Map of the Siege of Yorktown

This map celebrates the triumph of the allied Continental and French forces over the British Army at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. German-born Continental Artillery officer Sebastian Bauman served at the siege and created this map from his surveys of the battlefield taken three days after the British Army’s surrender. The yellow rectangles plot the positions of the French troops, while the blue rectangles show the positions of the Continental Army during siege. Bauman included the location of General Washington’s headquarters just above the text describing the map. Engraved and published in Philadelphia in 1782, Bauman distributed copies of this map to fellow army officers to show off his skills and celebrate the victory.