UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT, TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS | Map of Texas and Part of New Mexico, compiled in the Bureau of Topographl. Engrs. chiefly for military purposes 1857. [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office for the War Department, ca. 1891–1895]

Property from a Distinguished Private Collection

UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT, TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS

Map of Texas and Part of New Mexico, compiled in the Bureau of Topographl. Engrs. chiefly for military purposes 1857. [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office for the War Department, ca. 1891–1895]

Chromolithographed map (18 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.; 467 x 730 mm), lithographed and printed by Julius Bien & Co., insets of "Plan of the Battle-Field at New Creek, W. Va., August 4th, 1864" and "Plan of the Battle-Field at Pleasant Mills near Cumberland, Md., August 1st, 1864"; lightly toned overall, tiny chips at head at foot of central fold, tiny bits of lower corners restored. Handsomely framed and glazed with UVIII Plexiglass. 

This is Plate LIV from the Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and is based on an 1857 map by the Topographical Engineers of the U.S. War Department that Rumsey describes as "Probably the best and most detailed military map of Texas issued before the Civil War—rivers, roads, explorer's routes, water holes, forts and towns are shown." The fine lithography, in shades of green, sepia, red, and blue, is by Julius Bien & Co.; "Bien will always be remembered chiefly as the first great scientific cartographer in the United States" (Peters, America on Stone, p. 94).

REFERENCE:

Rumsey 1780.054