Jedediah Hotchkiss was born on November 28, 1828, to Stiles and Lydia (Beecher) Hochkiss in Windsor New York. He lived and went to school in Windsor, graduating from Windsor Academy. He was teaching school in Lykens Valley, PA by the time he was 18. After his 19th birthday he set out to explore new places. When he reached Virginias Shenandoah Valley. He saw what a beautiful land it was and he knew he had found his lifetime home. He began teaching school, and eventually opened The Mossy Creek Academy in Augusta County. When war came in 1861 he closed his school and volunteered his service to Virginia and The Confederacy.. Because of his self-taught mapmaking skills, he made a unique contribution to the Confederate military effort. He drew maps for General Robert S. Garnett before the battle of Rich Mountain in western Virginia in July 1861. After the battle he became sick with typhoid fever and retired for several months to recuperate at home. In March 1862 he joined Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley as a captain and chief topographical engineer of the Valley District. Jackson set him the task of making a map of the Valley from Harpers Ferry to Lexington. After this, Hotchkiss carried out reconnaissance and drew maps for the general until Jackson death in May 1863. Thereafter he performed the same duties for General Richard Ewell, Jubal early until the end of the war. He gave himself up upon notification of Lee's surrender. By now a major, he was arrested but General Grant had him released and returned his maps. Grant even paid for the right to copy some of them for his own reports.
 
After the war Hotchkiss taught school for two years before opening an office as a civil, mining and consultant engineer. He was one of the "distinguished men of the South" who collaborated in the writing of the 12-volume "Confederate Military History". On January 17, 1899, at age 71, Jedediah Hotchkiss died at his home in Staunton, Virginia. His maps and journals remained in private hands for nearly fifty years after his death, but in 1948, the Library of Congress acquired these materials.

(October 2008) Enlarge Jedediah Hotchkiss birthplace, Windsor, NY