Augusta County: "MAJ. JED HOTCHKISS," by unknown, 1899
Summary: Obituary for Major Jed Hotchkiss, Confederate engineer and map-maker, describing his wartime service and postwar activities.
So early as the twelfth century the family of Hotchkiss was prominent in England. Samuel Hotchkiss came to New Haven, Conn., in 1642, Windsor being a later home. The men were eminent in founding churches, holding civic offices of high sheriff and marshal, and, while leading the ranks in the French, Indian, and Revolutionary Wars, in times of peace were farmers and inventors.
In 1789 David Hotchkiss came from Cheshire, Conn., to New York. Jed Hotchkiss, son of Stiles and Lydia Beecher Hotchkiss, was born in Windsor, N. Y., on November 28, 1828. He distinguished himself at the academy, completing his Latin and Greek with the pastor of the Presbyterian Church, as was the frequent custom, adding French, German, Italian, Spanish, drawing, and painting as time and teachers permitted. To be a minister or a teacher was his problem, but he never regretted his choice of the latter profession.
Making a walking tour through Maryland and Virginia in 1847, he chose the Old Dominion for his foster mother, and became tutor in the family of Mr. Daniel Forrer. He married Miss Sara Comfort, a childhood friend, in 1853, and built the Mossy Creek Academy, one of the best known in the South.
An ardent "old line" Whig, Mr. Hotchkiss opposed secession, but when war was declared he collected his surveying and mapping appliances, and joined Gen. Garnett at Laurel Hill, feeling that his topographical knowledge of the region would make him useful as an engineer. He was assigned to duty with Col. Heck on July 2, 1861, and began a map of the region, but on McClellan's attack he was order to conduct a retreat, so through a night of rain and darkness, through woods and laurel swamps, he led the men over several mountain ranges, saving the commands in his charge while the others were captured. As adjutant he reorganized the troops at Monterey, while continuing to furnish maps, and in August he became topographical engineer to Gen. R. E. Lee, at Valley Mountain. As the result of reconnoissance duty and exposure Engineer Hotchkiss took typhoid fever and went to his home at Churchville, where careful nursing saved his life. During his convalescence he made the maps for the reports of Gen. Loring and Col. Heck on the Rich Mountain and Lygart's Valley campaigns.
By invitation, in March, 1862, Engineer Hotchkiss joined Gen. T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson, near Woodstock, and was commissioned topographical engineer on his staff as captain. Jackson's first order was brief but comprehensive: "Prepare a complete map of the Valley, showing every point of offense and defense from the Potomac to Lexington." The preceding fifteen years of observation, added to facility in sketching on horseback in his field notebook, with an eaglelike power of vision, soon furnished him a great fund of mapping material which was transferred to the large sheets.
As Jackson advanced to meet Shields at Kernstown, he directed Capt. Hotchkiss to choose a line for defense, and on the second day he reported the line selected at Stony Creek, at Edenburg. The engineer now led a hard life, burning bridges, reconnoitering, repairing roads, and rescuing wagon trains from quicksands. Once he rode all night, sixty miles, without rest. The engineer entered Winchester at Jackson's side, dashed after the enemy, and then returned to rally the citizens to extinguish the fires lighted by the retreating foe.
Again reported to Jackson, Capt. Hotchkiss guided a battery, led Taylor's flank movement around the Federal left, and was in the attack which decided the battle of Port Republic. For such stern duties his reward were the frequent crisp words, "Good, very good," from the great "Stonewall."
Capt. Hotchkiss was the first to lecture on "Jackson's Valley Campaign," always charming his audiences in England at Amherst, Harvard, Princeton, Chapel Hill, or Washington and Lee, making maps in colored crayons as he lectured. His crowning triumph was when before the learned societies of Washington he gave his lecture on "Topography in War," based on the Valley campaign, and the venerable historian Bancroft embraced him on the rostrum, saying: "It is the best thing I ever heard in my life."
But to return to 1862. Capt. Hotchkiss was in the battle of Cross Keys, sketched the positions on the field against Fremont's front, while Jackson slipped away to Richmond, surprising all the world save himself.
From Meacham's River the engineer was sent to Staunton "to make a map." By Jackson's order he mapped the region between Gordonsville and Washington, copies being given to Gens. Lee, Stuart, Longstreet, and Jackson, our division generals.
In Warrenton he bought a small compass with a chatoyant face. At the conclusion of the Maryland campaign Gen. Jackson presented to Capt. Hotchkiss the world-famous "old gray cap," made by Mrs. Jackson herself.
Lee and Ewell used Hotchkiss maps for routes and movements during the Gettysburg campaign. The Chancellorsville campaign now opened, and Capt. Hotchkiss selected the route for the famous flank movement around Hooker. By Gen. Lee's orders the next day Capt. Hotchkiss led the ambulance and escort conveying the marvelous Jackson to the Chandler house, at Guiney Station.
Capt. Hotchkiss now served on Gen. Ewell's staff. He rode with Ewell the first day of Gettysburg, and then was sent to watch and report from Seminary Ridge. Gen. Lee said he "always had confidence in Hotchkiss maps."
