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An Unparalleled Assemblage of Hand Drawn and Field Printed Battle and Reconnaissance Maps for the Campaigns in Georgia and Tennessee

An extraordinary composite atlas of maps assembled by Medal of Honor winner Joseph A. Sladen (1841-1911) during his service as aide-de-camp to General Oliver Otis Howard in the Chattanooga and Atlanta Campaigns and the subsequent “March to the Sea.”

The present atlas is a remarkable artifact, both for the rarity, the importance of its contents, and the seemingly unique array of different types of maps compiled by Sladen and Howard.  In addition to a handful of extraordinarily rare printed maps, the majority of the atlas consists of maps hand drawn or printed in the field, in some cases using photographic printing processes which had been invented in the preceding months specifically for the war effort (and were only used for a few months), and for which only handful of extant examples survive.  At least five of the hand-drawn reconnaissance maps (primarily covering the northern suburbs of Atlanta) are in the hand of a mapmaker, William Henry Greenwood, for whom only a single example of his reconnaissance work survives.

The vast majority of the maps are extremely rare or even unique, and such a collection would be all-but impossible to reproduce today. 

The atlas includes 31 maps used during three of the most important campaigns in the South: the Chattanooga Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, and Sherman’s “March to the Sea” from Atlanta to Savannah. This group includes 24 large-scale field-printed and manuscript reconnaissance maps, primarily relating to the Atlanta campaign; six printed and manuscript “theater” maps of substantial areas of southeastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina; and an unobtainably rare map of Atlanta printed on cloth.

The assembled collection is remarkable not merely for its survival and focus on Georgia, but for the array of different map types in the collection and the rarity of those maps.  The collection contains the only known surviving group of manuscript field maps by William Henry Greenwood, the only surviving example of a map of Cobb and Fulton County printed on cloth in the field, the largest known bound collection of "Black or Sun Maps" using a photographic process invented by Wiliam C. Margedant in the field during th Chattanooga Campaign, several extremely rare William Merrill field printed maps on cloth (most of which are annotated), rare southern imprints such as Evans & Cogswell's Map of the Seat of War in South Carolina and Georgia, published in Charleston and a remarkable hand-drawn copy of a portion of Bonner's map of Georgia, drawn to illustrate the course of the March to the Sea between Atlanta and Savannah.

The maps were assembled by Joseph A. Sladen, Aide-de-Camp to General Oliver Otis Howard. Sladen, a prolific writer, who would later assist in the founding of Howard University, obtained a medical degree and spent the next two decades of his military career running the Freedmen's Bureau with Howard and participating in numerous negotiations and peace treaties with Native American tribes in the West, including a famous early encounter with Cochise.  Howard and Sladen would play a significant leadership role in the Civil War during the Georgia campaigns.

The atlas is most remarkable for its Georgia content, including at least one map which was previously unknown to scholars and cartobibliographers and more than a dozen printed maps known in only a few examples, many annotated in the field. While not as large as the Library of Congress's Sherman collection, the present collection is one of the largest extant collections of Civil War maps assembled in the field by a senior officer and is seemingly without peer for its coverage of the campaigns in Georgia.

Atlanta Maps

Among the rarest and most important maps in the atlas are the Atlanta maps.  These include one of the few surviving examples of the 1864 edition of the Vincent Subdivision Map of Atlanta and a field map printed by in Marietta, Georgia, entitled Part of Cobb and Fulton Counties, Georgia. The latter of these two maps would appear to only survive in an untitled manuscript version in the Library of Congress.

As noted by McElfresh, the copy of the Vincent Subdivision map of Atlanta was one of the maps confiscated from county surveyors in the area and quickly reproduced in the field.  The only surviving example of the original Vincent map (printed in Savannah in 1853) is in the Library of Congress.

A third map, discussed further below, is the Map of part of Fulton, Fayette and Campbell Counties, produced in the field specifically for reconnaissance and revision.

A number of the manuscript maps and field printed maps focus on the area immediately northwest of Atlanta, including manuscript maps of the area around Peachtree Creek, Buckhead, and Oldfield.

William E. Merrill Maps

William E. Merrill is perhaps the single most celebrated of the Civil War mapmakers.  Under Merrill's command, the Topographical Department of the Army of the Cumberland was chiefly responsible for providing the maps necessary for the Atlanta Campaign. Thomas B. Van Horne in his History of the Army of the Cumberland (1875) notes that "The army was so far from Washington that it had to have a complete map establishment of its own. Accordingly, the office of the chief topographical engineer contained a printing press, two lithographic presses, one photographic establishment, arrangements for map-mounting, and a full corps of draughtsmen and assistants."

