Drawn by Claude Joseph Sauthier and engraved by William Faden, this famous plan takes the viewer through all of the stages of the British advance and the American withdrawal through upper New York Island with the engagement at White Plains on the 28th October being especially detailed. It denotes American troop movements in blue and British in red.
The plan is fully titled; 'A plan of the Operations of the King's Army under the command of General Sir William Howe against General Washington in New York and East New Jersey' and it shows New York Island and the Hudson River as far north as Pecks Kill and concentrates on the progress of the King's army between 12th October and 28th November 1776.
As the war progressed the American Commander-in-Chief, George Washington, increasingly realised the importance of avoiding meeting the superior British forces in an open field engagement. At White Plains he chose positions which would, hopefully, allow him to fight from behind defensive positions but he failed to secure the nearby high ground of Chatterton's Hill, which dominated the American lines. When the British arrived they made to secure the hill, hoping to dominate the American positions as the Americans had done to them in Boston when taking Dorchester Heights. The engagement at White Plains was therefore more about the struggle to dominate Chatterton's Hill than it was anything else. It also serves as an example of Washington's inability as a military strategist. As it turned-out the Americans were dogged in their resistance and lost only half of the 250 men lost by the British.
The victory proved expensive for the British and ultimately achieved little, especially when General Howe, once again, hesitated in his pursuit of Washington after a battle. Five days later, on the 3rd November, he turned his British army south again toward the Hudson River and King's Bridge. The events after White Plains depicted on the map include the operations of the British under General William Howe and his generals to finally take Fort Washington (November 16th) and Fort Lee (November 20th) and finish with the routes taken in pursuit of Washington and his army through New Jersey on his way to Pennsylvania.
The plan was clearly drawn in something of a rush, to depict events in New York back to London as quickly as possible, without the degree of topographic accuracy or detail found in the work of other cartographers of the time. Note that Montresor Island (now Randall's Island) and Buchanan Island (now Ward's island) are labelled the wrong way around. Nowadays the two islands are land-filled and joined together. Despite this sort of error the map still provides a valuable, contemporary, record of events at that time.
Claude Joseph Sauthier
A204
Drawn by Claude Joseph Sauthier and engraved by William Faden, this famous plan takes the viewer through all of the stages of the British advance and the American withdrawal through upper New York Island with the engagement at White Plains on the 28th October being especially detailed. It denotes American troop movements in blue and British in red.
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