George Sproule, 1780

AMERICAN REVOLUTION – [SPROULE, George.] A Sketch of the Environs of Charlestown in South Carolina. [London, 1 June 1780.]

A rare hand-colored map of the Siege of Charleston. A superb rendering of the situation around the South Carolina capital between 11 February and 10 May 1780, just before the Americans surrendered the town. Trained as a surveyor and an engineer, George Sproule came to America at the close of French and Indian War and conducted surveys of Cape Breton, the lower St. Lawrence, and parts of the Labrador Coast. He was surveying the boundaries of New Hampshire when hostilities erupted in April 1775, and he went back into active service as an assistant field engineer. Following the war he emigrated to New Brunswick where he served as the surveyor general of the province. Nebenzahl, 79 (second state with imprint date erased and other alterations); Stevens and Tree, Comparative Cartography, 13b.

Hand-colored engaved map, 400 x 550mm on a 412 x 560mm sheet, hand-colored in blue, red, pink and yellow (mild surface dirt). Hinged to a mat.