The Petersburg Project
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  • The Crater
  • Petersburg in Pencil and Ink
    • Alfred R. Waud, Special Artist at Petersburg >
      • In Front of Petersburg
      • Waud Drawing of 5th Corps Fortifications
      • Rives Salient ("Fort Mahone")
      • Soldiers' Wells
      • The Mine Explosion
    • William Waud, Special Artist
    • Charles H. Chapin, Special Artist
    • Edwin Forbes, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Joseph Becker, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Andrew W. Warren, Special Artist
    • Winslow Homer, Special Artist
    • Enlisted Artists >
      • Charles Wellington Reed
      • Andrew McCallum
      • Francis Knowles
      • James William Pattison
      • Herbert Valentine
  • Steeples of Petersburg
  • Petersburg Photographs --So Many!
    • Working with Photographs
    • Petersburg Panorama 1865
    • City Point
    • City Point Wharf Explosion, Aug. 9, 1864
    • Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
    • Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • O'Sullivan and Vest Man
      • Fort Morton and Baxter Road Group
      • Fort Haskell Panorama
      • Fort Stedman Group
      • Gracie's Salient Group
      • Bombproofs behind Fort Haskell
      • Camp of the 50th N. Y. Engineers
    • John Reekie, Photographer for the Quartermaster Corps
    • Thomas C. Roche, Photographer at Petersburg
    • David Knox, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Andrew J. Russell, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • "Fort Mahone" CS Batteries 25 & 27
  • U. S. Military Railroad
    • Terminus of Military R. R. at City Point
    • City Point to Clark's Station
    • Pitkin's Station to Shooting Hill
    • Hancock's Junction/Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Parke's Station
    • Warren's Station
    • Patrick's Station
  • Maps and Topogs
    • Grand Medicine Pow-wow
    • Michler's Reports from Topographical Department
    • John E. Weyss, Cartographer
    • William H. Paine, Cartographer
    • Gilbert Thompson
  • Confederate Maps
    • Confederate Defenses 1862
    • Gilmer-Campbell Maps, 1864
    • Stevens Map July 1864
    • Fields of Fire
    • Coit's map of the Crater Battlefield
  • Federal Maps
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Map
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Map
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • Undated Federal Engineers Map--June-July, 1864
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • 18th Corps, June 18, 1864
    • Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • IX Corps, Peebles and Pegrams Farms Oct. 1864
    • Army of the Potomac, Nov. 2, 1864
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • Manuscript Survey, 1865
    • Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • Michler Map Series 1865-1867
    • 1871, Map of Recapture of Ft. Stedman
    • 1881, Boydton Plank Road
  • Confederate Forts and Batteries
    • Dimmock Line >
      • Priest Cap
      • French Rifle Pits
    • Fort Clifton
    • Confederate Leadworks
  • Federal Forts and Batteries
    • Battery X
    • Fort Alexander Hayes
    • Fort Avery
    • Fort Conahey
    • Fort Davis & Battery XXII
    • Fort Fisher
    • Fort Meikel --Photographic Views
    • Fort Morton
    • Fort Patrick Kelly
    • Fort Sedgwick, better known as Fort Hell,
    • Fort Wadsworth -- the Evolution
    • Fort Willcox or Battery XVI
  • Battlefield Features
    • Aiken House
    • Avery House
    • Bailey/Johnston Farm
    • Blandford Church
    • Broadway Landing, Appomattox River
    • The Crater
    • Cummings House
    • Dams and Inundations
    • Dunn House
    • Friend House >
      • View from Friend House toward Gibben complex and Petersburg
    • Globe Tavern / Weldon Railroad
    • Gregory House
    • Griffith Farm
    • Gurley House
    • Hare House
    • Hare House Hill
    • The "Horseshoe"
    • Jones House
    • Jordan House
    • Pegram's Farm
    • Peebles Farm, Pegrams Farm, Poplar Springs Church
    • Shands House
    • Taylor Farm >
      • The Ice House
      • Surviving Taylor Barn
    • U. S. Engineers at the Williams House
    • Williams House
  • Signal Towers and Trees
    • Some Operations of the Signal Corps at Petersburg
  • Archeology
    • Geology of the Crater
    • Fieldwork -- Petersburg
    • Civil War Sinks
    • Deserted Confederate Camp
    • Gracie's Countermine
    • LIDAR Forts and Batteries
  • Articles, Papers, Presentations
    • Shiman: A Note on Maps
    • The Siege Landscape: Through Fire and Ice at Petersburg
    • "The Rebel in the Road"
    • "A Strange Sort of Warfare Underground"
    • Lost Trenches of Petersburg: June 17
    • Between the Lines
    • Combat Trenching: An Introduction
  • Encyclopedia
    • Glossary
    • The Battlefields
    • Siege Warfare
    • Union Lines
    • Confederate Lines
    • Combat >
      • X Corps, June 30, 1864, Attack
      • Combat Entrenching
      • Trench Warfare in Civil War History
      • Chamberlain at Petersburg, June 18, 1864
  • Kittens, Puppies & Ponies
  • Executions!
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • New: Shot tower

