Maps and Mapmakers of the Civil War

FROM THE PUBLISHER

During the Civil War, a good map could spell the difference between victory and defeat. This book collects, for the first time, the war's most notable, interesting, and beautiful maps-and tells the story of how they were made. Ranging from exquisitely detailed renderings reproduced in full color to rough pencil sketches drawn from horseback, these maps-many never before reproduced-are both striking works of art and invaluable historical artifacts. The lively, anecdotal text explains the techniques and travails of mapmaking during the war and reveals the little-known cartographic exploits of George Armstrong Custer, writer Ambrose Bierce, and Brooklyn Bridge engineer Washington Roebling, among many others. Here is an extraordinary gift for Civil War enthusiasts everywhere.

FROM THE CRITICS

Gary Turley - Mercator's World

Earl McElfresh's engagingMaps and Mapmakers of the Civil War is skillfully blending anecdote, detail, and analysis, he mounts a powerful case for the stragetic important of maps and examines the practical effects of the cartographer's art on actual military operations. He also provides brief but captivating biographies of a number of Union and Confederate topographical engineers whose contributions are far too often overlooked or slighted in conventinal histories of what ahs been called America's Second Revolutionary War. He also presents a stunning atlas of original maps, some never before seen publicly.

Library Journal