1865 Kossak Map of the Marches of General Sherman during the American Civil War

This is a separate issue 1865 William Kossak and United States Corps of Engineers map of the southeastern United States tracing the movements of Union Army forces under the command of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1863, 1864, and 1865. Depicting from Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana to North Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean and from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia to Mobile Bay, the level of detail employed by Kossak, and John B. Muller, a draughtsman, is astounding. The routes followed by General Sherman's units, which include the 4th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 20th Army Corps are illustrated, along with Sherman's movement on Atlanta (a massive operation during which he orchestrated the movements of three separate armies), and Sherman's pursuit of Confederate General John Bell Hood. The movements of General J. H. Wilson's Cavalry Corps and those of General G. Stoneman's Cavalry Corps are also depicted, along with Union and Rebel fortifications.

Sherman's involvement in the siege of Vicksburg, the Chattanooga Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign are all traced, allowing the viewer the opportunity to see the vast amounts of territory General Sherman covered during these three years. Sherman also accepted the surrender of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee at Bennet Place near Durham Station (Durham), North Carolina. Finally, Sherman and his men marched from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., where they took part in a massive parade celebrating the end of the war.

A highly detailed representation of a pivotal part of American history, myriad cities, towns, and villages throughout the region are labeled. Rivers, lakes, hills, and mountain ranges are also depicted, creating a sense of the terrain that Sherman and his men had to negotiate in order to achieve success. Railroads, one of the key new technologies in both the Union and Confederate war effort, snake their way across the map, connecting urban centers with small towns and making rapid redeployment of troops more feasible than ever before. Numerous Civil War battles occurred either at rail junctions or close by, and one of the major objectives of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea was to cripple the rail network in the region in order to cut off Confederate armies (particularly General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia) from one of their last major supply centers.

This map was drawn by William Kossak and John B. Muller and engraved by H.C. Evans and F. Courtenay of the Army Corps of Engineers under the direction of Brevet Major William LeBaron Jenney in 1865. We have been able to locate this map in institutional collections but we believe that it has never before been available on the market.