Yesterday, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the event, Mark Meader told us how the Civil War came to an end at Appomattox Court House. Today, we have a series of maps that show the movements of troops in the area.
Maps of the Appomattox area of operations of the Army of the Potomac between March 29 and April 9, 1865 are filed among the Civil Works Map File of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, in Record Group 77. Included is a large scale manuscript map in two pieces, with the notation “Turned into Engineer Bureau by Brev. Col. W.H. Paine,” and a reduced size photoprocessed copy annotated in color to show headquarters and routes of march of the 2nd, 5th, 6th and 9th Corps in pursuit of the Rebel Army.
Click on the images below to open in a new window and zoom:
RG 77 CWMF G170-1
RG 77 CWMF G170-1-1 (NAID: 18216609)
RG 77 CWMF G170-1-1 (NAID: 18216609)
Maps of Area of Operations, Army of the Potomac March 29 to April 9, 1865. Civil Works Map File G-170-1. Record Group 77.
A second copy of the map showing routes of march is also available among the Collection of Colonel W. H. Paine Civil War Maps. While the National Archives is the repository of the official records of the federal government of the United States, donated materials have occasionally been accepted as “appropriate for preservation by the government as evidence of its organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures and transactions.”
Among these donated materials are the papers of William Henry Paine, a topographical engineer who served as assistant to the Chief of Topographical Engineers, Army of the Potomac, from January 1863 to June 1865. Maj. Gen. G. K. Warren wrote of Paine’s service: “To his previous great knowledge of the country he added by constant laborious and oftentimes daring reconnaissances, and applied it in unfailing efforts to correct our imperfect maps and in guiding our columns on the marches night and day along the secret paths he had discovered.” (quoted in A Guide to Civil War Maps in the National Archives, 2nd Edition 1986, p.68).
Here, the map is accompanied by three copies of a map showing the retreat of the Confederate Army from Richmond and Petersburg and its capture by U.S. forces under Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant, engraved for publication in “Grant and his Campaigns.” These copies show edits made for printing, including a change from Rebel Army to Confederate Army.
Maps from the Collection of Colonel W. H. Paine Civil War Maps, NAID 7368933