Essay Sample on Cartography: The Impact of Map Making on the Civil War

How did we know where to go when traveling during the civil war era? How did you know what's north and what is south? What's west and what east? Well, cartography helped a lot with that. The Civil War was a bloody gruesome war. It lasted for four years. 1851- 1865. Many noblemen died. 620,000 were pronounced dead by the end of the war. The civil war was fought over slavery. Cartography has an unusual history, connections to the civil war, and an outcome that had an impact on the civil war.

Cartography is the study of maps. It was first created in the 6th century of B.C.E The Greeks were the ones who first discovered and or created it. This helped when communication and direction were needed. A piece of evidence that supports that it was created in the 6th century is“between 700-500 BC, this clay tablet depicts the ancient city of Babylon as the center of the world.” This is a clear definition that cartography was created and used first during the 6th century. It shows that cartography has been around forever. It is still useful.

The connection cartography has to the civil war is that when soldiers were traveling to new lands, and new places, they had to use these maps to find their direction. Even when they were going to fight, or take over land, they used the maps to find where to go. From a source, it says that “cartographers provided a constant stream of maps detailing enemy terrain and position.”I know that this was a connection to the civil war because many of the soldiers that were traveling across lands, used maps. How else would they know how to make it around. They did not have phones or google maps. This is a clear reason why. Overall, cartography has a connection to the civil war because of essential travel. 

The impact cartography had on the civil war was that men used maps every day, and without these maps, traveling across lands and trying to get someone was impossible. No, it wasn't impossible to travel, but it would be significantly harder to make it to your destination. It says “here exist three basic types of maps namely, thematic maps, general reference maps, and cartometric maps. This shows that many different maps were used to impact the civil war. I know this suture because many cartographers during this era made these maps that were specifically used for the civil war. There is a specific map that shows the civil warpaths, and directions to places.

Cartography had a big impact on the civil war because of how it contributed to how the civil war took place. Without, knowing this, the civil war would not be easy. Traveling was a main part of everything. Without maps, soldiers would not know where to travel for certain events. Cartography is the study of maps. It was created or first used in the 6th B.C. The Greeks were the ones that used this first. This connection to the civil war because of how much traveling the soldiers had to do. Without cartography, It would be almost impossible to know where they were going. Cartography is connected to the civil war because of this. The impact cartography had on the civil war was that when a soldier of a group of soldiers had to go fight and needed to get from north to south, they carried a map of the pathways all around the north and south. The impact was they could successfully make it to their destination, without any hiccups. To sum everything up, the civil war would have not turned out the way it turned out without maps. It helped them nowhere to go, it helped them navigate through many routes, and it was most likely draw to scale.