The present collection includes a number of Merrill's rarest and most celebrated maps, including one which is heavily annotated in red pen and pencil, including:

• Part of Northern Georgia (annotated)
• Map of 1st. Distrt. Campbell, Co. Georgia South of the Cherokee Bound'y Line (2 copies!)
• Part of Northern Georgia (annotated, Likely General Howard's copy)

Black Maps or Sun Maps

Included in the atlas are five examples of "black maps" or "sun maps," printed in the field with a photographic process utilizing a mobile laboratory and darkroom, which first began to appear during the Chattanooga Campaign. The technology was used for less than a year by Union mapmakers and are of the utmost rarity.

The maps have been described as using William Margedant's photographic process (today called a "contact print"), which was employed briefly during the Civil War by a team of topographical engineers and draftsmen to provide commanders with maps that could be updated frequently using:

..."a fac-simile photo-printing device invented by Captain Margedant, chief assistant. This consisted of a light box containing several india-rubber baths, fitting into one another, and the proper supply of chemicals. Printing was done by tracing the required map on thin paper and laying it over a sheet coated with nitrate of silver. The sun's rays passing through the tissue paper blackened the prepared paper except under the ink lines, thus making a white map on black ground. … The process, however, was expensive, and did not permit the printing of a large number of copies; therefore these maps were only issued to the chief commanders. "

Van Horne, Thomas B., History of the Army of the Cumberland. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1875, vol. 2, p. 456 -8.

Location, Location, Location -- Printing In the Field

As discussed by Van Horne, the Army of the Cumberland faced a serious logistical hurdle for map production.  Through the ingenuity of Merrill, Margedant and other skilled members of the Topographical Corps, increasingly refined methods were created in the field for map production. 

Printed on paper, fabric and photographic paper, the present collection includes a number of remarkable examples of such printed field maps, with maps bearing imprints from Chattanooga, Stevenson (Alabama), Morris Hill Church (Tennessee), Big Shanty (Georgia), Marietta, and numerous other maps simply marked "printed in the field".

Manuscript Maps

At least five of the maps are signed by or in the hand of “W. H. Greenwood Capt. and A.D.C.”  William Henry Greenwood, served as an aide-de-camp to General David S. Stanley, who served under General Oliver O. Howard as commander of the 1st Division of the IV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, then succeeded Howard after the latter was appointed Commander of the Army of the Tennessee in July 1864. At the time of Greenwood’s death in or around 1881, Stanley wrote a long and lavish tribute, including:

“Soon after the Battle of Stone River, General Rosecrans made inquiry for competent engineer officers to organize a topographical service, and Greenwood was selected for this duty and for better facilities for seeing the country, he was directed to report to General Stanley at that time Chief of Cavalry for the Army of the Cumberland. The relation thus established continued to the end of the war, Colonel Greenwood remaining a part of this commander’s military family until the muster-out of the 4th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland in the fall of 1865. To recount Colonel Greenwood’s services would necessitate a recital of the experiences of the Army of the Cumberland itself. Comparisons are sometimes in bad taste, but, knowing of what he speaks, the writer can truly say that no officer serviced in the Army of the Cumberland who was present at and participated in more battles, actions, affairs, skirmishes than Colonel Greenwood. Always strong and well, though of slender form, he was always for duty, day and night.”

(General David S. Stanley, “William Henry Greenwood”, for the Society of Civil Engineers, 1881)

Greenwood’s reconnaissance maps are a remarkable survival. Created for General Stanley and other senior officers of the 1st Division and/or IV Corps, they are a remarkable snapshot of the field mapping process which enabled the topographical engineers to create and improve the field maps in circulation with the commanding officers on a nearly daily basis during the campaigns.

While little known as a Civil War surveyor and mapmaker, Greenwood would go on to a distinguished career in the West as a railroad engineer.

Greenwood's field survey maps are virtually unknown to historians and cartobibliographers. Stephenson lists a photocopy of a single WH Greenwood manuscript map (Stephenson #396.25).   The same map is noted in A Guide To Civil War Maps in The National Archives, #2.198. (1986).

Greenwood is not mentioned in Earl McElfresh's Maps and Mapmakers of the Civil War (1999) or Christopher Nelson's Mapping the Civil War (1992).

Process and Improvisation -- Atlanta Campaign and the March To The Sea

One of the most fascinating maps in the group is #27, "Part of the State of Georgia."  Following the taking of Atlanta, the Union Army faced a new acute shortage of map information in its march toward Savannah.  Few regional maps covered this region, and only map that had undertaken the task in meaningful detail was the Bonner map of Georgia.

