Michel Capitaine du Chesnoy, the marquis de Lafayette's cartographer

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 1998 by Paul E. Cohen

With the Americans taking positions on the right and the French on the left, the allied forces began digging trenches six hundred yards from the British fortifications so as to surround the besieged city of Yorktown. The parallel (trench) was opened on October 6, and on October 10 a bombardment destroyed artillery within Yorktown. That day a second parallel was started three hundred yards closer to the British lines. Cornwallis was forced to abandon his outer fortifications and retreat to his inner ones. At this juncture Washington ordered an attack on the two British redoubts, with Lafayette directing the rear action. As Rochambeau described it to de Grasse, "The smallest of these two works has been taken by the Americans under M. Le marquis de La Fayette, and it contained the battery that was the most dangerous in the York River."(25) To avoid defeat, Cornwallis attempted to escape with his army to Gloucester, but a storm ruined that plan. Completely surrounded, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.

Capitaine's large and beautifully colored map of the baffle at Yorktown [ILLUSTRATION FOR PLATE IX OMITTED] is one of the most magnificent maps of the American Revolution. On it he documented elements important to the outcome of the battle troop disposition and movement, terrain, location of camps and batteries. Accompanying the map is a six-page summary of the campaign, which is signed by Capitaine. Lafayette is known to have owned a copy of this map, and Sparks saw it on his visit in 1825. "The General has...a map of the Virginia campaign, taken at the time," wrote Sparks,(26) who reported that he had this map copied, although it is not among the maps at Cornell. Lafayette's map is probably the map, now lost, that was exhibited in 1934 at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris to commemorate the centenary of Lafayette's death. It is described as being lined in blue watered silk, rolled up, and stored in a cardboard case.(27)

The recently discovered map of the Battle of Yorktown appears to have been the master used for making copies The presence of light guidelines (some with numbers) that form a grid makes it a likely prototype. Pinholes at the intersections of the lines indicate that tracing paper was once held in place over the map for copying. At least one previously known copy of this map appears to have been made from this one. The example, at Yale University, has faint guidelines corresponding exactly to those on the map in the private collection. Another copy of the Yorktown map is in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia.

As commander of the American troops in Virginia in the spring and summer of 1781, "Lafayette did more than any other allied commander to prepare the way for the British capitulation at Yorktown. The greatest American victory was Lafayette's most shining personal triumph," wrote one historian.(28) Lafayette's dedication to the cause of liberty, like that of Washington, whom he so admired, made him one of the greatest heroes in American history. The deeds of a hero must be recorded, and Lafayette had the good sense to bring along his own map maker for this purpose. Capitaine served his commander well by creating remarkable graphic documents of Lafayette's extraordinary accomplishments.