1863 Spangenberg Map of the Battle of Vicksburgh, Mississippi, Civil War

Charles Spangenberg(fl. c. 1862 - 1872) was a topographical draftsman active in the mid to late 19th century. Spangenberg served with the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). His name is attached to at least one important Civil War manuscript maps, of the Battle of Vicksburg, as well as published maps of multiple other battles. After the war, he was active in New York City, where he drew several maps for the New York Parks Commission. More by this mapmaker...

Joseph Schedler (April 22 1813 - December 12, 1887) was a New York based engraver, printer, lithographer, and globe maker active from about 1850 to at least 1889. Schedler was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States, a Forty-Eighter fleeing the German Revolutions of 1848-1849. He was active from at least 1850 when he partnered with fellow German immigrant, the landscape artist, painter, and engraver, Theodore August Liebler (1830 – 18??), to found the lithography firm of Schedler and Liebler, 129 William Street. The firm completed engraving work for J. H. Colton as early as 1852 but probably dissolved by 1854. Schedler filed a patent in 1878 for a crystallotype machine, a device the employed electrotyping to print textured crystalline surfaces. He is best known today as a globe maker. Joseph Schedler's globes won prizes at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867, the American Institute Fair in 1869 and the Vienna International Exhibition in 1873. From at least 1876 records suggest he relocated to Jersey City, New Jersey. Schedler's son, Herman, was also a globe maker, and inherited his father's business sometime around 1877, producing globes will to about 1901. Learn More...

Army Corps of Topographical Engineers (fl.1838 - 1863) refers to the an elite branch of the U.S. Army created on July 4, 1838 to perform civil mapping and survey work throughout the United States. The origins of the Corps of Topographical Engineers can be traced back to the American Revolutionary War, where General George Washington recognized the need for accurate surveys pursuant to military action. Shortly following the war, in 1779, a civilian engineering corps was created by act of Congress. Identified in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson, the "Corps of Engineers," which was based at West Point, the group participated in the War of 1812 and in later in the fortification of New Orleans. It was not until 1838, however, that a separate group of "Topographical Engineers" was formally recognized. This elite group, consisting only of officers, most of whom were trained in surveying and engineering by the esteemed Andrew Ellicott at West Point, never numbered more than 36 individuals - the best and brightest. This small but determined group played a central role in the mapping and exploration of the American West. Few branches of the military can boast such a distinguished alumni. Their names resonate throughout the map of the west and include John Charles Fremont, Zebulon Pike, George Meade, Kemble Warren, William Amiel Weeks, A. B. Gray, Randolph B. Marcy, James H. Simpson, Howard Stansbury, John W. Gunnison, William Ludlow, and Robert S. Williamson. The onset of the American Civil War brought an abrupt end to the surveying activity of the Topographical Engineers. Many of the most prominent engineers went on to distinguished military careers on both sides of the War Between the States. The Army Corps of Topographical Engineers itself was folded into the Corps of Engineers on March 31, 1863. Though the Army Corps of Engineers continues to do military and civil survey work to this day, the elite club of adventures that formed the Topographical Engineers were no more. Learn More...