Plan of the Investment and Attack of York in Virginia

This map, engraved by Francis Shallus, depicts British and American-French positions for the Battle of Yorktown during October, 1781.  General Washington, together with French General Rochambeau, led this final campaign of the Revolutionary War.

By August of 1781, Cornwallis was occupying York and Gloucester with 7500 British troops and several hundred Loyalists.  He did not realize that Washington and Rochambeau were marching toward him, to attack his position, until early September.  The Allied forces included significant numbers of soldiers:  5700 Continentals, 3100 militia and 7000 French troops.  One of the Frenchmen, the Marquis de Lafayette (Gilbert du Mortier), served as a battle commander.  At the time, he was just twenty-four years old. 

The map above was used by John Marshall (the fourth Chief Justice of the United States) in his official five-volume biography, The Life of George Washington. (It was the only biography of the General and President by someone who knew him.) 

Click on the image for a very detailed view.

Credits

Plan of the Investment and Attack of York in Virginia, originally published in Philadelphia by C. P. Wayne, 1806.

Image, Library of Congress.