DESCRIPTION: Small hand-colored map of Santa Rosa Island and Pensacola Bay, Florida. Published before the end of the U. S. Civil War.
This fine map illustrates the fall of Pensacola to Rebel forces in "The History of the Civil War in America …" by John S. C. Abbott. Published in 1863 from Springfield, Massachusetts. Volume 1. Page 359.
Includes the noted locations of these key features:
- Pensacola, Florida
- Gulf of Mexico
- Fort Barrancas
- Fort McRae
- Fort Pickens
- Fort St. Miguel
- Navy Cove
- Warrington, Florida
- Woolsey, Florida
- Deer Point
- Fair Point
- Foster's Island
- Pensacola Bay
- Santa Rosa Island
- Santa Rosa Sound
- Bayou Chico
- Bayou Grande
- Grand Lagoon
Fort Pickens, located on the western tip of Santa Rosa Island in the Florida Panhandle, played a significant role in the United States' coastal defense system during the period from 1850 to 1870. The fort's strategic location allowed it to control the entrance to Pensacola Bay .
During the Civil War (1861-1865), Fort Pickens remained under Union control, despite Florida's secession from the United States in 1861. On January 12, 1861, just days before Florida officially seceded from the Union, a group of Florida state troops and local militia demanded the surrender of the Pensacola Navy Yard. The Union commander, Commodore James Armstrong, surrendered the yard to the Confederates without a fight. The Union forces, however, maintained control over Fort Pickens, located on Santa Rosa Island, which guarded the entrance to Pensacola Bay. Fort Pickens served as a base for Union operations along the Gulf Coast, and its presence helped to disrupt Confederate shipping and supply lines.
The illustration and quotation on this trade card were not unique to John Cosgrove but rather part of a stock design widely used by 19th-century printers who specialized in producing humorous or sentimental advertising cards. Lithographers commonly kept catalogs of ready-made comic scenes—like this seaside mother-and-child vignette with the line “It’s a wise child that knows its own mother at the sea side”—which merchants could customize by adding their own business imprint below. In this case, the printer simply inserted Cosgrove’s name, trade description, and Poydras Market address into the blank advertising panel at the bottom, allowing a small New Orleans fish dealer to benefit from professionally printed imagery at a fraction of the cost of commissioning original artwork.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1863
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Pensacola Bay
CONDITION: Very good.
Clean. Wide margins.
COLORING: Beautiful hand color.
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 6
" x
4 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 11
PRICE: $175
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