1861 Civil War 'Richmond Edition' of Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas

A rare Richmond-issue Civil War edition of Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas published in Richmond in 1861. While Johnson atlases are not considered particularly rare, we have never before seen a Richmond issue and certainly not an 1861, by which time the American Civil War (April 12, 1861 - April 9, 1865) had begun in earnest. The atlas was printed in Richmond by Charles H. Wynne. It was Wynne's last publication before joining the Virginia Artillery and transitioning his presses to war bonds, Confederate currency, and other war materials. The atlas is largely similar to the 1861 edition issued in New York, but has two exceptionally rare maps in unrecorded states, both significant. The first is the map of Kansas and Nebraska, and the other is the Southwest map covering modern day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This second map is likely the first printed map to illustrate the territory of Colorado.

Comparing the Richmond vs. New York Editions

The 1861 editions of Johnson's atlas printed in New York and Richmond are similar but not identical. The Richmond 1861 edition, as here, was printed in Richmond by Charles H. Wynne. The New York edition was printed in New York, a bit later in the year by D. McLellan and Bros. Evidence from the atlas suggests that there were at least two sets of places, which while mostly similar, were not identical, especially as regards the following two maps. The differences may reflect the tense situation in Richmond just before the war and the need to rush the plates to press. Work on the atlas in Richmond was left to Browning, who completed and printed the Atlas in early 1861 just as the war broke out. Being a Union man, Browning was eager to leave the Confederacy behind and managed with considerable difficulty to sneak across lines in late April or May of 1861. Thus, the two maps described below exhibit considerable ambiguity not present in the 1861 New York edition. The differences are highlighted in the individual descriptions below, but as a whole they can be attributed to plates that had not been updated and revised regarding the March 2 creation of Dakota territory before being sent to the presses, and potential Confederate pandering on the part of the printer.

Johnson's Nebraska and Kansas

This map presents Kansas and Nebraska in an unusual configuration we have not previously seen. The map recognizes secession of territory in southwestern Nebraska to Colorado in February 28, 1861, but not the acquisition of new western lands from Washington Territory or the full creation of Dakota Territory, which occurred on March 2, 1861. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, its western boundary was drawn at roughly 96.4th Meridian, leaving the former Minnesota territory lands to the west unincorporated. Here Dakota, shaded green, remains ambiguous, with no firm shaded boundaries to the east, indicating that the cartographers knew that Dakota territory was in the works, but had yet to be defined. The western Dakota boundary here aligns with the 103rd meridian. There is no natural boundary here, and we can find no reference to this boundary in Congressional records of the period. However, it does come up alter in negotiations with the Sioux and Teton nations. Thus, the ambiguous mapping here suggests this map was drafted sometime after February 28, and before the March 2nd. Alternatively, this may reflect the interests of the Confederacy. By the time this map was issued the Civil War had not yet broken out, but the Confederacy had formed and multiple states had seceded. Although Confederate interests were not well established in either Nebraska Territory or Dakota, they may have had an agenda reflected here.

Johnson's California, Territories of New Mexico and Utah

A most unusual variant state of the important Johnson map of the southwest, covering all of modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. Although the map offers much of interest, it is distinctive for its illustration of Confederate Arizona. While both the New York and Richmond editions of 1861 feature a printed east-west running border for Confederate Arizona, only the Richmond edition highlights it as a separate territory. It is of note, that when this map was issued, early in 1861, the state of Arizona did not exist. Nonetheless, being below the demarcation line set for in the Missouri Compromise, and having heavy Confederate sympathies, the Confederacy certainly wanted Arizona Territory to exist. We can assume that its appearance here represents pandering to southern interests.

Retrospectively, Confederate Arizona appears in Johnson atlases as early as April 1860, when a constitution for the 'Territory of Arizona' was drafted in Tucson. When Congress rejected the Arizona constitution, late in 1860, it was removed from the New York edition of the atlas, but retained in the Richmond edition - potentially reflecting the printer Charles H. Wynne's Confederate political leanings. Read the full colorful history of Confederate Arizona below.

