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Application
This web application plots significant sites and actions during the American Revolution, 1775-1783.
It is an ongoing project to encapsulate interrelated sites, commanders, military units, troop movements, weather conditions, and source documentation into one coherent interface.
Through continued refinement this application will provide clearer pictures of the historical settings in which military and political decisions were made.
Original sources are referenced, and when possible, directly viewable.
EleHistory Research is developing this new capability.
Its mission is to produce time-sensitive, integrated, and immersive history tools.
You can:
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Display time-sensitive sites, including: forts, batteries, courthouses, hospitals, churches, schools, plantations, grist mills, iron furnaces, forges, fords, ferries, bridges, inns, ordinaries, taverns, landmarks, camps, battles, skirmishes, sieges, cemeteries, and graves.
Each site is plotted only if it existed during your specified time period.
Zoom in on any one site.
Click on a site marker for additional details.
- Display the overall military situation at the time of a specific event, like a battle.
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Observe simultaneous British and American troop deployments.
Troop movements are shown at the regiment level as colored lines.
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Follow troop movements by clicking Next Day or Prev Day button.
Span multiple days by specifying a Start time and End time.
The map is particularly effective in showing opposing troop movements.
- Click on US
, British 
, French 
, Hessian 
or Spanish 
flag for troop deployment details, including strength, location, known weather conditions, and source documentation.
- Determine troop movement mileage, as measured on modern roads, by clicking on its path.
- Follow a particular unit or commander by day and location.
- Learn more geographic details by selecting map type: terrain, topographic, satellite, or modern road map.
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Understand the "Big Picture", by clicking the "-" zoom-out button. Learn local details at map center, by clicking the "+" zoom-in button.
Zoom in or out at any mouse pointer location using mouse wheel.
Center the map at any location with a double-click.
- Visit a site virtually using Google Maps StreetView.
- If you allow disclosure of your location, many mobile devices will mark your location among nearby historical sites and troop movements.
Map Precision and Interpolation
Troop deployments are shown at the regiment level, typically a few hundred men.
If exact troop location is not known during movement, it may be interpolated between known prior and post locations.
This can better approximate what actually happened by smoothing over mutiple-day jumps.
In such cases, the source is cited as "interpolated".
In the future, such locations will be made precise when verified from original source documents.
At present, each displayed march route follows a modern road.
That is often precise because many old roads, especially ridgeline roads, are still being used today.
Where they deviate, the nearest modern road approximates the old road.
So this electronic map does not prove troop presence at every displayed location.
If you require precision, click on the flag marker and access the cited source document.
Eastern Standard Time
This application uses Google Maps API 3 technology.
At present, each troop deployment is precise to within a day.
Hour-by-hour precision, if known, will be added later.
For this electronic timeline to work consistently, Eastern Standard Time is used for every day of the year.
At the time of the American Revolution, people estimated the time of day relative to local noon, when the sun was highest in the sky.
They were using an approximation of what we call today Eastern Standard Time.
Thus a one hour difference from our clocks occurs during the months when we observe daylight-savings time.
For example, a historical event that occurred at 4:00 PM, like the beginning of the Battle of Kings Mountain, corresponds to 5:00 PM daylight-saving time.
Implementation, Limitations
At present, this electronic timeline covers the 9-year time span between 1775-01-01 (1 Jan 1775) and 1784-01-02 (2 Jan 1784).
Although you can display some troop deployments before and after this time period, they are not yet fully represented.
The southern campaign is covered with good resolution.
Although the northern campaign is covered, its best coverage is from January 1775 through March 1777.
Every effort is being made to cover the northern campaign at higher resolution for later times using the Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series and other sources.
Costs to User
At present, this web application is freely available to everyone.
In the future, it may be necessary to use high-bandwidth web servers and other special resources.
So, EleHistory Research reserves the right to charge a one-time or subscription fee.
Such a fee is expected to be modest.
Questions, Comments, Voluntary Submissions
Send questions, comments, or submissions using the feedback form.