After the Civil War, the U.S. Government and the Army embarked on a landmark joint endeavor. For the first time in American history, the federal government itself￯﾿ﾽled by the Army￯﾿ﾽcompiled a military history. The history was composed of all of the official military documents from both sides of the war, and it proved to be a massive production. Called War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, and referred to as the Official Records, or O.R., it contained official reports, letters, telegrams, strength returns, and casualty lists, covering all theaters throughout the war.

The Army then collected the official military maps to supplement the O.R., known as The Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. The maps had been drawn during the war by engineers, draftsmen, and sometimes even generals themselves for actual military use. Only a few maps, drawn later by cartographers, were added for historical purposes. Tactical and strategic maps indicate troop disposition; defense lines, redoubts, and fortifications of key sites are clearly shown. Terrain maps often contain picket positions, signal stations, and lines of march. Some are rough sketches, some cartographic masterpieces. All are informative and reveal the knowledge￯﾿ﾽor lack of knowledge￯﾿ﾽ that both sides possessed about the terrain, and the strength and the position of opposing troops.

The index to the maps refers to campaigns and battles, rivers, creeks, lakes, bays, islands, bridges, fords, ferries, landings, roads, railroads, mountains, towns, churches, forts, and much more. The original edition was published in separate folios, sporadically produced; in this reprint, the index and maps are conveniently bound in one volume.

The most detailed collection of maps ever published on the subject, The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War contains 821 maps, 106 engravings, and 209 drawings (including detailed uniform and flag illustrations) almost all in full color. Compiled during the post-Civil War years from the best cartographic material created during the epic struggle, this atlas is invaluable for anyone interested in the landscape over which was fought the greatest internal conflict in U.S. history.

NOTE: Printed on the reverse side of this dust jacket is a full-color facsimile of the map of the battlefield of Manassas, Virginia, showing the troop positions and movements of both the Union and Confederate armies at 6 P.M., August 29, 1862.