Proceedings, findings, and opinions of the Court of inquiry convened by order of the President of the United States in special order no. 277,
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"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.
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Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Appears in the U.S. War Dept.'s Report of the Secretary of War on the several Pacific railroad explorations, 1855. "This is a hurried compilation of all the authentic surveys and is designed to exhibit the relations of the different routes to each other. An elaborate map on scale of 1:3,000,000 is being compiled and is in an advanced state." In manuscript ink on verso: "Maps showing boundaries of proposed territory of Arizona belonging to the [illegible], Department of the Interior." Annotations in ink at lower center. LC copy imperfect: Mounted on cloth, minor discoloration horizontally along lower right half and along upper left half. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.
Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows routes and dates of expeditions and surveys. Includes list of "Authorities" and inset "Territory of Alaska." Scale 1:3,000,000. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Designed to show "milt. post underlined in red," LC copy not colored. Vault AACR2
Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. "Railroads corrected June 5th 1873." This printing of the map includes the extension showing a portion of Canada compiled and drawn in 1871. Shows routes and dates of expeditions and surveys. Includes list of "Authorities" and inset "Territory of Alaska." Scale 1:3,000,000. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Designed to show "Milt. posts underlined in red color." LC copy not colored. Vault AACR2
Hand colored. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows military departments, posts, routes and dates of expeditions and surveys. Includes list of "Authorities." Scale 1:3,000,000. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. LC copy annotated in pencil. Vault AACR2
Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Incorporates note and surveys added after Jan. 8, 1858. Shows Indian tribal locations, military posts, routes and dates of expeditions and surveys. Includes "Note" and "Authorities." Scale 1:3,000,000. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. LC copy annotated in color to show boundaries, black ink to show place names, and blue ink to show routes. Vault AACR2
Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Second bar scale glued on. Shows Indian tribal locations, military posts, routes and dates of expeditions and surveys. Includes "Authorities." Scale 1:3,000,000. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. LC copy annotated in color to show boundaries, in red and blue ink and pencil to show place names, base lines, railroads and railroad exploration routes. Vault AACR2
Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows Indian tribal locations, military posts, and routes and dates of expeditions and surveys. Includes "Authorities." Scale 1:3,000,000. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Exhibition: Exhibited: Rivers, edens, empires: Lewis & Clark and the revealing of America, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., July 24-Nov. 29, 2003. LC copy annotated in color and black ink to show boundaries, place names, base lines, proposed Indian reservations and Indian land cessions. Vault AACR2
Relief shown by hachures. Scale 1:6,000,000. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. AACR2
Outline sketch map of the United States west of the Mississippi River designed to show the relationship of the proposed railroad routes. First edition of the map appears in U.S. War Department, Report of the Secretary...Communicating the Several Pacific Railroad Explorations (Washington, 1855). [From published bibliography]
Very detailed map of the United States west of the Mississippi River indicating drainage, relief by hachures, cities and towns, forts, trails, wagon roads, and routes of exploration. An important map of western expansion, it utilized and lists 45 major exploration and mapping reports from the Lewis & Clark to the U.S. General Land Office Surveys.
Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Annotated on verso: United States from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. 1868. Millard Fillmore, Nov. 17, 1869. Shows routes and dates of expeditions and surveys. Includes list of "Authorities" and inset "Territory of Alaska." Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. LC copy sectioned and mounted on cloth backing. Vault AACR2