Civil War Battles: The Maps of Jedediah Hotchkiss
By Chester G. Hearn and Mike Marino
(May 2010 Civil War News)

Illustrated, bibliography, index, 160 pp., 2008. Thunder Bay Press, www.thunderbaybooks.com, $18.96 plus shipping.

Don’t pick up this book expecting a full-blown biography of Jedediah Hotchkiss because you will be disappointed. The book is exactly what the title says it is: a description of “Civil War Battles” that use the maps of Hotchkiss.

Hotchkiss, Stonewall Jackson’s mapmaker, is prominent because almost all of the maps in this volume are his. His associates drew a few of the maps.

Although the book’s main focus is the battles for which Hotchkiss drew maps, we get to see his method of map-making as well as how and with whom he interacted.

Not only did Stonewall Jackson bring Hotchkiss to prominence, but the two worked closely together until Jackson’s death following Chancellorsville. Following Jackson’s death, Hotchkiss worked with Richard Ewell, Jubal Early, Robert E. Lee and many other Confederate generals.

Fairly detailed narratives include such battles as Rich Mountain, Kernstown, the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Gettysburg Campaign, Gettysburg (map drawn by an assistant), The Wilderness, Spotsylvania and the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

Cold Harbor, Richmond and Petersburg are not included because Hotchkiss was not there.

The book contains numerous sidebars with histories of some of the prominent generals. It also contains five interesting pullout maps. There are no endnotes, which is a disappointment.

What surprised this reviewer most was the number of inaccuracies when it came to the battles. The book is littered with them.

Just as an example, the authors have the Confederates going into Gettysburg to “seize a reportedly large store of shoes.” By now everyone knows there were no shoes in Gettysburg and if there had been Jubal Early’s men would have taken them when they passed through the town earlier in the campaign.

Buford’s men were not armed with Spencers; they carried mostly Sharps, with some Burnsides, Gallaghers and Merrills thrown in. And that is just Gettysburg. Descriptions of other battles have the same problem. A good fact-checker would have corrected these errors.

If the reader wants to look at Jedediah Hotchkiss’ maps and get an inkling of his life with the Army of Northern Virginia, this is a pretty good volume. If you want descriptions of battles, go elsewhere.

Reviewer: Blake A. Magner