1863 Johnson Map of California, New Mexico, 'Confederate' Arizona, Utah, and Colorado

Ephemeral Confederate 'Arrizona'.

This is an 1863 Johnson and Ward map of the American Southwest depicting Confederate Arizona as a horizontal 'Arrizona' extending from California to Texas. Published during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), it preserves the southern territorial configuration ratified by the Confederacy rather than the western half of New Mexico organized as a United States territory on February 24, 1863. This configuration originated in proposals predating secession; its appearance here places the map among Johnson's late treatments of the horizontal Arizona before his adoption of the north-south division later in 1863. The map also incorporates Colorado and Nevada while retaining an unusually broad Utah and a correspondingly narrow Nevada.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces California and the interior Southwest, extending east to the Rocky Mountains and western Texas, with portions of Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, and northern Mexico at the margins. Pink, green, and yellow county washes divide the interior into broad bands, while stronger pink boundary coloring emphasizes the territorial framework. At the upper left and lower right, the geography extends beyond the rectangular neatline, accommodating the Pacific coast and the southeastern reaches of New Mexico.

Nevada's eastern boundary follows the 116th meridian, leaving Utah considerably wider than its present configuration. Its western boundary descends along a straight line before turning southeast, while its southern limit remains aligned with Utah's at the 37th parallel. This narrow Nevada preserves the territory's original eastern boundary rather than the enlargement authorized by Congress on July 14, 1862.

Utah also extends eastward in a panhandle north of Colorado toward the Continental Divide. Colorado is named prominently, but its western portion retains the inherited county geography of Utah. These overlapping administrative layers make the map more complicated than a straightforward representation of the newly established territories. The title, still naming only California, New Mexico, and Utah, likewise preserves an earlier stage of the region's political organization.

Filmore City is unambiguously identified as the territorial capital though by 1856, the legislature had already returned to Salt Lake City, whose status as the permanent territorial capital was settled in December 1858

The map combines this unsettled administrative geography with a substantial record of exploration and communication. The Pony Express Route crosses the Great Basin, and proposed Pacific railroad routes connect mountain passes, river corridors, and settlements. Routes attributed to Fremont's 1844 expedition, Emory's 1846 expedition, and the Mexican Boundary Commission appear alongside the Santa Fe Trail. Fort Bridger, Fort Defiance, and Bent's Fort punctuate these overland networks. The site of Gunnison's murder is noted near Lake Sevier - supposedly by the local Utes but more likely by anti-railroad activists out of Salt Lake City. The Colorado Gold Region is identified near the Front Range, while Sutter's Mill appears among California's numerous settlements and mining localities. California's dense network of towns and roads contrasts with the comparatively open interior, where mountain hachures, Indigenous place names, tribal designations, and travelers' reports provide much of the geographical information.

Several annotations expose the limits and character of that information. A note in the Great Basin describes an unexplored region through reports attributed to Indigenous inhabitants. Another near the lower Colorado repeats trappers' accounts of fertile, timbered, well-watered country. Such passages preserve the distinction between surveyed routes and secondhand geographical intelligence, even as both are incorporated into the same authoritative-looking atlas map.

Confederate Arizona

The horizontal Arizona shown here originated from efforts to separate southern New Mexico from the territorial government in Santa Fe. Petitions for an Arizona Territory were circulating by 1856. Advocates emphasized the difficulty of travel and communication across the Jornada del Muerto and the great distances separating western settlements from the territorial capital. Several competing proposals followed, including a southern territory extending from the Colorado River to Texas below the 34th parallel.

Impatiently waiting for Congress to approve the creation of the new territory, 31 delegates met at a convention in Tucson in April 1860 and adopted a constitution for a provisional 'Territory of Arizona' south of the 34th parallel. The convention elected a territorial governor and a delegate to Congress. Congress, however, did not recognize the provisional government. The movement became entangled in the sectional struggle over slavery, which had obstructed the organization of several proposed western territories before the war.

