War telegram marking map

Relief shown by hachures.

Base map depicting eastern Virignia printed in brown ink.

"Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1862 by L. Prang & Co."

"Explanations. The extraordinary large scale on which this map is drawn has been adopted to make it just what we designed it to be, namely 1st. The most distinct map ever published of the whole Virginia territory, where the decisive battles for the Union will be fought. 2nd. A marking map, that is a map to mark the change of positions of the Union forces in red pencil and the rebel forces in blue, on the receipt of every telegram from the seat of war."

Description derived from published bibliography.

Exhibited: "Torn in Two: The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War" organized by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2011.

During the war, commercial firms located in the North published a variety of war-related maps, primarily for the general public. One example, published in Boston, focused on the theater of war in Virginia and Maryland, where "the decisive battles for Union will be fought." As its title suggests, it was to be used by those following the progress of the war when they received news by telegram, a new technology which gained wide acceptance during the 1840s and 1850s along with the nation’s expanding railroad network. The small legend in the lower left also indicates that it was sold with colored pencils so that movements of the Union forces could be marked in red and those of the Rebel forces in blue.