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Includes area from Chattahoochee River between Warsaw and Cambelltown, and west to the Tennessee boundary. Shows cities, townships, roads, drainage, and relief by hachures. The 138-mile route was opened in 1850.
"The United States gained vast territories in the West through the Mexican War of 1846-48 and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Great Britain. By the early 1850s, government and commercial interests were debating the possibilities of building a transcontinental railroad to the Pacific. The Army Appropriations Act of 1853 provided for the completion of railroad surveys to determine possible routes. This map, issued in 1858 by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, depicts the United States west of the Mississippi on the eve of the Civil War. California and Texas were at this time the only Western states. Western regions initially became part of the United States as military departments, which only later were organized into territories and, eventually, states. The map uses colors to show the military departments and Indian lands. Brown flags indicate military establishments. In the lower right are listed all of the important surveys and expeditions that contributed to the mapping of the West, from the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to a survey of roads between the Sacramento and Columbia Rivers undertaken by two army officers in 1855. The routes of these expeditions are shown on the map. The map was compiled by then-Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren of the Army Topographical Engineers and a future Union general in the Civil War. Davis later became president of the Confederacy and a bitter adversary of President Abraham Lincoln under whose leadership, ironically, work on the transcontinental railroad began in 1862." World Digital Library.
Relief shown by shading. Shows towns, wagon roads, explorers' routes, railroads, forts, etc., in Utah and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Washington Territory (now part of Southern Idaho), Oregon, Nevada and California. "Engraved by W.H. Dougal." "Corrections and additions in reference to railroads in California, etc., were made in January, 1862 ..." Prime meridian: Greenwich. Includes note and list of authorities. Signed on verso: Millard Fillmore May 15, 1861. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.
"D. McGowan and George H. Hildt's 1859 map of the United States west of the Mississippi was based on an official map of 1857 produced by the Pacific railroad surveys. In the 1850s, Americans concluded that they needed to build a transcontinental railroad linking the east and center of the country with the Pacific coast. The U.S. Congress authorized the army topographical service to undertake engineering surveys and general assessments of five possible routes: from Saint Paul, Minnesota; from Council Bluffs, Iowa; from Saint Louis, Missouri; from Memphis, Tennessee; and from Vicksburg, Mississippi. Cities, states, and business groups competed fiercely to be the eastern terminus of the transcontinental railroad. This map offers an excellent example of a promotional map used to encourage settlement and investment in the American West. Published in Saint Louis, it emphasizes potential routes emanating from that city. The focus on Pike's Peak highlights the recent discovery of gold in Colorado. The map is hand-colored, framed in decorative borders, and shows drainage, state boundaries, cities and towns, and transportation and communication networks." World Digital Library. Detailed general map framed in decorative borders showing drainage, state boundaries, cities and towns, and the transportation and communication networks. An excellent example of a promotional map to encourage emigration. [From published bibliography]
Shows county boundaries, cities and towns, and the railroad network with names along the lines.