Map Series (8" = 1 mile) compiled under the direction Nathaniel Michler, 1865-1867

The maps from the Michler-Weyss surveys are the finest historic maps that exist of Virginia’s battlefields. These were adapted to illustrate many postwar memoirs or unit and campaign histories. Historians use the maps today to visualize the cultural and physical features of battlefields and park planners to reconstruct historic landscapes based on the patterns of fields and woodlots.

Soon after the Siege of Petersburg began, on July 9, 1864, topographical engineers of the Army of the Potomac started work on a series of maps of the vicinity of Petersburg. The maps were updated continually as the siege unfolded. Federal siege works and opposing Confederate lines (that could be safely surveyed) were laid out on a scale of eight inches to the mile with theodolite and chains.  Federal engineers triangulated from signal towers to fix the positions of known church spires and other landmarks within the town of Petersburg. This allowed them to merge the results with an existing prewar Coast Survey map of Petersburg and the Appomattox River to construct a detailed map of areas both within and (to a degree) outside of Federal lines.

Acting Chief Engineer, Army of the Potomac, Nathaniel Michler stated on September 24 that the "detailed map," extending from Appomattox River to the Weldon Railroad was ‘‘now completed, with the exception of the lettering.’’ The map, of course, continued to evolve to incorporate another set of maps initiated by the Army of the James.  In its final stages and postwar manifestation, it filled twenty-eight sheets and covered more than 290 square miles. It depicted Federal entrenched lines both north and south of James River on a line thirty-six miles long. The siege works are shown in great detail, including the batteries, picket lines, military roads and railroads, headquarters locations, and signal stations. Features were drawn on a grid of one minute longitude and one minute latitude as noted in pencil in the map’s margins.  Such a large-scale map was of inestimable value to Federal headquarters in conducting the siege and planning future operations. According to Michler, ‘‘constant reference was made to it.’’

At the end of the war, a broader survey was initiated to map the major battlefields of the eastern theater. Initially directed by army chief engineer, James Duane in 1865. Nathaniel Michler took over in 1866 when Duane resigned. These surveys relied heavily on the detailed wartime maps completed during the war, but endeavored to fill in the details that had been behind Confederate lines. Maj. John E. Weyss headed the fieldwork in Virginia, which concluded in December 1867. Maps from the Michler-Weyss survey were published in 1869 as the Atlas of Military Maps Illustrating the Operations of the Armies of the Potomac & James. All of these maps were later resized and redrawn for inclusion in the Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (published in folios 1891-1895), which is the standard reference work for Civil War military maps.

 This information was summarized in ‘‘From the Rapid Ann to Coal Harbor’’: Post-War Topographical Survey of Civil War Battlefields, by David W. Lowe, 2002.
A Guide to Civil War Maps in the National Archives, 1986: Entry 2.246. Maps of the area in the vicinity of Petersburg and Richmond compiled under the direction of Bvt. Brig. Gen. N. Michler, 1865-1867. 1 inch to 1/8 mile. 28 maps, average 30" x 52". Manuscript. Two index maps prepared in the Office of the Chief of Engineers show the coverage of each map. Some of the maps are identified as being surveyed by Maj. J. E. Weyss and party and drawn by Weyss and others. Roads, railroads, defense works and entrenchments, wooded areas, cleared areas, fields, and names of residents are shown. Relief is indicated by hachures. The city blocks of Richmond and Petersburg are shown in detail. RG 77: G 204-33 through G 204-60. NOTE: The eight maps below cover the area south of the Appomattox River.
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Detail from Michler Series Map G204-38, shows the City of Petersburg in detail. Map courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
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