Reference Books
Boatner, Mark Mayo. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Bicentennial ed. [rev. and expanded]. New York: D. McKay Co, 1974.
Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution. Clearfield, 1932.
Lesser, Charles H., ed. The Sinews of Independence: Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Monthly listings of the number of officers and enlisted members are presented in tabular form in this book. In addition, there are totals for sick and soldiers on furlough.
Newspapers
Newspapers are rich sources of information on the Revolutionary Era. As with any primary source, care should be taken to assess accuracy and bias. There are several on-line sources to access newspapers published during the Revolution.
Books on Revolutionary Era Newspapers
Adelman, Joseph M. Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763-1789. Studies in Early American Economy and Society from the Library Company of Philadelphia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.
Andrlik, Todd, ed. Reporting the Revolutionary War: Before It Was History, It Was News. Naperville, Ill: Sourcebooks, 2012.
Humphrey, Carol Sue. The American Revolution and the Press: The Promise of Independence. Visions of the American Press. Evanston, Ill: Medill School of Journalism/Northwestern University Press, 2013.
Online Newspaper Archives
Virginia Gazettes (1736-1780). You can access the papers via this link.
Pennsylvania Gazette Online access at
Several South Carolina newspapers are online at link.
Revolutionary Boston newspapers at http://www.masshist.org/dorr/
London Gazette are only at link
Large Databases with Revolutionary Era newspapers
Early American Newspapers are online at Readex
British Newspaper Archive is a helpful site for many British papers link
On a much smaller scale, but free, I created a mini archive of full newspaper issues featured in Reporting the Revolutionary War. You can find those issues by clicking here and navigating through the chapters.
Web sites
David Library of the American Revolution
For links to useful web sites containing primary resources, Women’s history, Reenactment groups, Archives, and Bibliographies see Resources in the American Revolution and Early Republic Eras
Massachusetts Historical Society
For links to documents in various repositories, teacher and student resources, televisions and film and frameworks and standards click Useful links to Resources.
Society of the Cincinnati
This hereditary organization of Continental Army officers and their descendants offers an on-line library as well as a physical library located in Washington DC.
Slavery References
J. L. Bell’s blog 1775 provides a good overview of sources for names of slaves and runaway slavery newspaper advertisements in the Revolutionary era.
Researching the American Revolution 