Most of my Civil War reading has been on the internet lately. One matter of interest too me came up less than 48 hours ago which had me extracting Shelby Foote's tome from the shelves to discuss some new information provided on one of my earlier posts at CivilWarTalk. I had wriiten about how Jedidiah Hotchkiss had been instrumental in discovering the route that Gen Jackson took for his flanking manoeuvre at Chancellorsville. In doing so I quoted the following from Foote:
"During the night of 1 May Lee and Jackson met to decide how to get at Hoooker when Jeb Stuart joined them and advised that "according to Fitzhugh Lee … Hooker's right flank was 'in the air' on the Orange Turnpike, wide open to attack. Foote then goes on to describe Lee and Jackson's excitement at this news and Jackson asked about roads to which "Stuart replied that he did not know but he would do what he could to find out". However, without the map, Jackson was guessing he'd find a way that was relatively quick to get behind the Union. Regardless, he was heading off (and orders were issued for his troops to be ready to set off at 0400 the next day).
Early in the morning of 2 May (0400) Lee met with Jackson (following a meeting the previous night when it had been decided that Jackson would march to flank Hooker, even though Jackson did not have an exact route of march). While Lee and Jackson were talking, Hotchkiss "approached the generals and spread his map on another hardtack box between them …[Hotchkiss] had found the route he had been seeking, and as he spoke "he traced it on the map [I think it is probably this map (
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3883s.cwh00059/?r=0.063,0.281,0.321,0.197,0)]: first due west to the furnace, then due south, away from the enemy, along a trail that gradually turned back west to enter the Brock Road, which ran northward to the plank road and the turnpike. However, he explained that the column must not turn north at this point, since that would bring it within sight of a Federal signal station at Fairview, but south again for a short distance to another road leading north and paralleling the Brock Road, which it joined a couple of miles above in some heavy woods just short of its junction with the plank road. That way, practically the entire route – some ten miles in length from their present position and firm enough throughout to support wagons and artillery – would be screened from the eyes of enemy lookouts." … Lee spoke … 'General Jackson, what do you propose to do?' Jackson put out his hand and retraced, with a semicircular motion, the route just drawn. 'Go around here,' he said. Lee kept looking at him. 'What do you propose to make this movement with?' he asked, and Jackson promptly replied: 'With my whole corps.'
… Lee absorbed the shock the words had given him. 'What will you leave me?' The question was rhetorical, he already knew the answer. But Jackson answered it anyway, as readily as before. 'The divisions of Anderson and McLaws.'"
The lead regiment of Jackson's corps set out at 8 o'clock. Jackson was in his new uniform, which JEB Stuart had been glad to see him wearing the previous night as it had been a gift from him to Jackson."
The new information was this article (
https://npsfrsp.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/stonewall-jacksons-last-map/) on the last map drawn by General Jackson in his own hand. In reading that article and consulting Foote I was able to deduce the following:
Although I can not judge whether it is "in Jackson’s distinctive hand" I accept their word that it is so.
The article says "An early article about the map asserts it was used by Lee and Jackson at their final bivouac on the night of May 1-2". I do not think it is the case. Foote says that on the night of May 1 when Lee was meeting with Jackson (after Stuart had bought news that "Hooker's right flank was in the air") Lee "kept peering at a map spread on his knees". Although the linked article does not give map dimensions, the fact that it could be pasted into a book indicates it is not large and unlikely to be a map that would be spread out across Lee's knees. Therefore it seems unlikely that it is the map used by Lee and Jackson on that night. My best guess (and that's all it is) is that it is a map quickly drawn by Jackson on that night while looking at Lee's map. At that meeting Jackson announced "My troops will move at 4 o'clock". Of course, Jackson did not move at 4 o'clock because, as mentioned earlier, Hotchkiss arrived that morning with his map.
The article also says "... most tellingly, Tabernacle Church are all marked in Jackson’s hand". I attach little importance to that as a church would be a notable landmark at the time and would be included on most maps of that era, as Hotchkiss and others also did as a matter of course.
I suggest the "squiggly line" over the River was just to show it was a river while the squiggly line over the Brock Road is to indicate the main known road that he was to take that Lee (on the night of May 1) "had traced a fingertip westward along the map [the one spread across his knees] from their present location ... past the front of the enemy position, then northward [i.e. Brock Road] to intersect the turnpike".
Finally, the article says "Tellingly, it does not include the network of roads that would carry him to the Brock Road on May 2". It does not do so because it was only on the morning of May 2 that Hotchkiss arrived with his map and information about those roads. That is also why I think it must have been a map drawn by Jackson during the night of May 1 during his meeting with Lee.
My favourite Hotchkiss map remains his map of the Shenandoah (
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3882s.cwh00089/?r=-0.047,1.215,1.433,0.881,0. A very large map (about 3.75 feet wide by 8.5 feet long) that is also very detailed. Hotchkiss also took very detailed notes that enabled him to advise Jackson on many other details (e.g. which trails would be unsuitable in rainy weather.)
I live and I learn.