English Depictions of the Revolution

The Seat of War in New England

“By an American Volunteer, with the Marches of the Several Corps Sent by the Colonies Towards Boston, with the Attack on Bunker Hill.”

This map is one of the earliest accounts of the Battle of Bunker hill. Created three months after the encounter, it details the march of the British soldiers toward George Washington’s army in Cambridge. The battle is marked by two crossed swords in the west. It was conceived from a letter from General Burgoyne to Lord Stanley in 1775, and was intended to inform the British public of the empire’s victory. Published as an attractive broadside. the map is detailed with troops, horses and cannons. Credited to an “American Volunteer,” the map is considered one of the most accurate American maps of the period, and “without question the best pictorial account of conflict.”

John Bennett

The Seat of War in New England

London: Robert Sayer, 1775

Copper Engraving

Osher Collection

The American Atlas

“A geographical description of the whole continent of America-Wherein are delineated at large, its several regions, countries, states, and islands and chiefly the British colonies. Engraved on 48 copper-plates by Thomas Jefferys and others”

The American Atlas

London: Robert Sayer and John Bennett, 1775

Smith Collection

Plan of the City of New York in North America

“To His Excellency Sr. Henry Moore, Bart., Captain General and Governour in Chief, In and Over His Majesty’s Province of New York and the Territories depending theron in America Chancellor and Vive Admiral of the Same. This Plan, of the City of New York and its Environs, Survey’d and Laid down: Is Most Humbly Dedicated by His Excellency’s Most Obed. Humble Servant, B. Ratzer Lieut in His Majesty’s 60th or Royal American Regt.”


Bernard Ratzer was a British military engineer during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. In 1769 Sir Henry Moore, the governor of New York, commissioned Ratzer to survey the border of New York and New Jersey.   

Bernard Ratzer and Thomas Kitchin

Plan of the City of New York in North America

London: Jefferys and Faden, 1776

Sheet Map

Smith Collection

The American Military Pocket Atlas

“being an approved collection of correct maps, both general and particular of the British colonies especially those which now are, or probably may be the theatre of war taken principally from the actual surveys and judicious observations of engineers De Brahm and R’mans Cook, Jackson, and Collet Maj. Holland, and other officers, employed in His Majesty’s fleets and armies”

The American Military Pocket Atlas

London: Robert Sayer and John Bennett, 1776

Smith Collection

The Theatre of War in North America

“A Compendious Account of the British Colonies in North America.”

The Theatre of War in North America, with the Roads and a Table of the Distances

London: Robert Sayer and John Bennett

Copper Engraving

Osher Collection

The Seat of Action, Between the British and American Forces

“An Authentic Plan of the Western Part of Long Island, with the Engagement of the 27th August, 1776, between the King’s Forces and the Americans: also containing Staten Island, and the environs of Amboy and New York, with the course of Hudson River, from Courland the Great Magazine of the American Army, to Sandy Hook”

The Seat of Action, Between the British and American Forces

London: Robert Sayer and John Bennett, 1776

Copper Engraving

Smith Collection

Partie Septentrionale des possessions Anglaise en Amerique

“Part of Northern British possessions in America. To serve as intelligence for the present War between the English and their colonies erected on the best card of the Englishman translated countries Michel, Paris, Hotel de Soubise, 1778.”

John Mitchell

Partie Septentrionale des possessions Anglaise en Amerique

Paris, 1778

Sheet Map

Osher Collection

Part of the Counties of Charlotte and Albany, in the Province of New York

“Being the Seat of War Between the King’s Forces Under Lieut. Gen. Burgoyne and the Rebel Army.”

Richard Baldwin

Part of the Counties of Charlotte and Albany, in the Province of New York

London, 1778

Sheet Map

Smith Collection

Attack of the Rebels Upon Fort Penobscot

“In the Province of New England in Which Their Fleet was Totally Destroyed and their Army Dispersed in 14th August, 1779.”

J. Rapin

Attack of the Rebels Upon Fort Penobscot

London, 1785

Copper Engraving

Osher Collection