1832 Marshall Map of the Battle of York, Virginia

This is a rare plan or map of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War issued for John Marshall's 1832 edition of the Life of Washington. The map covers the city of Yorktown (York) and the surrounding countryside. Various rivers, roads, and topographical elements are noted. Color coding indicates the positions of the British (Red) and Continental (Blue) forces as each attempted to maintain control of the region. General Cornwallis had taken control of the British forces with the intention of establishing a deep water port on the Chesapeake Bay from which the British could stage additional trips and supplies. Cornwallis was defeated in the fields outside of Yorktown by a coalition of Continental and French forces under George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau, respectively. The surrender of Cornwallis and the British army at Yorktown proved to be the last major confrontation of the Revolutionary War and convinced the British Crown to sue for peace.

Marshall prepared this map to illustrate the Siege of Yorktown, the decisive battle leading to Continental victory in the American Revolutionary War.

This map appeared in atlas volume attached to the 1832 edition of John Marshall's seminal work, The Life of Washington. Marshall composed the five volume biography between 1805 and 1807 and based the work on original papers and records provided by the president's own family. The earliest partial edition of the The Life of Washington appeared in 1824 as A History of the American Colonies. In 1832 Marshall revised and abridged the original voluminous work to just two volumes and some 400 pages – from which this map was extracted. The maps of the 1832 edition are notable and desirable in that, unlike the original edition, most had hand applied color work.