Item description: Hand drawn map, dated 23 March 1862, of the First Battle of Kernstown, reportedly sketched by two officers on Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s staff: Major Jedediah (Jed) Hotchkiss and Major R.L. Dabney. The battle is considered the opening battle in Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The hand drawn map includes a label presumably made by R.L. Dabney’s son, Charles Dabney, and reads, “Sketch of the battle at Kernstown, made on the field by two of General Jackson’s staff officers, Major Jed Hotchkiss, Chief of Engineers, and Major R.L. Dabney, Chief of Staff, March 23rd, 1862. (Property of C.W. Dabney, Jr.)”

Jed Hotchkiss became known as an accomplished topographic engineer and cartographer and is seen by many Civil War historians as a key figure in Jackson’s Valley Campaign. A collection of Hotchkiss maps are preserved at the Library of Congress’s Geography and Map Division.

Click here to view the Library of Congress’s Hotchkiss Map Collection online.

Item citation: From folder 243 of the Charles William Dabney papers #1412, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.