In 1864 Gen. Lee sent Capt. Hotchkiss to choose a line of defense in the southwest valley to protect the furnaces and niter works. After riding hundreds of miles he presented his report, and Gen. Lee warmly complimented it. At the close of the Cold Harbor campaign Capt. Hotchkiss made in one day, at Gen. Lee's request, during heavy skirmish fire, a map of the line for ten miles from the Chickahominy to the Iotopotomoy Rivers.
On June 13, 1864, Gen. J. A. Early was placed in command of the Second Corps, and Capt. Hotchkiss was assigned to duty on his staff. He served Early during his Valley campaign against Sheridan. With Gen. J. B. Gordon he ascended Three-Topped Mountain, and made a map from there. He built a footbridge, and chose "hidden ways" by which the troops approached Sheridan. The remaining months of 1864 the Second Corps spent in Staunton, where Capt. Hotchkiss made the elaborate maps and reports of the year, during which period he had furnished over one hundred maps used by officers from Gen. Lee down.
He was with Rosser as engineer when the surrender came. He was paroled on May 1, 1865, in Staunton. His parole certificate was issued on May 27. The amnesty oath was signed on June 10, and the State oath on July 12. The United States Government demanded his maps, by order of Gen. Grant in person, who ordered and paid for such copies as he required for his reports, and courteously returned them all.
During the war Maj. Hotchkiss had borne a charmed life. Two horses were killed under him, and at the battle of the Wilderness his field glasses, which were held by their strap just over his heart, stopped a ball, and so saved his life. Nearly six feet tall, he was a picture of manly vigor and beauty in 1865.
Removing to Staunton, the county seat, Maj. Hotchkiss opened a select classical school for fifteen lads, sons of his fellow-soldiers, while in vacation he surveyed lands, issued maps for numerous companies, and at the end of three years was fully launched as a civil, mining, and consulting engineer. He also had tried to popularize the public school system, lecturing with Dr. Sears, of the Peabody Fund, all through the South, giving his war lectures for the benefit of churches and Confederate memorial associations, and on the Sabbath gave blackboard talks on Palestine and Jerusalem, graphic and delightful. He urged emigration of the best Northern and foreign people, and spent the winters of 1872-73 and 1874-75 in England and Scotland, lecturing on the resources of Virginia, notably before the Royal Society of Arts, and meeting with such honorable entertainment as few private citizens had ever received up to that time. "Stonewall Jackson's engineer" was a open sesame to all English homes. By his efforts millions of dollars were invested in Virginia.
The death of Gen. Lee, in 1870, closed an important event in his life, as the General had undertaken a physical survey of the South, and had chosen Capt. Hotchkiss to take charge of the work.
In 1875 he prepared for the State a "Summary of Virginia," a wonderful mass of facts, figures, and detailed maps. He also was expert special agent of the census of 1879 on Virginia mineral statistics. From 1880 to 1886 he published "The Virginias," a vast compendium of relibable data on every resource of his beloved State, still an authority on such points. He was the Virginia commissioner to the New Orleans Exposition, and a judge of mines and mining at the World's Fair of 1893. He was expert topographer to the government, and also served on the Antietam and Fredericksburg battle fields commission. He was a founder and Fellow of the Geographical Society, and member of the American Philosophical Society, the Mining Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Virginia and Massachusetts Historical Societies, and the Scotch-Irish and Geological Societies. He was a member of the Army of Northern Virginia, and organizer and first Commander of the Stonewall Jackson Camp, U. C. V., of Staunton. His record reads: "Appointed June, 1861, in topological engineering service on staff of Col. T. J. Heck; after battle of Rich Mountain, on staff of Gen. R. E. Lee, during Valley Mountain campaign. In March, 1862, assigned to staff of Gen. T. J. Jackson, and continued there until his death, in 1863; then remained on staff of Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia; under Gens. A. P. Hill, Ewell, and Early until the end of the war, in April, 1865."
He was an active patron to the Y. M. C. A. and a charter member of the S. P. C. A. His last unfinished work was a bill before the Legislature for a geological survey of Virginia. He was also a member of several large coal and iron land companies. He had sent to the Confederate Publishing Company at Atlanta a history of Virginia during 1861-1865, which is now being published.
He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a Sunday school superintendent, and his last public appearance was on January 1, 1899, in the sanctuary he loved, the church of his fathers. On the 3d he was taken with la grippe, and meningitis ended his honorable life at eleven o'clock on the night of January 17. With closed eyes and sealed ears his vigorous mind was still clear, and as his soul departed he crossed his hands in prayer, raising his face to heaven.
The "happy services" he always desired were simple, from his home, the Oaks. The old hymns, "There is a land of pure delight," "How blest the righteous when he dies," and "Servant of God, well done," were beautifully sung, the Scriptures read, and prayers offered. The Stonewall Jackson Camp escorted him to his rest. His fellow-elders, former pupils, public men, and near friends bore his body. Over him were placed three Confederate flags sent by tender hands. Of "the old staff" Rev. James P. Smith, D. D., of Richmond, was the sole representative, who pronounced the benediction over the flower-covered grave of one of the best of men.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Confederate Veteran, Vol. 7, 1899, pp. 270-271
