Review - "The Maps of Second Bull Run: An Atlas of the Second Bull Run (Manassas) Campaign from the Formation of the Army of Virginia Through Chantilly, June 26-September 1, 1862" by Bradley Gottfried

[The Maps of Second Bull Run: An Atlas of the Second Bull Run (Manassas) Campaign from the Formation of the Army of Virginia Through Chantilly, June 26-September 1, 1862 by Bradley M. Gottfried (Savas Beatie, 2024). Hardcover, color maps, text, orders of battle, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages:xiv,305. ISBN:978-1-61121-708-7. $39.95]

Every new addition to the Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series is cause for celebration, and Bradley Gottfried's The Maps of Second Bull Run is no exception. The tenth volume in the series, it covers the period of time during the summer of 1862 that witnessed a series of sharp clashes between Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and John Pope's recently organized Army of Virginia, the latter reinforced (not quickly enough in the opinion of many critics) by advance elements of George McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Events fully addressed in the atlas include the Battle of Cedar Mountain, the rear guard action at Kettle Run, the contest over possession of Thoroughfare Gap, the Battle of Brawner's Farm, the featured Second Manassas battle, and the Battle of Chantilly.

For those unfamiliar with the general format, when you open the book there is a full-page, multi-color map on the right-hand side and facing it on the left is a page filled with a narrative description of the action depicted on the corresponding map. Those pairings are further organized into "map sets" that collectively address smaller engagements in their entirety, operational interludes between battles, and key phases of the larger battles. In this case, their are twenty-four maps sets arranged in six parts, the whole housing 122 maps.

Several maps address the overall strategic situation at the onset of the campaign, but the overwhelming majority are of operational and tactical natures. Generally speaking, the tactical-scale maps are of two main types. One depicts larger sectors of the battlefield involving multiple divisions on each side, and the other represents much more close-in views of brigade-scale actions. Unit scale ranges from corps and divisions on the operational map sets to individual regiments and batteries on the tactical ones. Environmental map features include the expected man-made and natural elements (ex. roads, railroads, rivers, streams, vegetation, fence lines, crops, and the most prominent elevation lines) without becoming too busy. Distance scale and action time intervals are clearly denoted, as is compass direction. The last is important to keep in mind as many/most of the operational-scale maps are offset by 90 degrees (so north is to the left on those instead of up) in order to take advantage of that page dimension's wider lateral space.

In most military atlases, the maps (appropriately enough) are front and center and explanatory text is relegated to a secondary role at best. This series distinctively, perhaps even uniquely, offers the best of both worlds. It should really be called a 'history and atlas' series. Each volume contains a fully realized narrative account of the campaign and battle, one that provides abundant small-unit detail and transitions seamlessly from page to page. Integrated into map and text is a matching number system for highlighting the most noteworthy events. There is some analysis of decision-making and range of options available to commanders (and in that analysis Gottfried frequently defers to the written opinions of subject matter experts such as Second Manassas leading light John Hennessy), but the bulk of the text is reserved for describing movements and actions depicted on the facing map. Gottfried's explanatory endnotes frequently offer additional detail and commentary, too. Nearly every paragraph incorporates some pithy phrase or stirring passage from a participant account. That humanizing element inserted throughout the book effectively prevents the text from becoming just a dry recitation of unit movements and actions.

Gottfried's research is grounded in a solid body of manuscript resources, newspapers, government documents, books (particularly unit histories), and articles. As noted in the introduction, the narrative is intended to be a synthesis of the best available sources rather than a platform for new interpretation from the author. For a book of this type, that's likely the most common reader expectation.

As good as the narrative content is overall, there are some presentational problems that mar it. Numerous errors (ex. typos, missing words in sentences, and use of words that don't match intended meaning) made it through final editing. In the introduction, the author humbly asks readers to report mistakes that can be corrected in future printings. An example of a confusion-spawning error was the frequent misrepresentation of Confederate Col. Thomas Garnett's name. In Gottfried's index he is incorrectly listed as Thomas "Garrett" and both names (Garnett and Garrett) are used interchangeably within the map-facing text coverage of the Cedar Mountain fighting (on the maps, his command is correctly labeled as Garnett's brigade). In another case, Union Col. James Nagle's name is correct on the maps and in the index, but it is incorrectly spelled "Nagel" in the facing page titles and descriptive text starting on page 132.

Aforementioned flaws in presentation aside, The Maps of Second Bull Run is another excellent entry in the series. The best military atlas enhances reader understanding in ways that can only be achieved through effective leveraging of the kind of visual learning unique to cartography. That is very much the case with this volume. That strong measure of success, in combination with what is essentially a new full-length historical account of the campaign and battle, makes the book well worthy of recommendation.