1890 Vorzet Map of Richmond and Eastern Virginia

Richmond-dumasvorzet-1890
$350.00
Environs de Richmond. - Main View
Environs de Richmond. - Main View
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1890 Vorzet Map of Richmond and Eastern Virginia

Richmond-dumasvorzet-1890

Defending the Confederate Capital.
$350.00

Title

Environs de Richmond.
  1890 (undated)     22 x 14.5 in (55.88 x 36.83 cm)     1 : 125000

Description

This highly-detailed Dumas Vorzet map depicting Richmond and environs in eastern Virginia was issued to illustrate the scarce 1890 atlas volume of the French edition of Philippe d'Orléans' Histoire de la Guerre Civile en Amérique. This region was the site of multiple important battles, including the Peninsular Campaign of 1862 and the Overland Campaign of 1864.
A Closer Look
This map covers Richmond, Virginia, and environs as far north as the Pamunkey River and south as far as the James River estuary. The street grid of Richmond is noticeable at the left, while individual properties are labeled in rural areas. Roads, railways, forts, rivers, forests, areas of elevation, courthouses, and other features are labeled throughout. At the top-right are inset maps of Gaines Mill, Fair Oaks, and Glendale, sites of engagements during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. A note at the top explains the map reflects the situation in 1862, though with fortifications as of 1864 included, and that several forests noted here were cut down by 1864 to build fortifications.
The Peninsula and Overland Campaigns
The 1862 Peninsula (or Peninsular) Campaign was a failed Union effort to march on the Confederate capital of Richmond. Led by George McClellan, Union troops landed at Fort Monroe near the tip of the Virginia Peninsula and engaged in weeks of maneuvers and minor engagements with Confederate forces led by Joseph E. Johnston. Important engagements took place at Drury's Bluff, due south of Richmond, Seven Pines east of Richmond, and Hannover Court House near the top. Eventually, Johnston launched a surprise attack on McLellan on June 25. The entire area east and southeast of Richmond, from Mechanicsville to Malvern Hill, was the site of engagements in the resulting Seven Days Battles. Although indecisive, these battles resulted in Union Armies being driven away from the Confederate capital. Perhaps as importantly, Johnston was wounded in the battle, leaving Robert E. Lee in command of the Army of Northern Virginia, where he quickly emerged as the most effective commander of the conflict.

Later in the war, in early June 1864, the Battle of Cold Harbor took place near that town and Mechanicsville and was part of Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign. Although the Confederates repulsed Grant's flanking effort (it is often seen as Lee's final victory), they could not impose a defeat significant enough to drive Union troops from Virginia. Instead, Grant continued to move southwards and laid siege to the rail junction of Petersburg, just to the south of this map. Richmond held out until nearly the end of the conflict, but the Confederate government and defending garrison evacuated at the start of April 1865 as Petersburg fell.
Publication History and Census
This map was drafted by Ernest Dumas-Vorzet, engraved by Louis Wuhrer, printed by Becquet, and published by Michel Lévy in Paris for the 1890 French edition of Philippe d'Orléans' Histoire de la Guerre Civile en Amérique. The atlas supplement, of which this map was part, was issued only with the 1890 French publication and not included in any of the earlier English editions. The entire work, in this edition, is uncommon in institutional collections, with only 3 being identified in OCLC, and is scarce to the market. Most examples lack the atlas, which in OCLC appears only at the Boston Athenaeum. Very little market history.

CartographerS

Ernest Dumas-Vorzet (18?? - 18??) was a French line and letter engraver active in Paris in the late 19th century. He engraved the lettering on nautical charts for the Dépôt des Cartes et Plans de la Marine. His later work is often associated with Émile Delaune (18?? - 19??) and Hachette et Cie. He is likely the father of Edouard Dumas-Vorzet, a French publisher and cartographer. More by this mapmaker...


Frédéric Louis Charles Wuhrer (1844 - 1925) was a French cartographer, engraver, and artist. He lived in the town of Buc, France, where he purchased the former Town Hall. Wuhrer is better known as a landscape artist, with a strong record at auctions. Little is known of his engraving work, but the Bibliothèque nationale de France has over one hundred pieces in their collection attributed to his name. Learn More...


Louis-Philippe-Albert d'Orléans, Comte de Paris (August 24, 1838 - September 8, 1894) was a French prince, scholar, officer in the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), and unofficially King of France (February 24, 1848). Louis-Philippe-Albert was the grandson of French king, Louis Philippe I of the house of Orléans. With the advent of the French Second Republic (1848 - 1852), Louis-Philippe-Albert and his family fled to the United States. Louis-Philippe-Albert became an outspoken journalist who, when the Civil War broke out, volunteered to serve in the Union Army, being instantly appointed assistant adjutant general under General George McClellan with the rank of captain. During his service, he used the abbreviated name Philippe d'Orléans. He served in the Peninsular Campaign, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater, but resigned from service in July 1862. Later, he wrote a History of the Civil War in America, published in 1875. He returned to Europe in 1864, where in England, he married his paternal first cousin, Princess Marie Isabelle d'Orléans (1848–1919), Infanta of Spain. In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War and the downfall of Napoleon III, they were allowed to return to France, and many of their properties were restored. He renounced all claims to the French throne in 1873 but was still considered by some Orléanists as Philippe VII of France. In 1886, the prince and his family again went into exile in London, where he died in 1894. Learn More...


Michel Lévy (1821 - May 4, 1875) was a French publisher and founder of the Michel Lévy Frères publishing house. Born in Phalsbourg in the Moselle to a bookseller (colporteur), he began selling books in Paris at the age of fifteen under the name Michel Lévy Frères. Although his brothers Kalmus (Calmann) and Nathan were sometimes involved in his business, Michel was the primary bookseller and later publisher. Initially, Lévy focused on works relating to the theater, but later expanded into literature, periodicals, and other fields. By the 1860s, Michel Lévy Frères was one of the major publishers in France, putting out works by the likes of Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, and Victor Hugo. Michel Lévy was inducted into the Légion d'Honneur in 1873, but died unexpectedly two years later. Afterwards, his brother took charge of the firm, then renamed Calmann Lévy (sometimes as Calmann-Lévy), and it continued its success as a leading publisher in France. In 1893, Calmann turned over the business to his three sons, Georges, Paul, and Gaston, who ran it until the Second World War, when Gaston was interned by the Nazis and the publishing house was renamed Editions Balzac. After the war, the firm continued and still exists today as a subsidiary of Hachette. Learn More...

Source

Orleans, Louis-Philippe-Albert d', Histoire de la Guerre Civile en Amérique, par M. le comte de Paris (Paris: Michel Lévy) 1890.    

Condition

Good. Some centerfold discoloration. Laid on old linen.

References

LC Civil War Maps (2nd ed.), 80. Library of Congress G1201.S5 P3 1890. OCLC 877854546.