Book Description

"This is a complete biography of a transplanted New Yorker who embraced the cause of Virginia and the Confederacy. Hotchkiss' learning and winning personality made him successful as a staff officer. His forte as a military cartographer soon became apparent to Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. But Roper's ten-year study of Hotchkiss shows us more than the work and challenges of a mid-level staff officer illustrating the Confederate way of war in the East. His postwar life is even more fascinating. Hotchkiss embraced the cause of the "New South" and applied his skills and enthusiasm to the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding parts of Virginia and West Virginia, working on behalf of industry and railroading. Fully documented here are Hotchkiss' efforts to promote the Lost Cause and recapture the truth of Civil War campaigns through his maps. His friendships with former Confederate personalities provide an unusual chapter in Reconstruction and New South history."--BOOK JACKET.