Booknotes: The Maps of the Wilderness

New Arrival:
• The Maps of the Wilderness: An Atlas of the Wilderness Campaign, May 2-7, 1864 by Bradley M. Gottfried (Savas Beatie, 2016).

This is the newest volume in the Savas Beatie Military Atlas series, which has been dominated so far by Gottfried's prodigious eastern theater output. The 120 color maps in The Maps of the Wilderness include "an assessment of the winter of 1863-1864, the planning for the campaign, the crossing of the Rapidan River, and two days of bloody combat and the day of watchful stalemate thereafter." Readers familiar with the series will recognize the organizational structure of the volume, which retains the 'action-sections' of its predecessors. "At least one―and as many as eight―maps accompany each “action-section.” Opposite each map is a full facing page of detailed footnoted text describing the units, personalities, movements, and combat (including quotes from eyewitnesses) depicted on the accompanying map." There are 24 of these action-sections in the book.