Civil War Legacy: C.S.A. Mapmaker

Family History | US Coast Survey | CSA Service | Friendship w/ Hotchkiss

For my second Civil War book project, I am editing the journals of Captain Oscar Hinrichs. Captain Hinrichs was a mapmaker in the US Coast Survey for five years before the war. While serving under Stonewall Jackson in the Army of Northern Virginia's Second Corps, he became friends with Jed Hotchkiss who listed him 15 times in his own journals. Hinrichs' firsthand accounts are regarded by experts in Confederate historiography as some of the most important eyewitness reports of the Civil War that have not yet been published.

After the war, Hinrichs continued mapmaking (I recently obtained a map that he made of Mexico in 1886). With the introduction of typewriters, Hinrichs meticulously transcribed his war-time journals, which has been invaluable in the editorial process (especially since at the end of the war, in his despondency, Hinrichs wrote his journal entries in German).

I am almost done typing Hinrichs' journal entries and conducting research. Regarding the latter, I have found ample validation of the notations Hinrichs made in his journals, including his "escape" from the US Coast Survey into the Confederacy. I am now in the process of editing his journals for publication.

Below is a brief summary of Oscar Hinrichs' background and Civil War service.

Oscar Hinrichs' Family History

Hinrichs' father lived in New York City and was the Prussian consul to the US.
His stepmother, Amelia Matilda, was the daughter of John Ehringhaus, an influential businessman in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (Ehringhaus' grandson became a postwar governor of North Carolina).

U.S. Coast Survey/Pre-Confederacy

Oscar Hinrichs joined the Coast Survey in 1857.
He spent most of his time surveying the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Hinrichs' boss was Charles Pattison Bolles, the brother-in-law of CSA Maj. Gen. William H. C. Whiting who became responsible for Wilmington's defense.
In the Coast Survey, Hinrichs got to know key people such as Ambrose Powell Hill who became a leading Rebel commander in Robert E. Lee's army.
Bolles left the Coast Survey immediately after the fall of Fort Sumter; Hinrichs would have joined him except that he was in NYC visiting his parents.
Hinrichs applied to Jefferson Davis for a topographical-engineering position in mid-April 1861 but never heard back from him or his staff. Since Hinrichs was not financially independent, he had to remain in the Coast Survey until he could figure out how to get into the Confederacy.
Bolles took all of his Coast Survey maps to the Confederacy and used them to help to build the defenses of Wilmington, where he and Hinrichs had been living. Hinrichs' former superior was involved in starting Fort Fisher. Battery Bolles is named after him. Alexander Bache, the head of the Coast Survey, was furious that Bolles had what was likely the major collection of Carolina coast maps.
Bache transferred Hinrichs to the Maine wilderness to get him as far away from the Confederacy as possible. He knew that Hinrichs was a Southern sympathizer and suspected the young Prussian also had copies of the Carolina coast maps, which he was not giving over to the Coast Survey.
Although Hinrichs had avoided signing an Oath of Allegiance, he eventually succumbed while in Maine since he had no choice or was to be arrested. He protested and added the stipulation that signing the Union oath would be null and void once he left government service in the USA. That stipulation was not honored by the Coast Survey.
In the winter of 1861, during the surveying off-season, Hinrichs stopped to see his parents in NYC and traveled from there to southern Maryland to visit friends. Bache meanwhile had him reassigned to St. Louis to work under Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck in the Union army (and to get him even farther away from the Confederacy and the Carolina coast).
In the winter of 1861, during the surveying off-season, Hinrichs stopped to see his parents in NYC and traveled from there to southern Maryland to visit friends. Bache meanwhile had him reassigned to St. Louis to work under Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck in the Union army (and to get him even farther away from the Confederacy and the Carolina coast).
Hinrichs' friends in Maryland were southern sympathizers and spies. One of them, Wat Bowie, smuggled Confederate mail and secret messages across the Potomac River. (Bowie would later join John Mosby's partisan rangers and was noted for trying to kidnap the governor of Maryland.)
Hinrichs and his friends followed the Confederate smuggling route through southern Maryland to the Potomac River, spending several days hidden in John Surrat Sr.'s parlor. They commandeered a Union schooner and sailed across the Potomac River to northern Virginia, ending up in Wade Hampton's camp.
Hinrichs used his North Carolina connections to get CSA Attorney General Thomas Bragg to sponsor him to enter the Rebel engineer corps.

