A superb example of this map published both separately and in ‘The North American Atlas, Selected from the Most Authentic Maps, Charts, Plans, etc’, by William Faden. It is based on Sauthier’s manuscript map, and issued only three months after these “Operations” took place. It shows the Revolutionary War campaigns in Westchester Co., New York, in October and November 1776, particularly focusing on the Battle of White Plains, 28 October. It shows the area from upper Manhattan Island to the Croton River, and is the earliest large-scale printed map for any part of Westchester. The map is “so filled with detail as to be at once among the most informative and the most difficult to study of all battle plans. The persistent viewer will be rewarded with an excellent picture of the White Plains phase of the New York Campaign … It is the most accurate published delineation of the movements of Washington and Howe in Westchester from the time of the British landing through November 28” (Nebenzahl).



Other important features shown on the map include the British movement south towards Fort Washington in upper Manhattan, Cornwallis’s landing in New Jersey, his taking of Fort Lee, and the British route towards Brunswick.



The mapmaker

Claude Joseph Sauthier, who was born in Strasbourg, France, trained as an architect and surveyor and immigrated to America in 1767. Between 1768 and 1770, he worked closely with Governor William Tryon of North Carolina drafting surveys of towns in that colony. Sauthier accompanied Tryon to New York in 1771 when he became governor there and was appointed surveyor in 1773. Sauthier produced maps for Howe and Lord Percy during the campaigns of 1776 and 1777. Sauthier returned to England with Percy in 1777, serving as his personal secretary until 1790.