Fellow Sharpshooters

In a couple recent posts I’ve referenced the Simon G Elliot Gettysburg Burial map. While researching the dedication of the Michigan Sharpshooters monument on Little Round Top I went to the Adams County Historical Society website, and found a fascinating article written by Andrew Dalton about the life and career of self taught surveyor and cartographer, S.G. Elliot. What distinguishes Elliot’s Gettysburg (and Antietam map, published a year later), work from other battlefield surveys, is his identifies the approximate locations where soldiers fell in battle. The dense clusters (CSA=‘I’ USA= ‘+’) of graves is a sobering visual testimony of the three days intense combat, that mere numbers (8,352) can’t capture.

Inspired by opportunities offered by the 1849 Gold Rush, 27-year-old Elliot moved to California and was employed as a surveyor, exploring potential railroad routes. In 1860, Elliot completed a survey between Northern California and Nevada, and produced his first map of the state (showing potential rail routes). Three years later, as Chief Engineer for the California and Oregon Railroad, Elliot led an expedition to survey a potential rail route from Mayville California to Portland Oregon. Beset by personality conflicts and shrinking funds, Elliot quit the project. After a voyage that took him from San Francisco through Panama, Elliot arrived in Washington DC in December 1863; with the goal of securing Congressional funds for his future rail ventures. Unfortunately, despite the victories of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, 1863 was not a good time to ask for money for a project on the opposite side of the country. Elliot’s efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful.

S.G. Elliot’s association with Gettysburg began when he visited the battlefield in January 1864. He was introduced to David Wills and Dr. Andrew Weaver. Dalton speculates Wills/Weaver showed Elliot their notes and rough maps showing the locations of Federal and Confederate dead that he incorporated into his map.

By November 1863 the majority of U.S. dead had been exhumed and interred at the newly dedicated National Cemetery, while CSA dead remained buried on the fields. By 1871, as news of burial sites were being destroyed by farming, the Ladies Memorial Association contracted with Dr. Weaver to exhume and ship the remains to four Southern cemeteries; (Richmond’s Hollywood cemetery; Oakwood in Raleigh, Savannah’s Laurel Grove cemetery and Magnolia cemetery in Charleston). *

With the onset of Spring 1864, S.G. Elliot had completed his map, and had it published by H.H. Lloyd Company of Philadelphia. It is not known how many of the Elliot/Gettysburg maps were printed or sold (some were offered at the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair). The surviving copies (and 1864 Antietam map), were discovered at the New York Public Library and Library of Congress.

https://www.achs-pa.org/s-g-elliott-a-california-railroad-swindler-turned-civil-war-cartographer/

* I discovered a fascinating article written by Kathyrn L. Thompson for the Civil Discourse blog entitled A Macabre Family Affair: The Weavers and the Gettysburg Dead; that details the tireless efforts by the father and son team of physicians, Andrew and Samuel, who oversaw the recovery and burial of thousands of fallen soldiers from both sides: https://civildiscourse-historyblog.com/blog/2016/2/2/a-macabre-family-affair-the-weavers-and-the-gettysburg-dead

The Elliot/Antietam map was discovered by Chief Historian, Timothy Smith of the Adams County Historical Society. This is the 2020 Smithsonian article link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/forgotten-antietam-battlefield-map-shows-locations-hundreds-graves-180975134/

Bill Skillman
Berdan Sharpshooters Survivors Association