-------- Original Message -------- Subject: re: NOAA Marks Civil War's 150th with Historical Collection Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:19:39 -0500 From: Angie Cope <[log in to unmask]> Organization: American Geographical Society Library To: Maps-L <[log in to unmask]> It is a rural legend that Union cannoneers found U.S. Coast Survey benchmarks marked "CS" and, thinking they were abbreviations for "Confederate States", threw them away. The major Coast Survey monuments were truncated stone obelisks half-buried in the ground, not easy to toss aside in any case. And they were marked "U S Coast Survey" and often also marked "A D Bache Supt." along with the year they monument was sighted in and installed. Bache was the great grandson of Benjamin Franklin, founding member of the National Academy of Sciences, Vice President of the US Sanitary Commission, as well as the Superintendent of the US Coast Survey from 1843 through the Civil War. Union forces would not have mistaken a monument so marked for the geodetic work of the Confederacy! And any smaller, more laconic monuments would be marked "USCS", never "CS". Further, often when Union forces established a new high position they did so with Survey geodesists working right there with the troops. Survey personnel served with Army and Navy units in most of the major campaigns of the war. They even developed a method for firing Navy mortars geodetically, aiming them across bends in the Mississippi River to attack unseen Confederate redoubts with geodetic accuracy. -- _ _ (o) (o) oOOO----(_)----OOOo--- John Cloud Geographer/Writer/Editor NOAA Central Library 1315 East-West Highway SSMC-3, 2nd Floor, E/OC4 Silver Spring, MD 20910 301-713-2607, ext. 126 [log in to unmask] aussi: Chez Cloud Urbanique 1915 Kalorama Rd. NW Apt. 603 Washington, DC 20009 202-277-4931 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: MAPS-L Digest - 13 Oct 2010 to 15 Oct 2010 (#2010-200) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:18:09 -0500 From: Hadden, Robert L AGC<[log in to unmask]> To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]> Hi Linda! When I was a young man tramping around the Civil War battlefields with my Grandfather during the Centennial (hard to believe that was almost fifty years ago!), I was told that Union cannoneers found US Coast Survey benchmarks near their lines in Fredericksburg, VA, placed there as part of their ante-bellum rivers survey. The benchmarks were forthwith dug up and tossed away, because they were thought to have recently been placed there by the sneaky southerners as range indicators, since they were marked "CS" for "Coastal Survey," and they were thought to really mean "Confederate States" by the Union artillerymen. Has anyone else on the MAPS-L ever heard this story, and have a reference to cite? I don't know if this is simply folklore, a rural myth or is perhaps even true. Lee Hadden R. Lee Hadden, BA, BS, MLS Geospatial Information Library (Map Library) Army Geospatial Center 7701 Telegraph Road Alexandria, VA 22315 (703) 428-9206 [log in to unmask] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: NOAA Marks Civil War's 150th with Historical Collection Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:20:31 -0500 (CDT) From: Linda R Zellmer<[log in to unmask]> To: Map& Air Photo Discussion List<[log in to unmask]> This is from today's Live Science: "In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2011, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) has put together a historical collection of maps and documents prepared by the U.S. Coast Survey during the war. The almost 400-piece collection, called "Charting a More Perfect Union," will be available free online through NOAA's Office of Coast Survey to researchers and those who may want to visit famous Civil War battlegrounds and areas in national parks." The full article is at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Livesciencecom/~3/khwY0a0IQ-Y/Civil-War-Map-10 1015.html The maps are available at: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar. Linda Zellmer -- Linda Zellmer Government Information& Data Services Librarian 415 Malpass Library Macomb, IL 61455 [log in to unmask] Phone: 309-298-2723 Fax: 309-298-2791 ------------------------------