David C. Bonk and George Anderson have produced an outstanding work of scholarship and art with their Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution, 1775-1783. The volume is a comprehensive summary of the conflict, written chronologically and covering 119 separate engagements or campaigns. Every entry is accompanied by narratives that are both succinct and detailed, which is an extraordinary feat of writing. The maps are clear, comprehensive, and accompanied by orders of battle that lay out the composition of troops on both sides of the fighting.
The book presents a very balanced view of the conflict, paying significant attention to the fighting in the southern colonies, not only during the critical period of 1780-1781, but as far back as the fighting at Great Bridge, Virginia in 1775, Moore’s Creek Bridge, North Carolina and Sullivan Island, South Carolina in 1776, and Savanah in 1779. Additionally, major operations such as the fighting around New York in 1776 and Burgoyne’s advance to Albany, New York in 1777 are covered in a series of maps that discuss the various battles comprising the campaigns in sufficient detail. The book also pays significant attention to the war on the water, discussing the fighting around Lake Champlain, New York in 1776 and the Battle of the Capes that preceded the fighting at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. A special aspect of the atlas is that it covers the fighting after the Treaty of Paris, as the British and French continued what had become a global struggle, fighting as far from the American continent as the Indian Ocean.
David Bonk is an excellent writer with a firm grounding in wargaming and military history. George Anderson is a professional cartographer whose maps are a delight to examine. Together they have produced a terrific book that works as a stand-alone volume that is fun to peruse or a companion to a deep dive of a specific campaign.
