Notes on the Manuscript Sources

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Despite the large amount of source material on the military history of the American Revolution that has been printed, there is also a very great deal that exists only in manuscript. As noted in the introduction, however, this bibliography does not purport to provide any detailed listing of manuscript sources, so that what follows may be considered a general introduction to the subject, indicating only the most important depositories to which the student may want to turn.

For the British side, of course, the British Public Record Office and the British Museum in London are both important sources for the official materials on the British war effort. Charles M. Andrews' Guide to the Materials for American History to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain (2 vols., Washington, 1912) and Andrews and Frances C. Davenport's Guide to the Manuscript Materials for the History of the United States to 1783, in the British Museum, in Minor London Archives, and in the Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge (Washington, 1908) are both still useful guides. It is not necessary to go to England, however, to consult many of these records; some portions of them have been copied and may be found in the Library of Congress. They are described in Grace Gardner Griffin, A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to American History in British Repositories Reproduced for the Division of Manuscrips of the Library of Congress, (Washington, 1946). And many of the British headquarters papers have found their way to the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. These include the papers of Sir Thomas Gage, Lord George Germain, Sir Henry Clinton and other notables. These were originally described in Howard H. Peckham, Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the William L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1942; Peckham's guide was updated by William S. Ewing in 1953.

Colonial Williamsburg Inc. has also acquired numerous British papers, among them those of Sir Guy Carleton, commander in Canada and the last of the British commanders in chief in North America. A good summary of the whole matter of the location of British military papers is Henry P. Beers, "The Papers of the British Commanders in Chief in North America, 1754-1783,” Military Affairs) vol. 13, 1949, 79-94. Other British papers may be found in the Canadian Archives, and of course there is a great deal of manuscript material on French and Spanish participation in their respective archives.

On the American side the manuscript sources are quite scattered. The main federal repositories are the National Archives and the Library of Congress. The most important single collection at the Library of Congress is the Washington Papers which contain in a very real sense the headquarters papers of the Continental Army. There are also collections of numerous other military figures in the Library Manuscript Division and copies of manuscripts housed elsewhere, both in Britain and America. The collections at the National Archives, since the transfer of the Papers of the Continental Congress from the Library to that repository, are now of equal importance. However, the records of the Revolution at the Archives do not include any such systematic collection of papers on the Continental Army as those for the Union Army during the Civil War, or for the U. S. Army during World Wars I and II. There are, however, numerous fragmentary records that the student cannot afford to neglect. A Preliminary Inventory of the War Dep,artment Collection of Revolutionary War Records was published by National Archives in 1971.

Each of the original thirteen states played its part in the military effort and the archives of these states, most of them relatively unexploited, are a rich source for the history of the Revolution. Most state archival agencies have published guides to at least some of their holdings, and these should be consulted.

Other manuscript collections relating to the military history of the Revolution are so widely dispersed throughout the United States as almost to defy any short description. State and local historical societies, not only in the original thirteen states, but in a number of others have important holdings, as do various state and public libraries. The Nathaniel Greene Papers, for instance, are at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, the Horatio Gates Papers at the New York Historical Society, the Henry Knox and Artemas Ward Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. At least some of the papers of Daniel Morgan are in the New York Public Library. The Draper Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society is perhaps the most important repository for holdings on frontier history during the Revolution. This is but a beginning of the list. The best guides are Philip M. Hamer, ed., A Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States) New Haven, 1961, and the Library of Congress' National Union Catalog of Manuscripts) which attempts to provide a complete listing of manuscript collections in the United States annually.

Preface


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This reference work on the American Revolution consists of three parts-a brief narrative history of the war, a chronology of military events, and a bibliography. Each part requires a word of explanation.

The narrative consists of one chapter on the colonial background of American military history and two on the Revolution itself. These three chapters ate reprints of Chapters 2-4 of American Military History, edited by Maurice Matloff, a volume prepared by the predecessor agency of the Center of Military History, the Office of the Chief of Military History, the most recent edition published in 1973. American Military History is a volume in the Army Historical Series, whose primary purpose is to serve as an ROTC text, although it has also found numerous other uses in the academic world. The narrative presented in these chapters reprinted here is the same as that in the original 1969 edition of American Military History; it was drawn very largely from secondary sources and reflects, insofar as possible, the best of modern scholarship on the military conflict as interpreted by the author.

Part Two is a chronology, oriented toward military events, covering the period between the signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years War in 1763 and the ratification by the Continental Congress some twenty years later of a second Treaty of Paris confirming American independence. These were an eventful twenty years both in the history of the United States and of the world, and no attempt has been made to include all the important events of that period. The emphasis has been placed on the events of the land war, 1775-1783, and on events that relate to the institutional history of the Army-hence the designation of an Army Chronology. The chronology includes major milestones on the road to war, 1763- 1775, and major political and diplomatic developments afterward, but the focus is on the military conflict. And within this area of concentration, only the more important events of the war at sea receive notice. A chronology by its very nature lacks selective emphasis. The small skirmish is likely to receive as much attention as the great battle, depending on the space required to make clear what the event described was rather than on its intrinsic historical significance. The selective emphasis appears in the narrative; the chronology is to provide a reference on specific dates and places and to place all events listed in their proper time relationship. This our Army Chronology attempts to do.

Part Three, the bibliography, contains listings of over a thousand · titles of books, articles, and published source material on the American Revolution. The emphasis is again on the land war, but proportionately the bibliography gives more attention to the political, social and economic aspects of the Revolution and to its naval phase than do either the narrative or the chronology. It is not an annotated bibliography. The author found himself faced with alternatives of presenting a much more select and critical bibliography, containing his own personal opinion on each work, or of providing a much larger number of listings without critical comment. He opted for the latter alternative in the belief that there are, in the works he has listed, many more evaluative bibliographical essays than there are comprehensive listings of the great multitude of works that have been published on the military history of the American Revolution in the last two hundred years. Even with the multitude of listings, however, this bibliography is by no means a complete one of books and articles in print. Its organization and its limitations are set forth further in the introduction to Part Three.

Dr. Stetson Conn, while still Chief Historian, developed the concept for this volume and prepared the draft of the chronology before his departure from the Office of the Chief of Military History in 1971. Dr. Robert W. Coakley, currently Deputy Chief Historian, Center of Military History, is the author of the chapters reprinted hom AmeTican MilitaTy History) revised the chronology for publication, and compiled the bibliography. Acknowledgments are due to Dr. Howard H. Peckham of the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Mr. Donald H. Kent, Director of the Bureau of Archives and History, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Colonel Thomas E. Griess, Professor and Head of the Department of History, U.S. Military Academy, Dr. William B. Willcox of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Lieutenant General Joseph M. Heiser, Jr., USA, and Dr. Brooks E. Kleber, Chief Historian, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command for helpful comments on the chronology. Mrs. Mary Thomas, Miss Evelina Mounts, Mrs. Anita Dyson, and Mrs. Arlene Morris did yeoman service in typing a difficult manuscript. Mr. Joseph Friedman and Mr. Duncan Miller edited the manuscript in preparation for the printer. The authors, however, acknowledge responsibility for all errors of fact or interpretation found herein.


ROBERT W. COAKLEY
STETSON CONN

Washington, D.C.
24 June 1974


PART ONE
NARRATIVE


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