Continuing my look at recent book acquisitions to my AWI research library, it's time to look at another book from Helion and David C Bonk (DB) this time in collaboration with George Anderson (GA), namely 'Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution 1775-1783' first published in hardback in 2023 and in paperback, which my copy is, in 2026, oh and this is definitely one book where I wont be complaining about a lack of maps!
The cover of the atlas illustrates a colonel of the 1st New York Continental Regiment, circa 1781, courtesy of the well known military artist Christa Hook, and DB has composed the text whilst GA put together the maps to accompany it; and with both being wargamers the subject matter gets a wargamers eye brought to the information we would want included alongside a broad collection of battle maps, that include large and small land engagements, together with sieges, and key naval battles.
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| My copy of 'A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution' by Craig L. Symonds and William J Clipson published in 1986. |
Things it seems have come along way since I picked up my copy of 'A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution' by Craig L. Symonds and William J Clipson in 1986, with its forty-one maps of pretty well all the key battles and actions of the war, but with frustrating gaps in the detail of the maps and missing many of the lesser well known actions that we historical wargamers are wanting to know about, which in a pre-internet age in which this book appeared, made finding the information required even more frustrating.
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| The Battle of Brandywine from 'A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution' by Craig L. Symonds and William J Clipson. Pretty basic, but the state of the art back then. |
The Battle of Brandywine map above illustrates the point, with just a basic indication of where various components of the two armies were in relation to key battlefield landmarks, and with no detail of elevation about the high ground indicated.
Helion describe their atlas on their website page thus;
Beginning with the opening skirmishes at Lexington and Concord the Atlas follows the course of the war including the major engagements at Brooklyn, Trenton, Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth, Savannah, Guilford Courthouse and Yorktown. The Atlas also includes a large collection of minor actions, including Harlem Heights, White Plains, Short Hills, Barren Hill, Stony Point, Hobkirk’s Hill and Green Springs. The Atlas addresses critical naval battles as well as key engagements in the West Indies, Gibraltar, and India.
The sample pages hosted on the Helion website illustrating maps from the book display a marked improvement on what has gone before, as illustrated by the example map of the Battle of Chatterton Hill, a key engagement fought during the Battle of White Plains on October 28th, 1776, where British and Hessian forces captured the strategic high ground from American troops.
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| The Battle of Chatterton Hill, October 28th, 1776 |
As you can see we now can enjoy colour to give a much more precise indication of ground elevation and a much more detailed illustration of the position taken by various units involved together with the maps showing their strengths on the day of battle, a feature I particularly liked, as well as an indication of other key terrain such as orchards, fencing and marshy ground lining the Bronx River.
The atlas is composed of nine sections looking the key military and naval events:
- Section I: The Road to War
- Section II; 1775
- Section III: 1776
- Section IV: 1777
- Section V:1778
- Section VI: 1779
- Section VII: 1780
- Section VIII: 1781
- Section IX: 1782
Each of these sections commences with a Strategic Summary and map to illustrate an overview of the period being looked at, with the example map below showing the positions of British garrisons and the various partition lines between the colonies, province of Quebec, Native American Reserved Lands, Nova Scotia and Spanish territory in April 1775 as war loomed in British North America, Section I: The Road to War. These summary maps are very useful for folks planning campaigns centred on a particular year.
1775 - The 1775 Strategic Summary, The March to Lexington and Concord, Concord: Opening Phase, Concord: Final Phase, Bunker Hill: First Assault, Bunker Hill: Second Assault, Bunker Hill: Third Assault, Ticonderoga and St Johns. The March to Quebec, Assault on Quebec, Great Bridge.
1776 - The 1776 Strategic Summary, Dorchester Heights, Moore's Creek Bridge, Sullivan's Island, New York Operations, Brooklyn, Kip's Bay, Harlem Heights, Pell's Point, White Plains, Fort Washington, The Retreat Across New Jersey, Prelude to Trenton, Assunpink Creek, Advance to Princeton, Princeton, The Struggle for Lake Champlain, Valcour Island.
1777 - The 1777 Strategic Summary, Bound Brook, The Danbury Raid, Short Hills, Burgoyne's Advance, Fort Ticonderoga, Hubbardton, Oriskany, Bennington, Freeman's Farm, Bemis Heights, Staten Island, Howe Moves to Head of Elk, Cooch's Bridge, Advance to Brandywine, Brandywine (North), Brandywine (South), The Battle of the Clouds, Paoli, Germantown Opening Phase, Germantown Final Phase, Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery, Philadelphia Defences, Fort Mercer, Fort Mifflin, Advance to White Marsh, Edge Hill, Valley Forge.
1778 - The 1778 Strategic Summary, Barren Hill, The March to Monmouth, Monmouth the Morning, Monmouth the American Retreat, Monmouth the Conclusion, Newport, Rhode Island, The Grand Forage, The Capture of Savannah.
