American Revolution and Other Resource Links
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Bibliographies
The U.S. Army's Center for Military History (CMH) prepared extensive bibliographies for inclusion in the Center's publication The Continental Army (1983). Due to limitations of space, only part of each bibliography could be published in that volume. The bibliographies, however, have been maintained by the Center and are subjected to continuous revision and updating. These bibliographies are available online, and are considerably longer than the original publication's versions.
This one's a reading list of books on the American Revolution and it has a special section for young readers.
Here's another bibliography, this one prepared by the Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks.
Book Reviews
The Revlist, a discussion group of mainly Revolutionary War reenactors, also has a website. On that site is a page of reviews of books about the American Revolution.
Brief Online Histories
This is a discussion of the Revolutionary War and the political beginnings of the United States.
This is a much longer history of the Revolution, part of a very long history of the United States. It comes with many primary documents included, as well as some biographies of key personages.
This last is a multimedia history of the Philadelphia Campaign in the summer and fall of 1777. It starts with the British landing at Head of Elk and ends with the Continental troops going into winter quarters at Valley Forge. This is quite innovatively designed and may be the forerunner of how much Internet information will be presented in the future.
Discussion Groups
There is a very good discussion group of mainly reenactors called Revlist. Topics are related to life in camp, battles, weapons, culture of the times, etc. It is a good place to get help with Revolutionary War materials. The URL above leads to their website. There is a button on the first page that will allow you to join the list and receive e-mail of all posted messages.
Events of the Revolutionary War
This timeline from the Library of Congress' American Memory page is a concise military history of the war. The link brings you in at 1774, and you'll need to click on the other years at the bottom of the page for more.
Here's a chronological list of battles & skirmishes of the Revolution. The list also provides links for further information. There are some primary documents, and references for further research on most battles.
Make your own Revolutionary War calendars. This site will prepare calendars for any year with data on the phases of the moon. These are very helpful when working with dated material from the Revolutionary War time period.
Historical Flags and Flag History
The California State Sons of the Revolution have a nice display of flags from early U.S. history.
Interesting Facts
The West Point Atlas of American Wars has Revolutionary War campaign maps for major battles and time periods online.
Here's an interesting website about North American forts dating prior to the 1900's.
This site is more specific than the preceding one, focusing only on New York State forts.
Library Search Aids
The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) is a Library of Congress program. A series of annual editions that started in the 1960's, NUCMC is a voluntary listing of manuscript collections by libraries and historical societies around the United States. This invaluable research tool for finding manuscript sources is now online, but covers only manuscript acquisitions made since the initiation of the online program. Thus, reference to the published volumes is still essential.
The Harriet Irving Library at the University of New Brunswick houses the Loyalist Collection. There is an online search capability. The entire collection is not yet online, but more is being added constantly.
The United Kingdom's National Archives is online.
Links to Online Resources
This is a list of over 4,100 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar. This list is continually updated and expanded.
Here's a list of links for the historian.
The library catalog of the Daughters of the American Revolution Library is available online.
Here's a page of links to libraries, historical societies, etc.
Online Period Document Archives
The Archiving Early America site, as its name implies, in addition to presenting period documents also contains an archive of original drawings and illustrations.
The Library of Congress has a special display on The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789. There is also a downloadable map viewer (Mr. Sid) available, so you can download the maps to your computer. The viewer permits examining the map(s) at varying magnifications. This is a very handy tool.
The Papers of George Washington are online at the Library of Congress' American Memory page. This collection is still growing as more and more documents are added. All Washington's outgoing wartime correspondence is available, as are his General Orders to the Continental Army. Most of the site contains high resolution copies of the original documents. In some series transcripts of the handwritten documents are also available. Eventually his incoming correspondence will be added. This is a site no serious wartime scholar should miss.
A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation, another Library of Congress American Memory page, contains the Journals of the Continental Congress. The search engine is very powerful, as good or better than the index of the bound hard-copy edition. Unfortunately, none of the referenced documents are available online, but they still can be seen on the microfilm edition.
Another Library of Congress webpage that is just beginning digitization is An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and other Printed Ephemera. Here one can find period printed material meant for distribution to the public as "hand-bills" or posters. My favorite is a period description of the news of Washington's Crossing the Delaware on 25 December 1776.
The University of Georgia's Hargrett Library has an excellent collection of online period maps, with particular emphasis on the southern theatre of the war.
The American Colonist's Library is an online collection of primary source documents pertaining to early American history. This is a valuable collection of materials. It covers the American Revolution very well from the close of the French and Indian War to the beginnings of the American Republic and beyond.
This site is different from the Library of Congress George Washington Papers site. University of Virginia editors are producing a multi-volume published set of the definative annotated Papers of George Washington. Not all his papers are available online, but there are samples from collections other than the Library of Congress as well as information and essays about Washington.
From the editors of the Nathanael Greene Papers here is a sampling of their work, with information on the general, the editing process, and the published volumes.
Here is another collection of online primary source documents created by the Yale University Law School. The papers tend to reflect the foundations of law in the United States. It's an excellent site with a great many documents.
The Loyalist Institute focuses on the Loyalists during the AWI. It has very good information on loyalist troop units, battles, etc. Much of the material presented is in the form of transcriptions of primary documents.
Online Web Magazines
The Early America Review is a quarterly journal of the people, issues, and events of the 18th Century. Scholarly works by noted authors. Should not be missed.
Regional History
New Jersey during the Revolution.
Long Island in the Revolution.
South Carolina in the Revolution.
The Mohawk Valley in the Revolution.
Uniforms
The California State Sons of the Revolution site has a display of illustrations depicting the Uniforms of the American Army. Uniforms of American, French and Crown Forces units are shown. The most interesting part of the uniforms pages are the graphics which display how rank was displayed on the uniforms for two different time periods and the color scheme for Continental Army Uniforms later in the war.
More Links
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