At the beginning of the Civil War, support for the Confederacy ran high throughout southern New Mexico Territory. Local concerns helped drive this sentiment, including fears that the withdrawal of Federal troops would leave settlements exposed to Apache attacks. Others felt neglected by the government in Washington. The closure of the southern Butterfield Overland Mail route in 1861 also disrupted an important connection with California and the eastern United States.

Secessionist conventions met at Mesilla on March 16, 1861, and Tucson on March 28, seeking attachment to the Confederacy. Confederate Arizona was proclaimed on August 1, 1861, following Lieutenant-Colonel John Robert Baylor's (1822 - 1894) victory over Union forces near Mesilla. The Confederate government formally recognized the territory on February 14, 1862. Its southern, east-west arrangement continued the earlier provisional scheme, now under Confederate authority.

Confederate control proved short-lived. Union forces from California, known as the 'California Column,' advanced through Arizona in 1862, occupying Tucson and continuing eastward. As Union troops approached, the Confederate territorial government abandoned Mesilla in July and withdrew to Franklin, Texas, now El Paso. It subsequently operated in exile at San Antonio. Confederate units associated with Arizona nonetheless continued to serve, and the territory remained represented in the Confederate Congress until the end of the war.

Publication History and Census

Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827 - 1884) first issued his Family Atlas in 1860. Unlike many early sheets derived from Colton atlas maps, this Southwest map drew on his 1859 wall map, Johnson's New Illustrated and Embellished County Map of the Republics of North America. Johnson replaced this regional map with a newly drawn sheet in 1863-64. This map was published in New York by Johnson and Ward for the 1863 Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. The short title, strapwork border, pagination, Nevada boundary configuration, and documented blank verso correspond to the variant used in 1862 - 1863, before the addition of statistical text to the reverse and the subsequent revision of the territorial boundaries. The horizontal Arizona persisted in the following text-backed variant (which is essentially the same map); later variants used in 1863 adopted the north-south territorial division. One separately cataloged example is recorded in OCLC at the Huntington Library, the atlas is more widely represented.

Cartographer

Alvin Jewett Johnson (September 23, 1827 - April 22, 1884) was a prolific American map publisher active from 1856 to the mid-1880s. Johnson was born into a poor family in Wallingford, Vermont, where he received only a basic public education. He is known to have worked as a school teacher for several years before moving to Richmond, Virginia. Johnson got his first taste of the map business as a salesman and book canvasser for J. H. Colton. The earliest Johnson maps were published with D. Griffing Johnson (no clear relation) and date to the mid-1850s; however, it was not until 1860 that the Johnson firm published its first significant work, the Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. The publication of the Family Atlas followed a somewhat mysterious 1859 deal with the well-established but financially strapped J. H. Colton cartographic publishing firm. Although map historian Water Ristow speculates that Colton sold his copyrights to Johnson and his business partner, another Vermonter named Ross C. Browning (1822 - 1899), a more likely theory is that Johnson and Browning financially supported the Colton firm in exchange for the right to use Colton's existing copyrighted map plates. Regardless of which scenario actually occurred, it is indisputable that the first Johnson atlas maps were essentially reissues of earlier Colton maps. Early on, Johnson described his firm as the 'Successors to J. H. Colton and Company'. Johnson's business strategy involved transferring the original Colton steel plate engravings to cheaper lithographic stones, allowing his firm to produce more maps at a lower price point. In 1861, following the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), Johnson and Browning split their firm between two offices. Johnson moved from Richmond, Virginia, to New York City. Browning remained in Richmond, where he published at least one more edition of the atlas in 1862, at the height of the war. Johnson and Browning published two editions of the Johnson Atlas: 1860 (Richmond and New York) and 1861 (Richmond and New York). Sometime in 1861, Browning's portion of the firm (or perhaps the New York portion?) was purchased by Benjamin P. Ward, whose name subsequently replaced Browning's on the imprint. The 1863 issue of the Family Atlas was one of the most unusual, it being a compilation of older 'Johnson and Browning' maps, updated 1862 'Johnson and Ward' maps, and newer 1863 maps with a revised border design. The 1864 issue of the Family Atlas is the first fully 'Johnson and Ward' atlas. Johnson published one more edition of the atlas in partnership with Ward in 1865, after which Johnson bought out Ward. The next issue of the atlas, 1866, is the first purely 'Johnson' atlas with all new map plates, updated imprints, and copyrights. The Family Atlas ran for roughly 27 years, from 1860 to 1887, outliving Johnson himself, who died in 1884. Johnson maps from the Family Atlas are notable for their unique borders, of which there are four different designs: the 'strapwork border' from 1860 to 1863, the 'fretwork border' from 1863 to 1869, the 'spirograph border' from 1870 to 1882, and a more elaborate version of the same from 1880 to 1887. In addition to the Family Atlas, Johnson issued numerous wall maps, pocket maps, and, in the 1880s, the Cyclopedia. Johnson maps are known for their size, accuracy, detail, and stunning, vivid hand coloring. Johnson's maps, purely American in their style and execution, chronicle some of the most important periods in American history, including the Civil War, the Westward Expansion, and the Indian Wars. Today, Johnson's maps, especially those of the American West, are highly sought after by map collectors and historians.   Further Details...

