Folding lithograph map within line border with ornamental corners, original bright outline coloring in rose, green, blue, yellow, and orange, 76.5x61 cm (30x19½"), in (12mo) 15x9.5 cm (6x3¾"), original purple cloth covers, gilt lettering, blind embossing. Revised Edition.
The second most important map of the Mexican-American War. Visually, this map is among the liveliest Mexican-American War images, depicting Manifest Destiny in full-tilt cartographical mode.
The map was created by talented artist, draftsman, historian, and topographer J. Goldsborough Bruff (1804-1889), “author of an unusually full, precise, and carefully documented gold rush journal. It is a fine example of Bruff’s maturity, his precision as a West Point graduate, and his skill as an artist and observer cultivated as a draftsman in the U.S. Bureau of Topographical Engineers” (Hart, Companion to California, p. 54).
This map is most interesting for its impact on the course of the war and how it came into the hands of the U.S. Army and thence to the U.S. Topographical Engineers. For a discussion of the evolution of this rare printed map, see Jack Jackson’s article “General Taylor’s ‘Astonishing’ Map of Northeastern Mexico” (Southwestern Historical Quarterly CI:2, October, 1997, pp. 143-173; map illustrated). As the title of the map indicates, the map is “a copy of Genl. Arista’s map, taken at Resaca de la Palma, with additions and corrections.” Jackson asserts that the success of General Zachary Taylor’s Army of Occupation in the Lower Rio Grande and Northern Mexico was due to two factors: Arista’s map and the services of the spy companies of Texas Rangers.
Texas is shown as far east as Corpus Christi Bay (marking General Taylor’s march from that point to Resaca de la Palma and Palo Alto) and west to Presidio del Rio Grande (showing Wool’s crossing of the Rio Grande into Mexico). Needless to say, Arista, who commanded the Mexican forces in Texas, would have hardly recognized his map in its present form.