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Description

Rare map of the region between Lake Maurepas to Pensacola in West Florida, Mississippi Territory, including the yet to be formed Alabama Territory and all of Mississippi Territory. Shows Forts Barancas, Bowyer, St. John, St. Philip, Old Fort on Lake Ponchartrain. Batteries on both ends of English turn, two camps and battlefield between villages and New Orleans. Highly detailed, including soundings, notes on the number of guns at several of the forts, and other fascinating details. One of the few printed War of 1812 Battle Plans and almost certainly the largest obtainable printed battle plan of New Orleans. An essential map for New Orleans and Gulf Coast Collectors. From Melish's Military and Topographical Atlas of the United States. Rumsey 4950; Ristow p. 180. A near flawless example, which was apparently bound in a single fold. Normally, when bound into the atlas, the map was folded several times, so this example may have been in a composite atlas or separately issued.

John Melish Biography

John Melish (1771-1822) was the most prominent American mapmaker of his generation, even though his cartographic career lasted only a decade. Melish was born in Scotland; he moved to the West Indies in 1798 and then to the United States in 1806. By 1811, he had settled in Philadelphia and published Travels through the United States of America, in the years 1806 & 1807, and 1809, 1810, & 1811, which was richly illustrated with maps.

Melish created several regional maps of the highest quality, as well as the Military & Topographical Atlas of the United States (Philadelphia, 1813, expanded 1815). The latter work is widely considered to be the finest cartographic publication to come out of the War of 1812.

By far his best-known work is his monumental map of the United States of 1816, Map of the United States with the contiguous British and Spanish Possessions. He began working on the map in 1815 and sent it to Thomas Jefferson for comment in 1816. Jefferson enthusiastically reviewed the map and returned it with his edits. Jefferson later hung an example of the map in the Entrance Hall of Monticello and sent it to associates in Europe.

Melish’s finished product was the first map of the United States to extend to the Pacific Ocean. After its publication in 1816, Melish ensured the map was as up-to-date as possible; it was reissued in 25 known states published between 1816 and 1823. The map captured the then rapidly changing geography of the United States, as well as various boundary disputes, treaties, and expansion.