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1890 Vorzet Map of Yorktown and Williamsburg, Virginia, Peninsula Campaign
YorktownWilliamsburg-vorzet-1890$375.00
Title
Yorktown et Williamsburg (Virginie) / Environs de Yorktown.
1890 (undated) 10.5 x 13.25 in (26.67 x 33.655 cm) 1 : 100000
1890 (undated) 10.5 x 13.25 in (26.67 x 33.655 cm) 1 : 100000
Description
An impressive map of Yorktown, Williamsburg, and environs in eastern Virginia, prepared by Ernest Dumas-Vorzet for the 1890 book Histoire de la Guerre Civile en Amérique. It depicts the terrain on which eponymous battles took place during the U.S. Civil War in 1862, part of the Peninsula Campaign, a failed Union march on Richmond.
With McClellan pursuing the Confederates, the two armies clashed in a more conventional battle outside Williamsburg. This battle was also inconclusive; though the Confederates retreated towards Richmond, they had succeeded in further delaying McClellan, allowing time for formidable defenses to be constructed around the Confederate capital. In the following weeks, after more maneuvers, a series of battles took place south and east of Richmond, which were costly but also indecisive. Yet they resulted in a de facto Confederate victory as Richmond remained unconquered, and McClellan was forced to withdraw his troops to a more defensible position further from Richmond, ending the threat to the Confederate capital. Perhaps as importantly, Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, leaving Robert E. Lee in command of the Army of Northern Virginia, where he quickly emerged as the most effective Confederate commander of the war.
A Closer Look
Covering from an area just west of Williamsburg eastwards to Tue (Toos) Point, where the York River feeds into the Chesapeake Bay, the map provides a remarkable level of detail on topography, terrain, roads, and fortifications (including Fort Magruder, an important stronghold in the Battle of Williamsburg, discussed below). Even individual buildings are recorded, including the 'college' at Williamsburg: the College of William and Mary. An inset map at the bottom-left focuses more closely on the area near Yorktown, highlighting the fortifications of the Warwick Line.The Peninsula Campaign
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 maddening maneuvers and minor engagements with Confederate forces led by Joseph E. Johnston. The Battle of Yorktown, which took place near the site of the more determinative 1781 Siege of Yorktown, was a month-long series of probes and skirmishes between two defensive lines that resulted in an inconclusive Confederate redeployment to a new defensive line near Williamsburg.With McClellan pursuing the Confederates, the two armies clashed in a more conventional battle outside Williamsburg. This battle was also inconclusive; though the Confederates retreated towards Richmond, they had succeeded in further delaying McClellan, allowing time for formidable defenses to be constructed around the Confederate capital. In the following weeks, after more maneuvers, a series of battles took place south and east of Richmond, which were costly but also indecisive. Yet they resulted in a de facto Confederate victory as Richmond remained unconquered, and McClellan was forced to withdraw his troops to a more defensible position further from Richmond, ending the threat to the Confederate capital. Perhaps as importantly, Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, leaving Robert E. Lee in command of the Army of Northern Virginia, where he quickly emerged as the most effective Confederate commander of the war.
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
Very good. Mounted on linen.
References
LC Civil War Maps (2nd ed.), 80. OCLC 877854487.