General Robert Erskine: Mapmaker and Minemaster for the American Revolution

Erskine was born a Scott and matured into a noted inventor in London. As a loyal British citizen, he was chosen to immigrate to America to manage the Ringwood Iron Mines. Arriving in Bergen County at the dawn of discord in the colonies, Erskine absorbed the fever for independence and aided the revolution by production in the mines and creating obstructions to British transit up the Hudson River. But he is best known as the “forgotten general” who created military maps for the Continental Army at the behest of General George Washington. These early maps indicated roads, rivers buildings and
noted landowner locations and are important tools for understanding our history and how to preserve it.