A map of Gettysburg. Photograph: Library of Congress
The US Congress may have been rather occupied of late fighting wars on foreign shores, but its library has still found the time to devote a large chunk of its website to battles fought closer to home. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer got itself all excited about the 2,240 maps and charts, not to mention the 76 atlases and sketchbooks that the library has begun posting.
The collection – a collaboration with the Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia – depicts "troop positions and movements, as well as fortifications … reconnaissance maps, sketches and coastal charts and theatre-of-war maps".
One can only imagine the enthusiasm the cartographic development will generate at sites such as Shotgun's Home of the American Civil War, which welcomes visitors with these rousing words: "From the blood soaked plains of Manassas, to the smoke filled skies of Atlanta, and finally to the tear filled eyes at Appomattox. For four of the bloodiest years in the history of this Republic the war raged. It started as Yanks and Rebs, it ended as Americans!!"
At Geneaology and How they're already digging. "A new Library of Congress online collection could let you trace your Civil War ancestor's footsteps into battle or see whether soldiers dug trenches on his farm."
Donny Rumsfeld's no doubt poring over the documents searching for battle tips from his Civil War ancestor right now.<BR
Adam Jay
