Jedediah Hotchkiss

Jedediah Hotchkiss (November 30, 1828 – January 17, 1899), known most frequently as Jed, was an educator and the most famous cartographer and topographer of the American Civil War. His detailed and accurate maps of the Shenandoah Valley are credited by many as a principal factor in Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's victories in the Valley Campaign of 1862.

Hotchkiss was born in Windsor, New York. He graduated from the Windsor Academy and, by the age of 18, he was teaching school himself in Lykens Valley, Pennsylvania. The following year he relocated to the Shenandoah Valley and opened the Mossy Creek Academy in Augusta County. He supplemented his income as a schoolteacher by working as a mining geologist. As he explored the beautiful area around his new home he began his hobby (and minor business) of mapmaking that would dominate the rest of his life. In 1853 he married a woman from Pennsylvania named Sara Ann Comfort and together they had two daughters. In 1855 Hotchkiss and his brother Nelson founded the Loch Willow Academy school for boys in Churchville, Virginia. His birthplace, known as the Jedediah Hotchkiss House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Near the end of June, 1861, Hotchkiss signed on as a Confederate teamster to take supplies to the Churchville Cavalry at Rich Mountain, West Virginia. Hotchkiss offered his services as a mapmaker to Brig. Gen. Richard B. Garnett, whose Confederate brigade was operating in western Virginia. Hotchkiss served at Rich Mountain and created maps for General Robert E. Lee's planned campaign in the mountains. He took a brief medical leave after being stricken with typhoid fever, but returned to duty in March 1862 as chief topographical engineer of the Valley District, reporting to Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson. On March 26, 1862, Jackson summoned Hotchkiss to his headquarters and directed him to "make me a map of the Valley, from Harper's Ferry to Lexington, showing all the points of offence and defence [sic] in those places."

...
Wikipedia