This reference work serves as a comprehensive bibliographic guide to the extensive collection of Civil War-era maps and atlases held by the Library of Congress. Richard W. Stephenson, a noted map librarian, compiled this second edition to provide researchers and historians with a systematic inventory of cartographic materials documenting the American Civil War. The text functions as a primary finding aid, organizing thousands of individual maps, charts, and atlases by geographic region and military engagement to facilitate scholarly access to primary source data.

Historians and archivists regard this volume as a foundational reference tool for any serious study of Civil War military geography. Readers frequently note the technical precision of the entries, which remain a standard resource for locating specific cartographic evidence within the Library of Congress collections.