1787 Picquet Map of South Carolina During the American Revolution

This is a 1787 Charles Picquet and David Ramsay map of South Carolina. The map depicts the region from Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean and from North Carolina to Savannah and the Atlantic Ocean. A visual summary of the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, all the routes followed by both Patriot and British forces are illustrated and labeled. Major battles fought throughout the state are indicated by crossed cavalry swords along with the name of the battle. The Battle of Cowpens, The Battle of Kings Mountain, The Battle of Ninety-Six, and The Battle of Camden are among the labeled battles. The cities of Charleston, Camden, Georgetown, and Beaufort are labeled in South Carolina, along with Savannah in Georgia and Wilmington in North Carolina. Rivers, bays, and coastal islands are also illustrated. A key, in the upper left corner, states that the Tugoolo River and the Savannah River are the map's boundaries and notes the different notations used to illustrate villages, battles, and the movements of American and British forces.

The American Revolutionary War in South Carolina

The history of the American Revolution in South Carolina is one of extremes. In 1780, when the war finally made its way to the colony, the Continental Army suffered two devastating defeats. One, at the Siege of Charleston in May, the British captured an entire American army under General Benjamin Lincoln. The other, at the Battle of Camden, which took place in August, American forces were routed by Lord Cornwallis and lost nearly half their committed forces in killed, wounded, and captured soldiers. A small victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain by the Colonial militia bought the Americans time, but South Carolina was mostly occupied by the British.

Cowpens – One of the Decisive Battles of the American Revolutionary War

Major General Nathanael Greene took command of the southern army in October. The army numbered just below 1500 present, 949 of which were Continental regulars. Even with such a small force, Greene made the unconventional choice of dividing his army, giving command of one detachment to Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. He was to take his force west of the Catawba River to raise the morale of the locals and find supplies for his men, which were limited at Greene's command post in Charlotte. Cornwallis felt threatened by Morgan's force, though he also believed that the Americans had been sent to attack a British fort at Ninety-Six (though they had not). Cornwallis dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to defeat Morgan and his troops. While the exact number of Morgan's troops is disputed, the results of the battle are not. Morgan concocted a clever double envelopment (essentially a feigned retreat of an army's center while other forces attack the attacking army's now exposed flanks) and captured the entire British force.

If Tanastre had won at Cowpens, Cornwallis may have been able to consolidate British control of South Carolina. Instead, events were set in motion that led to the end of the war. Cornwallis was forced to chase Morgan and Greene into North Carolina, where Cornwallis won a pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Guilford Court House (also illustrated on this map). Even though Cornwallis defeated Greene, the battle had so damaged his army that Cornwallis was forced to withdraw to Yorktown, Virginia. It was at Yorktown where General Washington seized the opportunity to trap and defeat Cornwallis and his army at the Battle of Yorktown. That defeat caused the British to give up the fight to retain their colonies.

This map was issued to accompany the 1787 first French edition of David Ramsay's (1747-1815) History of the Revolution of South-Carolina or, more properly, Histoire de la Revolution d'Amerique par rapport a la Caroline Meridionale. The French edition of Ramsay's history was issued 2 years after the English edition. The map, which was originally engraved by the Charleston engraver Thomas Abernethie, has here been re-engraved in French by Charles Picquet. While cartographically similar, Piquet's engraving is more sophisticated and refined.