United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Maps

Shows James River peninsula and general positions of armies and the French fleet. N-YHS copy has a printed clipping mounted on verso, dated March 4, 1812, giving the names of vessels in the French Navy.

"This plan was taken between the 22nd & 28th of October, 1781."-- cartouche at foot. "Note. The Land within the doted [sic] lines has been laid down by survey." Relief shown by hachures.

General Washington asked Major Sebastian Bauman, an American artillery officer and military engineer, to survey the terrain and battle positions at Yorktown, three days after the British surrendered there. It was the first large-scale battle map printed in the United States, sold by subscription only with relatively few sheets printed. New-York Historical holds two copies, one of which is believed to be Bauman's personal copy.

This series of field sketches and finished maps of projected battle sites in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary war was begun by Robert Erskine, geographer and surveyor-general to the Continental Army, and completed by his successor, Simeon De Witt. Robert Erskine (1735-1780) was appointed Geographer to Washington's army in 1777. He surveyed both sides of the Hudson River and a large area covering the adjoining states. Many of the maps are rough field sketches, from which more detailed maps were later drawn.

These highlights from the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library's extensive map collection illuminate the tremendous geographic, political, and economic changes that transformed thirteen distinct colonies in North America into a new nation.