Mapping During the Civil War-- Part 1: In Its Infancy

From the September 8, 2017, Coastal Point "Civil War Profiles:  Mapping During the Civil War.

This was the age before GPS (Global Positioning System in case you're wondering).

Mapmaking was in its infancy during the Civil War.  Military officers often complained about the inaccuracy or nonexistence of maps in the areas in which they were operating.  There was, especially for Union commanders, the serious problem of unfamiliarity with their territory.

Jedidiah Hotchkiss, however, was one of the foremost mapmakers of the war.  he was Confederate and spent much time with Gen. Stonewall Jackson.

On February 23, 1863, he noted in his diary, "I got secret orders from the General to prepare a map of the Valley of [Virginia] extended to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and then to Philadelphia."  The order came from Jackson, but his map was used for his June-July incursion into Pennsylvania leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg.

--Old Secesh