:15 AM EST >WASHINGTON - Civil War buffs are getting access to a treasure trove of >information - thousands of original maps and diagrams of battles and >campaigns between 1861 and 1865, all posted on the Internet. > >The Library of Congress is posting 2,240 maps and charts and 76 atlases >and sketchbooks, while The Virginia Historical Society and the Library of >Virginia are adding about 600 items. Much of the collection is online now; >the rest will be by the spring. > >The items depict troop positions and movements, as well as fortifications. >There also are reconnaissance maps, sketches and coastal charts and >theater-of-war maps. > >One plan of the Mississippi port of Vicksburg was done in 1863, the year >Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant forced its surrender on July 4 in one of the >war's most decisive operations. It gave the Union control of the river and >cut the Confederacy in two. > >It also won the attention of President Lincoln to his most successful >commander. Lincoln wrote Grant a letter of congratulation and promoted him >to major general. > >The Vicksburg map includes fortifications, railways, levees, drainage, >vegetation and even the names of a few residents. > >The same day Vicksburg fell, more than 900 miles away Confederate Gen. >Robert E. Lee began retreating to Virginia from Gettysburg, Pa., following >his defeat there. > >The National Archives and Records Administration recently drew attention >to a map of the Gettysburg campaign in its own collection. It records >positions of troops on July 2, 1863, when the South came close to winning >the battle. > >The agency has been looking at the back of some of its documents since it >worked with Walt Disney Pictures on the current film "National Treasure," >a fictional story about a map to hidden treasure on the back of the >original Declaration of Independence. > >The Gettysburg map, which is not online, went with Lee's report on the >battle to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. On the back of Lee's >14-page report was written: "Read with satisfaction and returned to War >Dept. Jeffer Davis Aug. 6. 1863" > >Davis may have been relieved by the failure of Union Gen. George G. Meade >to pursue and destroy Lee's retreating forces. > >Gettysburg was a decisive defeat for the Confederates after a series of >victories. Lee surrendered to Grant nearly two years later, after terrible >losses on both sides. > >The contribution of the Virginia Historical Society includes maps of >Virginia locations, created by Confederate officers. They detail roads, >bridges, waterways and buildings, including farms and plantations with the >owners' names. > >The Virginia society also presents the viewpoint of the Union side in a >diary and scrapbook that belonged to Robert K. Sneden, an Army mapmaker. >It includes battle plans and fortifications. The society acquired it >recently after it had been locked in a bank vault for decades. > >The Library of Virginia has maps that went with reports to the governor >and field maps of the southwestern part of the state, found in books that >belonged to Confederate Gen. William W. Loring. > >Items already posted can be seen at: >http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps > >Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may >not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. > > >==== NC-PCFR Mailing List ==== >Post to this mail list at: [email protected] >Visit the PCFR website at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncpcfr >Browse our rich collection of old family photographs, private documents, >and public records. > >============================== >Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the >areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. >Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx