2 Replies Latest reply on May 16, 2019 10:57 AM by Adam Cox

Captured Confederate Maps - Louisiana

Adam Cox Mar 19, 2019 4:17 PM

A few years ago I did a project in Northwestern Louisiana, within which I geoferenced scans of a few maps in the NARA Z-33 record group. You can see them at crhim.legiongis.com/map by activating the "Confederate Maps" or "Confederate Road Survey" layer in the Historic Maps menu.

At the time I was not able to find much information on these maps, though because of their beauty and detail they have always stuck with me. I'm potentially interested in working with this record group more when I attend grad school, so I'm curious now: Where could I find more information about these maps?

In the NARA "Guide to Civil War Maps" they are described as "A group of manuscript parish maps received from Captain Reese in 1866" and on one of maps I worked with it is scrawled: Made under "high pressure" haste by order of S___ Marshall. Beyond these hints I don't have much more information, so I thought I'd start with an inquiry here.

Thanks,

Adam

Re: Captured Confederate Maps - Louisiana

Rebecca Collier Mar 28, 2019 11:31 AM (in response to Adam Cox)

Dear Mr. Cox,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located an Index to Captured Confederate Parish Maps of Louisiana (Local Identifier: Z-33/Index). The maps (Local Identifier: Z-33) are located in a file unit titled Civil War (Local Identifier: Z) that is part of the series titled Civil Works Map File, 1818 - 1947 (Local Identifier: 77-CWMF). All three of these are in the Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers (Record Group 77). Since these records are in the custody of the National Archives at College Park - Cartographic (RDSC), the documentation you seek may be with them as well. Please contact RDSC via email at carto@nara.gov.

More information about maps and the Civil War is available on NARA’s web pages at https://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war and clicking on the section labeled MAPS.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!
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- Re: Captured Confederate Maps - Louisiana
  
  Adam Cox May 16, 2019 10:57 AM (in response to Rebecca Collier)
  
  Hi Rebecca, thanks for your reply. I had gotten in touch with the NARA researchers and was able to visit the College Park archives while attending a conference in DC in early April to see the full collection of these maps. A treasure trove!
  
  Another description of the overall Z folio (not specifically Z-33 though) that I found in a different index was "Maps turned in by officers of the Corp, who were on detached duty with the Army in the Rebellion."
  
  I have made this new webmap to show some of these confederate map layers that I originally made for the project I mentioned above, and thought I would share it on this thread for posterity. https://observablehq.com/@mradamcox/northwest-louisiana-historic-maps
  
  Adam
  
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