Retained by the Georgia state legislature in 1846, William Bonner, a civil engineer, constructed his map of Georgia by compiling existing material available in Milledgeville and adding information received from county magistrates.  Prior to the start of the War, it was by far the most authoritative map of the state, with revisions by Bonner and later by James R. Butts, Surveyor General of Georgia, up to 1859.

In this collection is a remarkably detailed hand drawn copy of the center-east section of the Bonner-Butts map covering the area from Atlanta to Savannah, highlighting important railroad details in red and including a table of railroad distances between the six important points along the route.   This map was undoubtedly significant in informing General Howard's cadre of officers in the march from Atlanta to the Sea.

Map #23, Map of part of Fulton, Fayette and Campbell Counties . . . , is another extraordinary example of process and improvisation.  The map notes that "extra copies [are] to be filled up and returned for Second Edition."  And, in fact, the present example includes overflaps, for the two right panels, which show how the map details were changed between the two editions, along with pencil annotations.  Among the more notable changes are alterations made to the course of major railroads and oter details in and around Atlanta.

Atlas Collation

1. [Untitled manuscript map of area between Ackworth and Marietta, Georgia.] Ms in pencil and colored pencil on lined paper, 9 ½”h x 11 3/8”w at sheet edge. Some loss at one fold intersection. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
2. [Untitled manuscript map of rail lines and roads between Raleigh and Kinston, North Carolina.] NP, ND. Ms in ink and watercolor on lined paper, 7 ¾”h x 9 3/8”w at sheet edge. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
3. [Untitled manuscript map of area north and east of Dallas, Georgia.] NP, ND. Scale 1”:mile. Ms in pencil and colored pencil on lined paper, 9 ½”h x 11 ¾”w at sheet edge. Some losses. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
4. Information Map 20th Army Corps [manuscript map depicting area north and west of Marietta, Georgia.] NP: June 22, 1864. Scale 1”:mile. Ms in pencil and colored pencil, 5 ¾”h x 8”w at sheet edge. Minor edge chips. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
5. H. Greenwood Capt. And A.D.C., [Untitled manuscript map of area west of Chattahoochee River from Vining’s Station north to Marietta Road.] Ms in ink and colored pencil, 13 ½”h x 11 3/8”w at sheet edge plus flap at left. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
6. Printed at Head Quarters Dept. Cumb[erland], [Untitled map of area east and west of Connasauga River, Georgia, from south of Calhoun to north of Tilton.] NP, May 13 1864. Photo-reproduction, 16 ½”h x 10 ½”w at sheet edge. Reconnaissance map-printed.
7. Map Showing Route of Marches of the Army of Genl. W.T. Sherman from Atlanta, GA to Goldsboro, N.C. To accompany the report of operations from Savannah, GA. To Goldsboro, N.C. Engineer Bureau, War Department, [1865]. Lithograph, 10”h x 16”w at neat line, outline color to show routes of Shermans’ various corps. Stephenson 90, S7. Theater map.
8. Part of Northern Georgia. Compiled under the Direction of Capt. Wm. E Merrill, Chief Top’l Eng’r D. C…. Official Issue. Wm. C. Margedant Capt. & Supt. Topl. Eng’r Office, D. C. Printed in the Field, Chattanooga, Tenn. May 5th 1864. Lithograph on muslin or silk, 19 ¾”h x 13”w at neat line, some outline color to roads. Wrinkled, trimmed into neat line at left with minor loss, some soiling and staining. Couple of faint annotations in pencil. McElfresh, p. 174. Stephenson S31. Theater map.
9. Compiled under the Direction of Capt. Wm. E. Merrill, U.S. Engineers. Chief Engineer, Army of the Cumberland, [Untitled map of area between Rossville and La Fayette, Georgia on the east and the Lookout Mountains on the west.] Lith at Head Qs, Stevenson, AL, Aug. 28, 1863. Scale 1”:mile. Lithograph, 18 ½”h x 12 ½”w at neat line, spot color to Trenton R.R. Some chips at edges. Not in Stephenson? Reconnaissance map-printed.
