1787 Soules Map of Yorktown Showing the Final Battle of the American Revolution

An important 1787 American Revolutionary War map by F. Soulés illustrating the Battle of Yorktown, the last major conflict of the war.

A Closer Look

The map centers on the battleground just south of Yorktown on the shores of the York River. Gloucester is apparent just across the river. Finely engraved detail is exhibited throughout with fields, swamps, roads, and houses noted. The map was most likely drawn by Querenet de la Combe, a French officer commanding the French Royal Corps of Engineers at the Siege of Yorktown.

The Battle

The Battle of Yorktown, also known as the Siege of Yorktown, was a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, the siege proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War in the North American theater, as the surrender by Cornwallis, and the capture of both him and his army, prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Publication History and Census

This map is based upon a 1781 French manuscript map housed in the Rochambeau Collection (Mss. 59) at the Library of Congress. It was issued in the second edition of François Soulés' Histoire des troubles de l'Amerique Anglais. The first edition, published in 1785 did not contain maps. Thomas Jefferson, after reading the 1785 edition, approached Soulés with suggestions for updates and revisions. He delivered his proposed corrections in 1786, in time for them to be incorporated into a new 1787 edition. The new version, with Jefferson's edits, was much improved with maps as well as a chapter on Jefferson's efforts to reform the laws of Virginia during the Revolution.

The separate map is poorly represented in OCLC, but Soulés Histoire is well represented.