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| Concord: Opening Phase, 19th April, 1775 |
1779 - The 1779 Strategic Summary, Briar Creek, Stono Ferry, The Penobscot Bay Expedition, The New Haven Raid, Sullivan's Campaign against the Iroquois Confederation, Advance to Stony Point, Stony Point, Paulus Hook, The Siege of Savannah, The West Indies, The Vigie Peninsula St Lucia.
1780 - The 1780 Strategic Summary, The Charleston Campaign, The Siege of Charleston, Charleston Neck, Waxhaws, Connecticut Farms, Springfield, Hanging Rock, Camden, King's Mountain, Blackstocks.
1781 - The 1781 Strategic Summary, Cowpens, New Garden, Guilford Courthouse, Guilford Courthouse Third Line, Cape Henry, Hobkirk's Hill, The Virginia Campaign Part One, Petersburg, The Siege of Ninety Six, The Virginia Campaign Part Two, Spencer's Ordinary, Green Springs, The Raid on New London, Eutaw Springs, The Advance to Yorktown, The Battle of the Capes, The Siege of Yorktown, Gloucester Point, The Assault on Redoubts 9 and 10.
1782 - The Treaty of Paris, The Siege of Gibraltar, The Naval Attack on Gibraltar, The Battle of the Saintes, Suffren's Indian Ocean Campaign, Trincomalee.
So as you will see a very broad and comprehensive list of battles you would want included in an AWI Atlas and one that makes this a must have book in the AWI library, and one I have found myself dipping into frequently whilst compiling my individual unit showcase posts, when following the history of campaigns and battles participated in by the unit being featured.
Before I turn to my additional comments, and before I am asked, 'should I get this book JJ?', my answer is yes indeed; this is to my knowledge the best and most comprehensive collection of battle and campaign descriptions with accompanying maps to illustrate the war as a whole currently available, and will save you a lot of time scrolling through the 'Library of Congress' collection and other internet sources, plus specific books on specific campaigns, to get a similar level of understanding, not that you wont want to do that as well, but just saying.
My gentle criticism of this atlas principally centres around when I compare it with similar battlefield atlases I have in my library, and particularly with what I consider to be the best I have come across too date, both from Colonel Nick Lipsombe and published by Osprey, The English Civil War and The Peninsular War atlases, the former reviewed here on JJ's back in 2020, link below.
My Peninsular War Atlas, published back in 2010, I note is showing a bit of wear on it that betrays how often it has been thumbed through in previous years when I was working on my own Peninsular War project covering Sir Arthur Wellesley's first campaigns in Portugal and Spain, culminating in me recreating the Battle of Talavera, my English Civil War atlas less so, in anticipation for when I build an English Civil War collection. As they say, 'never say never'.
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| JJ's Wargames: The English Civil War, An Atlas and Concise History of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1639 -51 - Nick Lipscombe |
One of the key stand outs for me that differentiates these two works from my American Revolution atlas is the lack of contour heights, with the AWI maps having some three shades of green to indicate height variation, but with no clear indication what those variations are, or if they are the same from one map to another, which I suspect they aren't.
The colour contours are all very well and nicely presented, but without height indicated makes it very difficult to determine matters such as line of sight blocks and the likely extent of dead ground from one high point to another, something that as a wargamer trying to better represent the battlefield on my table is really useful, and something the Osprey books include.
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| The Pajar Vegara redoubt on my Talavera table. |
I have learnt how helpful this level of detail is, and I would have thought is easy to include with the modern representations of ground surveys and maps to refer to for guidance. When working out the ground scale for my Talavera table, back in 2018, identifying the precise elevation of one ridge line to another, especially as the French and opposing British lines faced each other across a valley, with gun batteries aiming to play on the opposite lines, became a key issue.
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| The Pajar Vegara feature, middle left, and close up below, seen as the eye would have it and without telephoto lens in 2019 when I walked the battlefield, and seen from the Allied line. Such a low feature, you would miss it if you were walking too quickly! JJ's Wargames: Battles and Actions in the Tagus Valley, Part Two (Battle of Talavera) - Peninsular War Tour 2019 |
Peninsular War ridge lines and dead ground for round shot and visibility are a key aspect that was included on the table, with discreet markers along hill tops indicating where the military ridge was so that players could determine how far back to keep their infantry lines to avoid long range firing, but be close enough to move up and over to contest matters with approaching enemy troops.
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| The hill is so discreet, on ground rising to about eighty feet above where I am standing at its highest point, and takes a close up picture using the telephoto lens to illustrate its height compared to the ground around it. This level of detail is why height contours are so useful. |
On some contemporary maps of Talavera the small mound at the Pajar Vegara farm on which the Anglo-Spanish constructed a small redoubt is somewhat exaggerated in size and seeming height, and it was really pleasing to see that my representation on the table, as seen above, and based on Nick Lipscombe's map matched my interpretation when I saw the actual feature back in 2019.