Source

Johnson, A. J., Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas with Descriptions, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, (New York: Johnson and Ward, 1863).    

Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas was produced in numerous editions from about 1860 to 1887. Johnson's first atlas was mostly likely the 1859 edition of Colton's General Atlas which both aesthetically and comprehensively very similar to the 1860 first edition of the New Illustrated Family Atlas. Johnson's atlas was noteworthy in its day as one of the few commercially produced American atlases that could compete with more established European Atlases. Although he called the atlas 'Steel Plate' on the title page for marketing purposes, Johnson in fact incorporated modern lithographic printing techniques and lower quality woven wood pulp paper to economically produce large format maps in quantity. He also began publishing the New Illustrated Family Atlas on the cusp of the American Civil War, a decision that proved fortuitous, as the war corresponded to a general increased interested in cartography. For the most part, Johnson's Atlas was sold by subscription; nonetheless it became so popular that for at time he was considered the largest publisher in the world. Other than the first edition, the atlas itself has no true editions. Rather, Johnson incorporated updated maps as they became available, so each example of the Johnson atlas might well contain unexpected and scarce individual maps. Johnson's map of the American Southwest, for example, appeared in more than 17 different states, each illustrating minor variations to the rapidly chasing geography of that region. Moreover, Johnson's offered a service whereby he would mail updated map pages that could be tipped into older atlases to keep them current. Generally speaking, Johnson's atlas was issued in four periods - each defined by a distinctive decorative border. The earliest edition featured a strapwork border that appears as rolled and decoratively cut leather. This border work remained in use until 1863. In 1864 Johnson started using an updated fretwork or grillwork border that resembles worked iron - as in a decorative fence. This border was in use from 1863 to 1869. The 1863 edition of Johnson's atlas used both borders and is considered transitional. From 1870 to 1882, Johnson introduced a new border that featured elaborate Spirograph style geometric designs, which was used from 1870 to 1882. After 1880 a new border different but aesthetically similar to the Spirograph border began appearing. Certain editions of the atlas issued from 1880 - 1882 were transitional.

Condition

Fine. Blank on verso.

References

Johnson Map Project, JMP-104, ver. 5.0. Lourie, Ira, 'Alvin J. Johnson and His Role in 19th Century Map Making in America', The Portolan, No. 83, Spring 2012, p. 40. Sacks, B., 'The Creation of the Territory of Arizona', Arizona and the West, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1963, p. 48.