Map of the Seat of War. Containing a Map of the vicinity of Washington, Baltimore,...

Maps. 71495. (49) Published by Prang in 1861, Map of the Seat of War! presents six small maps showing the eastern side of America between Massachusetts and Virginia, with forts and costal defences marked, as well as railway links. As with many of the maps, the focus is on the area around Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond. At the top of the map are two portraits of Colonel E.E. Ellsworth and General Benjamin F. Butler. The latter was one of the Union Army’s more troublesome generals who served in multiple regions of the war and had a habit of acting on his own principle before considering superior instructions. Around the time of this map’s publication, Butler was in command of Fort Monroe, Virginia, which can be seen in the bottom right hand corner. In May 1861, not long after the start of the war, three runaway slaves approached the fort. Implying a slaveholder’s logic that slaves were property not people, Butler argued that these runaways were ‘contraband of war’ and thus could be kept behind Union lines. Within days, hundreds of runaways has arrived at the fort and were taken in, to the anger of the Confederates. The policy of safeguarding contrabands spread around other Union bases and historians have seen the policy as being the start of the move towards emancipation. Many of the runaway slaves taken in offered their services to fight for the Union and provide camp support. Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth was considered to be the first casualty of the Union Army. Commander of the 11th New York Voluntary Infantry Regiment, also called the ‘Fire Zouaves’, Ellsworth died in May 1861 after attempting to pull down a Confederate flag in Alexandria, Virginia. A close friend of Lincoln, Ellsworth’s death was mourned across the Union. Revenging his death became a rally cry for Northern soldiers, while numerous commemorations and memorials were dedicated to his honour. It is likely that this is the reason for his appearance on this map.