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| Map of the Battle of Stone Arabia, October 19th, 1780, from ‘The Burning of the Valleys’ |
In addition I have two other slight 'niggles', namely how comprehensive the battle list is, understanding that the focus is rightly and primarily on land actions and engagements rather that naval, which is very understandable, and there are other tomes around covering the naval war in more detail should the want arise.
However I was a bit disappointed to find that although the overview of the punitive expedition against the Iroquois by General Sullivan in 1779 was included, the response to that campaign that followed in 1780, namely the Mohawk and Schoharie expedition by Sir John Johnson and Joseph Brant, and the subsequent, all be it small and minor battles of Stone Arabia, October 19th, 1780 and the Battle of Klock's Field fought the same day are not.
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| Map of the Battle of Klock's Field, October 19th, 1780, from ‘The Burning of the Valleys’ |
I have included the best maps I have in my collection to help me recreate these actions going forward, one covering Stone Arabia from the US Battlefields Trust and the others from a Canadian publication, “The Burning of the Valleys’ by Gavin K. Watt and James F. Morrison, an excellent read covering the 1780 expedition, and which reminds me that I should do a review of it in a following book review.
Which leads me on to my next issue concerning the references for the maps to enable a look at the source material for them.
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| JJ's Wargames: The World Turned Upside Down - His Majesty's 1st Light Infantry Composite Battalion, 1777. |
I mention this because during my research on one of my recent unit posts I was looking at the atlas and then thought I would check other sources to compare and contrast the accounts in the book to other sources.
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| Battle of Cooch's Bridge, 3rd September 1777, Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution 1775-1783. The position of the British 1st Light Infantry (B) and their subsequent movements to outflank the Americans defending Cooch's Bridge, shows them on the left flank of the Jägers, and ending up mired in a swamp at Point 9 on the map, failing to close the trap on the American retreat. |
My confusion arose when studying the movements of the British 1st Light Infantry composite battalion at the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, 3rd September 1777, link above and the map in the atlas illustrated above when compared to other accounts and similar maps.
For example the map shown below and used in my post shows a close look at the positions at 10.00 am in the lower map as the American retreat commenced with Iron Hill on the left flank of the Jägers advance, and with the British 1st Light Infantry clearly shown to their right below Cooch's Bridge, similarly mired in said swamp.
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| This map of Battle of Cooch's Bridge, 3rd September 1777 was created by Sean Moir for the Pencader Heritage Area Museum in Newark, DE |
Similarly the map below clearly illustrates the British 1st Light Infantry to the right of Cooch's Bridge, , and marked as the British Flanking Column, similarly on route to mire in said swamp, north of the Christiana Creek, whereas Sean Moir's map above suggests the mire was south of Christiana Creek.
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| Battle of Cooch's Bridge, from Campaign to Valley Forge by John Reed. |
Clearly all the maps have discrepancies with each other, but only the atlas map has the British 1st Light Infantry out on the left flank of the Jägers battle to take Cooch's bridge, which had me erring towards the Moir map as a preferred reference, somewhat none the wiser.
I'm not stating the atlas is wrong, as I simply don't know, but it would be very handy to be able to check the veracity of GA's map and DB's account, especially as they come up with a different version from other sources.
To be fair to DB, I sympathise with his dilemma in his choice of sources and the inconsistencies he encountered, illustrated here in the other two maps of Cooch's Bridge and he mentions, in the Author's Note at the back of the atlas, his intentions by stating that;
'Many of the modern histories of the American Revolution repeat errors perpetrated in earlier works, in large part because many authors have apparently never attempted to match the details of a battle with a map of the terrain over which the battle was fought.
Authors trying to describe the tactical movements of large bodies of men fail to appreciate that their descriptions of dispositions and subsequent movements are highly unrealistic given the terrain in which the action took place. The perpetuation of previous inaccurate narratives and the lack of mapping provide an incorrect picture of these battles.'
This is a laudable aim for the book and is to be applauded as I have other such tomes that have similarly exploded often repeated myths that have gone on to correct the historical record in subsequent accounts thanks to that work, however I think it is beholden to 'submit the receipts' that support and back up the corrections to such inconsistencies so it is possible to confirm the assertion’s arrived at.
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| Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution 1775-1783 | From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 | Helion & Company |
In conclusion then, I think David Bonk & George Anderson are to be congratulated for this welcome addition to the wargamers resource library and Helion for their support for our hobby of historical wargaming, and I am very happy to have a copy with the caveats I have mentioned.
Next up the spotlight is shone on my latest addition to 'The World Turned Upside Down' project with a showcase of the 8th Virginia Continental Regiment.
As always, more anon.
JJ
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