Practically all [75%] of the New York State Revolutionary War records were destroyed in Albany fires in 1850` and 1911. - Hardly anything left.
However the British Museum and Royal Library have hundreds of Revolutionary War maps and documents which they never made public because it would embarrass them.
Several British maps, however, somehow managed to be seen and appear to show battles that are not found recorded anywhere but appear as "battle stars" on old British maps, e.g. 1777. Some locals have investigated these sites and found evidences of forts and battles there with many British and American artifacts.
Other accounts of battles found nowhere else can be found in the histories of the local towns in Vermont and New Hampshire, accounts by the soldiers themselves. Other accounts also exist in oral traditions of the Indian allies of the British who accompanied Burgoyne in his invasion force from Canada in 1777; also some Indian allies also went raiding ahead of and also accompanied British troops during the War of 1812, which battles are not recorded on any archival documents , but exist in the oral histories of the Canadian tribes, local oral histories and in old-name places of the local areas. Other accounts exist in the oral histories of the local towns.
These accounts also give details of battles between retreating British troops who did not surrender [but escaped northwest thru the mountains toward Canada but ran head-on into mountain militias just waiting for them] and militias and regulars after Burgoyne`s defeat at Saratoga.
The only way to determine this is to enquire into the local historians who know all this stuff. Also local family bibles contain accounts of their ancestors fighting in battles with the British that are not found anywhere else.
viz 6 = "The fire in 1857, [sic] destroyed all other copies of what history may have been written down. Therefore the history of the town [Ticonderoga]doesn’t go prior to 1858.
A fire in 1974 also destroyed all the records in Ticonderoga. 7 The fire of 1911 destroyed old maps of the Adirondacks in the New York State Library in Albany, NY.; 500,000 books burned up. The Assembly Library and the Senate Library also burned up in the 1911 fire.
8 This fire destroyed 80% of all the New York State Revolutionary War archives.
[Source- Mountain Lake PBS - tv channel, June 2011 broadcast]
All the 1775-1874 records of Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Schroon Lake, NY were destroyed in a fire in 1937. Ticonderoga and Schroon Lake were part of Crown Point during the late 1700`s-early 1800`s.
soory typo= A fire in 1874 also destroyed all the records in Ticonderoga
Thanks for your informative post. I used to live around Albany—that was the only fire that I knew about re the RevWar.
Several British maps, however, somehow managed to be seen and appear to show battles that are not found recorded anywhere but appear as "battle stars" on old British maps, e.g. 1777. Some locals have investigated these sites and found evidences of forts and battles there with many British and American artifacts.
I hope somebody is collecting all this material.
I was watching a British episode of Antiques Roadshow this morning and they showed a beautiful "Flow Blue" Staffordshire tea pot that pictured American ships on the sides winning a sea battle over the English.
It seems that a lot of dishes were made to commemorate such battles. They were shipped to America and sold like hot cakes. I wonder if such records could be found in china for some of the land battles?
The English were very good about dating their wares.
Thanks for that information.
Thanks. It never occurred to me how much of our history has been lost in fires. That is really tragic.