S.G. Elliott’s Maps of Burials

Simon Green Elliott (1828-1897) was a California railroad engineer and the creator of two of the most important maps of the Civil War era. In 1864, Elliott traveled to the Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields. Rather than showing the ebb and flow of the battles, Elliott’s maps track the postbattle burials of the dead. These maps — the well-known Gettysburg burial map and newly-discovered Antietam map — are invaluable tools for historians and preservationists alike, as they illustrate the importance of properties around these hallowed battlefields.