Johnson Hagood’s Memoir and its Maps- Archive.org

A valuable source of information about the war can be found in individual memoirs. They often provide details and information not available anywhere else, especially the maps and sketches they contain. Johnson Hagood’s memoir is one such example, which has over 20 maps from a unit that served in three different states throughout the entirety of the war (South Carolina, Virginia and North Carolina). The memoir like so many others has been digitized by archive.org. Archive.org is a valuable source of hard to find information. They also have the digitized files of the Internet Archive library. You need to set up a free account to “digitally borrow” books there. If you’re a fan of William Barker Cushing and want to know more about the Battle of New River you can find the only book ever written about it by L.J. Kimball there (link).

Johnson Hagood was born in Barnwell, SC, in 1829. He attended the South Carolina Military Academy, now the Citadel, and graduated first in his class in 1947. When the war broke out he enlisted as a private in the 1st SC Volunteers. He rose through the ranks and in 1862 was promoted to brigadier general in the South Carolina Militia. When the militias were incorporated into the Confederate States Army he was commissioned a colonel in the 1st (Hagood’s) SC Infantry and subsequently brigadier general in July of 1862. Hagood served in a variety of different theaters in the war including South Carolina, Virginia and North Carolina. After his death his memoirs were published in 1910 from his original manuscripts (Link), which were edited by U. R. Brooks. The 21 maps from the memoir are shown below. They cover sites in South Carolina (Cole and James Island, Charleston, Secessionville, and Battery Wagner), Virginia (Walthall Junction, Drewry’s Bluff, Cold Harbor, Richmond and Weldon Road) and North Carolina (Town Creek, the Cape Fear River, Wyse Forks and Bentonville). The Cole Island and Battery Wagner maps also include the specific cannons located there and their exact locations!

This is the only map of Cole Island during the war I have ever seen. It also includes which cannons were in each of the nine fortifications!

This detailed map of Battery Wagner shows all the gun emplacements and types of guns in each.

The key to the figure below showing a battery at Petersburg- “An ingenious arrangement of the barbette platforms in the redans was adopted by which the advantages of this style of platform was retained and one of its disadvantages (exposure of the gunners) avoided. A little ditch two and a half feet wide, with recesses (C) for ammunition chests, was allowed around the interior slope; in it the gunners stood, and from it mostly worked the piece. The pieces were kept by a hurter from toppling into the ditch, when run “into battery,” and the platform was extended back, as at D. and E. to give a fire along the rear of the curtain should a lodgment be effected.”