10. Compiled… under the Direction of Capt. Wm. E. Merrill, Corps of Engineers, [Untitled map of a roughly 18 1/2 by 13-mile area north of Tennessee River, centered very roughly on Jasper, Tennessee.] in camp near Stevenson, AL, Aug., 1863. Scale 1”:mile. Lithograph, 18 ½”h x 12 ½”w at neat line, spot color to Trenton R.R. Some chips at edges. Stephenson 426.1. Reconnaissance map-printed.
11. [Untitled manuscript map of area north of Etowah River between Rome and Kingston, Georgia.] Hd qrs 17th Army Corps at Skinners House, ND. Ms in pencil, ink and watercolor, 7 ½”h x 9 ½”w at sheet edge. Reconnaissance map-ms.
12. Part of Cobb Co. GA. Compiled from Surveys & Information made by the Top. Eng. D. C. Printed at the Top. Eng. Office D.C. in the field. Morris Hill Church June 8th [1864]. Photo-reproduction in the field, ca. 13 ¾”h x 12”w, spot color to a couple of roads. Trimmed along left edge, with loss to a few letters in title. Not in Stephenson. Reconnaissance map-printed.
13. Lost Mt & Kenesaw Before turning left. NP, ND. Ms in pencil, 9 ½” x 7 ½” at sheet edge. Silked. Reconnaissance-ms.
14. [Prob, W.H. Greenwood], surrounding west-end of Little Kensaw [crossed-out:] First works Beyond Marietta. NP, ND [but prob. July 1864]. In ink and colored pencil, 10 ½”h x 10 ¾”w at sheet edge. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
15. Part of Cobb Co. GA. Compiled & Printed at the Top. Eng. Office D.C. in the field Big Shanty, June 12th [with an added flap at left:] Additions & Corrections to the Map of Cobb Co., Ga. Printed at the Top. Engr. Office D. C. in the field June 10th 1864. Scale 1”: mile. Photoreproduction in the field, 12 ½”h x 19”w at neat line, plus 7” x 4 ¾” flap at left. Spot color. Stephenson S60. Reconnaissance map-printed.
16. Part of Cobb County Georgia from Surveys made by the Top. Engrs. of the Dept. of the Cumb. Topl. Engrs. Of the Dept. and Army of the Tenn. Topl. Engrs. Of the 23rd Army Corps. Printed at Topographical Engr. Office Headquarters Department of the Cumberland June 26th Compiled by Sergt. N. Finegan Draughtsman. Official Issue H. C. Wharton Lt. Engrs. Photoreproduction in the field, 13”h x 13 ¼”w plus margins. Trimmed at lower left with no loss to cartography. Stephenson S61. Reconnaissance map-printed.
17. Survey by W.H. Greenwood Capt and A.D.C., [Untitled manuscript map of route from Buckhead to Peach Tree Court House and South Fork Peach Tree Creek.] NP, ND. Scale 4”:mile. Ms in ink and colored pencil, 6 3/8”h x 17”w at sheet edge. Some chipping to upper edge. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
18. [W.L.?] Remington, Maj. & Top. Eng 2nd Div 4th A.C., [Untitled manuscript map of 4th Army Corps positions in an area south of Buckhead.] NP, ND. Scale 4”:mile. Ms in pencil and colored pencil, 10 ¼”h x 8”w at sheet edge. Reconnaissance map-ms.
19. By W.H. Greenwood Capt and A.D.C., [Untitled manuscript map of an undetermined location, showing positions of units under Lieut. General David S. Stanley.] NP, ND [but prob. on or just after July 23, 1864]. Scale 4”:mile. Ms in ink, pencil and colored pencil, 9 ½”h x 10 5/8”w at sheet edge. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
20. Map of 1st Campbell Co. Georgia, South of the Cherokee Boundy. Line. Compiled under direction of Capt. W.E. Merrill, Chief Topl. Engr. D.C., by Sergt. Finegan, from the notes of a captured Rebel Engineer & State map (south of the Chattahoochee Riv)… Official Issue. Wm. C. Margedant Capt. & Supt. Topl. Engr. Office D.C. Autographed & printed in the field, Chattanooga May 23rd 1864. Scale 2”:mile. Printed on linen, 17 ½”h x 20 ½”w at neat line. Lower-left margin trimmed to neat line. Not in Stephenson (but held by Library of Congress). Same as map 28. Reconnaissance map-printed.
21. Map of part of Fulton, Fayette, and Campbell Counties from Surveys, State Map and Information. Extra copies to be filled up and returned for Second Edition. Topl Engr Office, Army of the Cumbd. NP, ND. Scale slightly less than 1”:mile. Lithograph, 21 ¼”h x 18 ½”w at neat line. With two flaps passed on to update the map. Lower-left margin trimmed to neat line. Stephenson S26. Reconnaissance map-printed.