Service in Confederacy

While visiting his family in Elizabeth City-and waiting to see if he was going to get into the engineer corps-Hinrichs ended up helping to defend the city during Burnside's Roanoke Expedition. He joined the Rebel retreat to Norfolk but had no money and therefore could not get back to Richmond to accept his commission in the Confederate engineer corps. By doing manual labor and borrowing money from some friends, Hinrichs could finally afford to eat again and he returned to Richmond to embark on his new career in the Confederacy.
Hinrichs was first assigned to help Joe Johnston in planning his retreat from Centreville in northern Virginia.
Hinrichs' next assignment was to go to Yorktown to help Johnston strengthen its defenses in preparation for McClellan's march up the Peninsula from the city of Hampton. To get there, Hinrichs took a boat down the James River and landed at Kingsmill Wharf (near present-day Busch Gardens in Williamsburg) and rode his horse to Yorktown. During the ensuing Confederate retreat, Hinrichs was at the Battle of Williamsburg and returned to Richmond, where he was reassigned to Stonewall Jackson.
Hinrichs joined Stonewall Jackson for the engagements in his 1862 Valley Campaign after Front Royal (e.g., First Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic). While serving under Jackson, he became friends w/ Hotchkiss and helped him with his mapmaking work (unfortunately for Hinrichs his name doesn't appear on the Hotchkiss maps).
Hinrichs served in the Second Corps for the remainder of the war. He participated in all the Army of Northern Virginia's major campaigns. His journals are particularly helpful in providing detailed accounts of lesser-known engagements such as the Battle of Mine Run and 1864 Valley Campaign. Hinrichs' firsthand accounts also capture the essence of the deteriorating Rebel morale as the Petersburg stalemate continued. (And include interesting sidebars, e.g., finding the body of a Rebel commander, Maj. Gen. John Pilgram, lying on Hinrichs' bed in his tent after the Battle of Hatcher's Run.)
Hinrichs participated in Lee's flight through the southwestern Virginia countryside. After surrendering at Appomattox, he traveled with his parole pass via Petersburg to NYC. He was arrested on his way home and alleged to be part of the Boothe Conspiracy and thrown in Capitol Prison along with Henry Kyd Douglas (his friend who wrote about their prison ordeal) and Maj. Gen. Allegheny Johnson (whom he served under). They were put on trial but the charges were dropped.

Friendship with Jed Hotchkiss

March 15, 1863 (Moss Neck, Virginia): "Lt. Henrich was at my tent the rest of the day and dined with me."
May 9, 1863: "Went on to Chancellorsville and then to General Colston's for a detail of men to aid in surveying�Had quite a visit with Hinrichs at Colston's headquarters."
May 29, 1863: "Worked at map of battlefield; in evening called on Hinrichs'; his man is to work for me tomorrow."
June 1, 1863: "Took my [Chancellorsville] map to Hinrichs to have a copy finished."
June 2, 1863: "Worked awhile copying a map for General Anderson and then we went across to Fredericksburg and looked at the enemy to see if any changes had taken place and then back. I went over in the evening to see Hinrichs; he had nearly completed my [Chancellorsville] map. We had quite a long chat."
June 3, 1863: "I worked awhile at a map of Northeastern Virginia, then went down to the 'Pratt House,' below Fredericksburg and sketched the fortification built there-then back to Hinrichs camp and aided to help finish the map of the [Chancellorsville] battlefield, working until quite late."
June 4, 1863: "I took the map of the Chancellorsville battlefield over to General Lee�.I saw Capt. Sam Smith over at Col. Smith's in the p.m. and took him over to see General [Edward 'Alleghany'] Johnson and Lieut. Hinrichs."
June 20, 1863: "Spent the day at Mr. Douglass' very busy drawing maps; Heinrich's and Stalnaker [Henry von Steinacker] came and drew maps also." [Rev. Robert Douglas was the father of Henry Kyd Douglas (author of Riding with Stonewall) and lived at Ferry Hill Place, which was located on a hill above Shepherdstown near Antietam. Steinacker was a draftsman who worked for Hinrichs. After the war, Steinacker accused Alleghany Johnson, Henry Kyd Douglas, and Oscar Hinrichs of being involved with the Stonewall Brigade in the Booth conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. They were all arrested and put on trial. The fallacious charges were dropped when the Union's "star witness," Steinacker, disappeared.]
August 13, 1863: "Worked in the a.m. verifying a map of Orange Co., copied by Mr. Robinson�.In p.m. I rode up to Gen. Johnston's headquarters and saw Lieut. Hinrichs and divided the line of river given me to have mapped with him, he to come to Popular Run and Two Run. I then sketched a portion of the road near Orange C. H. Gen. Johnson told me of his route to [Second] Winchester."
August 24, 1863: "I finished the map of my survey in the morning-then went to see Hinrichs, who has nearly completed his [map], then came back and went to General Lee's and procured from Major Clark a map of King William County to reduce."
August 28, 1863: "I rode up to see Hinrichs and met him coming down with his report, so I came back and chatted a while with him and with Mr. Yarrington, the correspondent of the Richmond Dispatch, then wrote out my report of the operations of June and July and of the marches of the Second Corps."
September 1, 1863: "I took my map to Colonel Smith, in the morning, and got some more maps; came back and took some maps to Hinrichs to reduce; he came to our quarters for a time."
January 18, 1864: "I loaded up and went to Orange C. H., going by Hinrich's, and Col. Smith's, and Gen. Lee's."
April 23, 1864: "I went up to Orange C. H. to get some acc'ts. Paid and get some maps-saw our new Eng. Commander, Major Gen. M. L. Smith. Saw Hinrichs."
November 17, 1864: "Worked at battle of Cedar Creek; Robinson finished Southeastern Virginia�Hinrichs called to see us."

See Make Me a Map of the Valley: The Civil War Journal of Stonewall Jackson's Topographer, edited by Archie P. McDonald; Old Alleghany: The Life and Wars of General Ed Johnson, by Gregg S. Clemmer; and Riding with Stonewall: The War Experiences of the Youngest Member of Jackson's Staff by Henry Kyd Douglas.

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A Mapmaker in Lee's Army: Oscar Hinrichs

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