The map also differs in that Utah includes a panhandle that extends eastward north of Colorado to the Rocky mountains and the borders of Nebraska Territory. As with the previous highlighted map of Kansas and Nebraska Territory, this reflects ambiguity over the borders and creation of Dakota Territory, but recognition of the February 28, 1861 ratification of Colorado Territory. In the March 2, 1861 Congressional act that created the Dakota Territory, this panhandle was ceded to Nebraska. This again underscores that these maps must have been sent to the presses between February 28 and March 2, 1861.

Also of interest, this is the first Johnson map to include Colorado, and potentially the first published map to include Colorado. For the reasons above, it is likely that this map as issued just days after the territory was ratified. The map includes a Nevada-California border along the Sierra Nevada mountains that, in later land disputes would be moved east to accommodate gold and silver discoveries. Similar, the Utah-Nevada border here would later be removed further is to equalize the two states. The capital of Utah is noted as 'Fillmore City'.

Confederate Arizona

Confederate Arizona was a territory claimed by the Confederate States of America from 1861 until 1865. The idea for an Arizona Territory appears as early as 1856, when the government of the Territory of New Mexico began to express concerns about being able to effectively govern the southern part of the territory, as it was separated from Santa Fe by the Jornada del Muerto, a particularly unforgiving stretch of desert. The New Mexico territorial legislature acted on these concerns in February 1858, approving a resolution in favor of creating an Arizona Territory, with a north-south border to be defined along the 32nd meridian (from Washington). Impatiently waiting for Congress to approve the creation of the new territory, 31 delegates met at a convention in Tucson in April 1860 and drafted a constitution for the 'Territory of Arizona', which was to be organized out of the New Mexico Territory below 34th parallel. The convention even elected a territorial governor and a delegate to Congress. Congress, however, was reluctant to act. Anti-slavery Representatives knew that the proposed territory was located below the line of demarcation set forth by the Missouri Compromise for the creation of new slave and free states, and they were not inclined to create yet another slave state. Thus, Congress never ratified the proceedings of the Tucson convention, and the Provisional Territory was never considered a legal entity.

At the beginning of the Civil War, support for the Confederacy ran high in the southern parts of the New Mexico Territory. Local concerns drove this sentiment, including a belief that the war would lead to an insufficient number of Federal troops to protect the citizens from the Apache, while others simply felt neglected by the government in Washington. Also, the Butterfield Overland Mail Route (an overland mail and stagecoach route from Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco) was closed in 1861, depriving the people of Arizona of their connection to California and the East Coast.

All of these factors led to the people of the southern New Mexico Territory, or the Arizona Territory, to formally call for secession, and a convention adopted a secession ordinance on March 16, 1861, with a subsequent ordinance ratified on March 28, establishing the provisional territorial government of the Confederate 'Territory of Arizona'. The Confederate Arizona Territory was officially proclaimed on August 1, 1861 following Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Baylor's victory over Union forces in the First Battle of Mesilla, and the territory was officially recognized by the government of the Confederacy on February 14, 1862. However, by July 1862, Union forces from California, known as the 'California Column' were marching on the territorial capital of Mesilla. Sent to protect California from a possible Confederate incursion, the 'California Column' drove Confederate forces out of the city, allowing them to retreat to Franklin, Texas. The territorial government fled as well and spent the rest of the war in 'exile'. First, they retreated to Franklin, then, after Confederate forces abandoned Franklin and all of West Texas, to San Antonio, where the 'government-in-exile' would spend the rest of the war. Confederate units from Arizona would fight for the rest of the war, and the delegate from Arizona attended both the First and Second Confederate Congresses.

Publication History and Census

This atlas was published in Richmond by Johnson and Browning early in 1861. It was printed in Richmond by Charles H. Wynne in March and April of 1861. Printing must have been completed by late April, when Wynne's presses were repurposed for the war effort. The 1861 Richmond edition of the Johnson atlas reflects the last to be issued in Richmond and the most obscure and rare of all Johnson atlases.