22. H. Greenwood Capt and A.D.C., [Untitled manuscript map of an undetermined area along both banks of the Chattahoochee, west of Atlanta, “Copy for Maj Gen D. S. Stanly”.] NP, ND. Ms in ink, pencil and colored pencil, irregular in shape (prob. due to trimming) but 13”h x 23 ¼”w at greatest extent. Some losses along fold intersections. Silked. Reconnaissance map-ms.
23. Part of Cobb and Fulton Counties Georgia Compiled from Land Maps & Information at Topogr. Engr. Office Army of the Cumberland Marietta Ga. July 7th 1864…. Drawn and Printed at Topl. Engr. Office Army of the Cumb. Marietta Georgia. Scale slightly less than 1”:mile. Lithograph, 17 5/8”h x 11 ½”w at neat line. Chip to left margin. Not in Stephenson. Reconnaissance map-printed.
24. Atlanta…. From Vincent’s Subdivision Map, published by the City Council…. Drawn and printed at Topl. Engr. Office, HdQrs. A.C., in the field. July 25th. 1864. Printed on linen, 14 ¾”h x 10”w at neat line. McElresh, p. 189. Stephenson S44. Atlanta map.
25. [Untitled sketch map of the area around Pocataligo, Georgia.] NP, ND. Ms in ink on lined paper, 11 ½”h x 8”w at sheet edge. Reconnaissance map-ms.
26. Map of the Seat of War in South Carolina, and Georgia. Published & Lithographed by Evans & Cogswell, 3. Broad St., Charleston, S. C. [1861]. Scale ca. 1”:5 miles. Lithograph, 20 1/8”h x 25 ½”w at neat line. Stephenson 359. Theater map.
27. Part of the State Map of Georgia Traced from Original at the Engr. Office Dept. & A. of the Tenn. Ms in ink and watercolor on silk[?], 21 ¼”h x 34 ¾”w at sheet edge. Copied from a later (1850s?) edition of William Bonner’s map of the state, the extract extending roughly from the latitude of Savannah north to that of Atlanta. Theater map.
28. Map of 1st. Distrt. Campbell Co. Georgia, South of the Cherokee Boundy. Line. Compiled uder Direction of Capt. W. E. Merrill, Chief Topl. Engr. D.C., by Sergt. Finegan, from the notes of a captured Rebel Engineer & State map (south of the Chattahoochee Riv.)… Official Issue. Wm. C. Margedant Capt. & Supt. Topl. Engr. Office D.C. Autographed & printed in the field. Chattanooga May 23d. 1864. Lithograph on cloth, 18”h x 20 ½”w at neat line. McElfresh, p. 176. Not in Stephenson (but held by LC). Same as map 20. Reconnaissance map-printed.
29. 39th 1st Sess. Report of the Chief Engineer USA…. Map Illustrating the Siege of Atlanta, GA. By the U.S. Forces under Command of Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman from the passage of Peach Tree Creek, July 19th 1864 to the commencement of the movement upon the Enemy’s lines of communication south of Atlanta, August 26, 1864…. Edw. Molitor Lith…. Bowen & Co. lith. Philada. Scale 4”:3 miles. Lithograph, 11 ¾”h x 21”w, printed outline color. Stephenson 137, S39. Theater map.
30. Part of Northern Georgia. Compiled under the Direction of Capt. Wm. E Merrill, Chief Top’l Eng’r D. C…. Official Issue. Wm. C. Margedant Capt. & Supt. Topl. Eng’r Office, D. C. Printed in the Field, Chattanooga, Tenn. May 5th 1864. Lithograph on muslin or silk, 20 ¾”h x 13 ¼”w at neat line, some outline color to roads an rivers. Wrinkled, trimmed into neat line at left with minor loss, some soiling and staining. Inscribed by or to General Howard in lower margin. McElfresh, p. 174. Stephenson S31. Same as map 8. Theater map.
31. The Western Provinces of Prussia & Baden…. Compiled, Printed and Published by G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co. No. 172 William St. New York. Rufus Blanchard, Chicago, Ill.
32. Part of Cobb Co. GA. Compiled & Printed at the Top. Eng. Office D.C. in the field Big Shanty, June 12th [with an added flap at left:] Additions & Corrections to the Map of Cobb Co., Ga. Printed at the Top. Engr. Office D. C. in the field June 10th 1864. Scale 1”: mile. Photoreproduction in the field, 12 ½”h x 19”w at neat line, plus 7” x 4 ¾” flap at left. Spot color. Stephenson S60. Same as map 15. Reconnaissance map-printed.