Land Navigation?

[atlantis]

Regarding land navigation what was the biggest problem. We see in the war some officers really struggle to get their command where they are supposed to be and properly positioned for best employment for their assigned task.
1 Not enough maps.
2 poor quality maps.
3 officer competence in using maps.
4 poor knowledge in general on reading terrain and using it to best effect.
5 something else.

 

[Old Soldier]

Houndslaw is probably the the original spelling, Hounslow is the current spelling and pronunciation, My birth place was originally Eilinghulhas (an approximation, old maps and documents are difficult and contradictory? - Ealing, about 5 miles from Hounslow

I have a problem with the pronunciation of most towns South of Birmingham as I was born and bred in North Yorkshire, yet can easily pronounce place names over the River Tees in Durham and Northumberland, (like Newcastle, Berwick, Ponteland, Alnwick) and a few in N Yorks (Wass, Yearby, Staithes, Runswick Bay) that folk further South have a problem with.

I am also pretty sure our American friends can boast a few of theirs too - like Antietam, Henagar, Shuqualak.

* Note this is LOCAL pronunciation. I once had a gentleman from a far land stopping his car and asking me on a moor road on the North Yorks Moors how the could get to 'Flar-min-Joe' . Eventually, after much re-asking and repeating, I realised he was asking the way to Flamingo Park Zoo, near Pickering.

 

[Old Soldier]

Donald D. Blackburn was a prominent guerrilla leader in the mountains of Northern Luzon in WW II. I remember sitting in his home looking at a map made by one of his Filipinos. The details and accuracy was amazing. Mapping mountains and jungle isn't easy. With that said I'm sure Civil War Armies were short of skilled map makers.

Very true. As @Don Dixon states, the US land survey was not started until 1871, mainly because of the lack of decent maps for the civilw, but then that was why the British Ordnance Survey was started too.

 

[7thWisconsin]

Francis Barlow's command got lost on their way to make the dawn attack on the Muleshoe at Spotsylvania. They had prepared meticulously, including having the men put canteens and cups inside their haversacks and tying down items that might make noise, which are almost unheard-of Civil War pre-combat preparations. Still they got lost not long after they stepped off (which is ironic because it's just not that far a distance). The guide got misoriented. Barlow hissed something like "For God's sake, at least get us a compass and point us in the right direction so we don't have to march around the world and come up behind them!"

 

[gjpratt]

@Rhea Cole is a storehouse of information about Rosecrans' map making, duplication and use during the Tullahoma Campaign.

 

[Rhea Cole]

@Rhea Cole is a storehouse of information about Rosecrans' map making, duplication and use during the Tullahoma Campaign.

Thanx. Feel free to contact me.

 

[rebelatsea]

I have a problem with the pronunciation of most towns South of Birmingham as I was born and bred in North Yorkshire, yet can easily pronounce place names over the River Tees in Durham and Northumberland, (like Newcastle, Berwick, Ponteland, Alnwick) and a few in N Yorks (Wass, Yearby, Staithes, Runswick Bay) that folk further South have a problem with.

I am also pretty sure our American friends can boast a few of theirs too - like Antietam, Henagar, Shuqualak.

* Note this is LOCAL pronunciation. I once had a gentleman from a far land stopping his car and asking me on a moor road on the North Yorks Moors how the could get to 'Flar-min-Joe' . Eventually, after much re-asking and repeating, I realised he was asking the way to Flamingo Park Zoo, near Pickering.

That's like the old joke about an American trying to find Loughborough or Leicester !
Oddly I have aways been able to pick up place name variations quickly. Helped I suppose by working all over the country and picking up the dialect from the guys I was working with.
Going back to the North East, I had a good friend who's Mum hailed from Pity Me, When she dropped into dialect she might just as been speaking Russian !

 

[Old Soldier]

That's like the old joke about an American trying to find Loughborough or Leicester !
Oddly I have aways been able to pick up place name variations quickly. Helped I suppose by working all over the country and picking up the dialect from the guys I was working with.
Going back to the North East, I had a good friend who's Mum hailed from Pity Me, When she dropped into dialect she might just as been speaking Russian !

Way aye.

 

[Steven Rockwell]

In Normandy, the Germans would change the road markers just to mess with the Allies on/after D-Day. The local militia doing something like that just to mess with USA/CSA units in the area probably happened as well. Our colonel looks at his map, it says the town of Killspeoplesburg* is on the north road, but the sign says it is to the East. Does he go by the map, that may or may not be accurate, or hope the locals haven't messed with the crossroads marker?

*Shamelessly stolen from a bit by comedian Greg Proops.

 

[Old Soldier]

In Normandy, the Germans would change the road markers just to mess with the Allies on/after D-Day. The local militia doing something like that just to mess with USA/CSA units in the area probably happened as well. Our colonel looks at his map, it says the town of Killspeoplesburg* is on the north road, but the sign says it is to the East. Does he go by the map, that may or may not be accurate, or hope the locals haven't messed with the crossroads marker?

*Shamelessly stolen from a bit by comedian Greg Proops.

That is where the lack of topolgraphical info lets you down. Settlements, farms, roads and the occassional creek and river are the components of these early maps. Some do not even have North at the top (usually guessed by the writing. How many officers had a compass. How many of them knew how to use it to orientate a map? How many had a map?

Strange questions until you try to find a map of the period. Most are drawn to show campaigns, battles, etc ('pen and ink' maps) and few show a map that was, or could be, used in the field. This is a map for part of Abermarle County VA (1860) which is typical:

We have to presume North is at the top. Note the rather simple way of showing 'mountains'. For any land campaign, these country maps were probably the only maps easily available of Confederate territory until the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers surveyed and printed their own, but that would only be for occupied territory.