American Revolution Sites, Events, and Troop Movements

Time Span:
Operational Dependence: American regiment or army, American detachment, British regiment or army, British detachment.
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Sites, Events, Troop Movement Timeline

The purpose of this electronic map is to represent both American and British troop deployments on each day and how they interacted. You can:

  • Observe simultaneous British and American troop deployments superimposed on a modern terrain map. Troop movements are shown at the regiment level as colored lines.
  • Follow the timeline of events by clicking Next Day or Prev Day button. Select a Start Scenario, like a battle or event. Span multiple days by specifying a Start time and End time. The map will automatically display all troop movements during that time span.
  • 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.
  • Display all forts, camps, courthouses, churches, schools, mills, plantations, etc. Click on any icon for detail information. Find and selectively display any one site.
  • Learn more geographic details by selecting map type: terrain, topographic, satellite, or modern road map.
  • 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 Streetview.
  • If you allow disclosure of your location, many mobile devices will mark your location among 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 because of movement, it is interpolated between known prior and post locations and the source document 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. 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. Today, that time system is best approximated by Eastern Standard Time. For that reason, Eastern Standard Time is used by this timeline map for every day of the year. Thus a one hour difference from our clocks occurs during the months when we observe daylight-savings time. For example, a historical events 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 period between 1 Jan 1775 and 2 Jan 1784. That includes all scenarios in the Start Scenario drop-down list. On a few days, there were as many as twenty simultaneous deployments. This interactive map helps explain these simultaneous American and British troop deployments. Although you can display some troop deployments before and after this time period, they are not yet fully represented.

Sources

Click on an icon to identify the source document. Wherever known, an original source is cited. Click on link to read original source.

Some timeline information was first written in: Application for a South Carolina Historical Marker Commemorating Colonel Thomas Sumter’s Clems Branch Camp, June–July 1780, Where did Cornwallis's Army invade North Carolina?, Lincoln County Men at Kings Mountain, Cornwallis's Retreat from Charlotte, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Mebane, Camp New Providence and How did Mecklenburg County Residents Experience the American Revolution?.

Acknowledgements and Links

Questions, Comments, Voluntary Submissions

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