I like maps. In fact, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t like maps. While they were (and are) abstract in their own way, they also make what they depict manageable and understandable. They also help you find your way to places you’ve never been. When I use a map, I study it, commit major roads and streets to memory, and then go.
And then there’s history.
I may be one of the few people who get excited to receive a Civil War atlas as a Christmas present. But I did, and I was.
And it wasn’t only an atlas.
The Atlas of the Civil War is, as its name implies, a collection of maps. But it’s also a National Geographic publication, which means your get far more than the maps and chunks of text about them. It’s written by author Stephen Hyslop, who’s published among other historical works, National Geographic’s Eyewitness to the Civil War. It’s edited by Neil Kagan, who’s firm specializes in illustrated books. And it includes an introduction by Civil War historian Harris Andrews.
You get maps of the states, secession, and the battles, but you also get stories about military personalities, civilians, regions, campaigns, and more. The atlas also provides insights into the terrain of various battles and how geography so often played a role. The book also reproduces maps that were drawn at the time, so you can see what the army commanders had laid out in their planning meetings or had drawn to accompany battle reports. And, this being National Geographic, the book contains reproductions of paintings old and new of battles and locations.
One battle I’ve been particularly interested in is The Wilderness in Virginia, fought from May 5 to May 6 in 1864. The name invokes the idea of forest, but this was more of hundreds of acres of trees, some forest, and a whole lot of scrub land. (Military historian Gordon Rhea is considered to have written one of the best accounts of the battle, if you’re interested.) The battle was important for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it was the first battle confrontation between the Confederacy’s Robert E. Lee and newly appointed commander of all federal armies Ulysses S. Grant. The atlas shows how the battle fit in the overall context of the 1864 Virginia campaign, photographs and drawings, the order of battle, and maps.
This section also includes a page entitled “The Burning Woods.” The weather had been dry to the extreme, and gunfire during the battle had the unfortunate effect of setting blazes. Many soldiers were trapped by the fires and burned to death. The page has a photograph of nine Union soldiers, the only survivors of the 86 men of the 57th Massachusetts Company I. To see the photo by itself would lead you to believe it’s just a group of soldiers. But it represents the devastating toll of the Battle of the Wilderness.
The atlas is lavish; it’s filled with drawings, photographs, artwork and (of course) maps; and it helps to center your understanding of the war and the individual battles. Yes, it could be a coffee table book, but it’s a coffee table book that you can refer to and use over and over again.
This gift (from my wife) was paired with a National Geographic wall map, “Battlefields of the Civil War.” One side depicts the entire expanse of the war. The other provides closeups of the major campaigns and battle zones. The print is small, but you can spend a lot of time absorbing the geography of the Civil War.
I’ve already spent hours poring over both the atlas and the wall map. Both provide an understanding of what happened across American geography, mostly but not entirely in the South. And the atlas also suggests just how horrible that conflict was.