Sebastian Bauman, Plan of the Investment of York and Gloucester (1781)

The Battle of Yorktown marked the victory of the Franco-American forces against the British in the American Revolution. On October 19, 1781, General Charles Cornwallis surrendered, bringing an end to the American Revolution. Major Sebastian Bauman, an American military commander and engineer, created this map after carefully surveying the grounds immediately following the battle. Drawn in exquisite detail, it depicts fields, wetlands, woodlots, and roads, along with the camps and fortified lines of the American, French, and British forces.  It features one scroll dedicating the map to General George Washington, a key to the numeric indications of the positions of the British lines at Yorktown and Gloucester, and depictions of several British ships in the York River. The lower third of the map has an array of American and French flags, cannons, and other accoutrements of war. The map's text provides a day-by-day and position-by-position explanation of the progress of the siege, color-coded blue for the Americans, yellow for the French, and red for the British. Unlike the cartographers of the British army, whose movements would have been restricted after the surrender, Bauman had access to the whole area, including the sites of the American and French encampments in the countryside south of the scene of action. The map is a clear celebration of the American victory, with the center reading, “The Field where the British laid down their Arms.” Modern data visualizations of the battle can be found here.