The Navy Department Library
American Revolution, 1775-1783
Allard, Dean C. "The Potomac Navy of 1776." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 84 (October 1976): 411-430.
Allen, Gardner W. Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1927. 356 pp.
_____. A Naval History of the American Revolution. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2 vols. (Reprinted 1962 by Russell & Russell; 1970 by Corner House).
Augur, Helen. The Secret War of Independence. New York: Duell Little, 1955. 381 pp.
A study of the "commercial-maritime-diplomatic complex" that evolved around the activities of Benjamin Franklin.
Barnes, John S., ed. The Logs of the Serapis-Alliance-Ariel, Under the Command of John Paul Jones, 1779-1780. New York: Naval History Society, 1911. 138 pp.
Beattie, Donald W., and J. Richard Collins. Washington's New England Fleet: Beverly's Role in Its Origins, 1775-77. Salem, Mass.: Newcomb & Gauss, 1969. 69 pp.
Bird, Harrison. Navies in the Mountains: The Battles on the Waters of Lake Champlain and Lake George, 1609-1814. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1962. 361 pp.
Bon Homme Richard (Ship). The Log of the Bon Homme Richard. Mystic, Conn.: Marine Historical Assn., 1936. 61 pp.
Log of cruise out of L'orient, August 4-September 24, 1779, Captain John Paul Jones commanding. Covers victory over HMS Serapis off Flamborough Head. Includes account of action written by Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning.
Borick, Carl P. A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston 1780. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. 332 pp.
Boudriot, Jean. John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard: A Reconstruction of the Ship and an Account of the Battle With H.M.S. Serapis. Translated by David H. Roberts. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1987. 127 pp.
Bowen-Hassell, E. Gordon, Dennis M. Conrad, and Mark L. Hayes. Sea Raiders of the American Revolution: The Continental Navy in European Waters. Washington: Naval Historical Center, 2003. 73 pp.
Bradford, James C. "The Navies of the American Revolution." In In Peace and War, Interpretations of American Naval History, 2d ed., edited by Kenneth J. Hagan, 3-26. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1984.
Includes bibliographical essay.
Breen, Kenneth C. "Divided Command: the West Indies and North America, 1780-1781." In The British Navy and the Use of Naval Power in the Eighteenth Century, edited by Jeremy Black and Philip Woodfine, 191-206. Leicester: Leicester Univ. Press, 1988.
_____. "A Reinforcement Reduced' Rodneys Flawed Appraisal of French Plans, West Indies, 1781." In New Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers From the Ninth Naval History Symposium, edited by William R. Roberts and Jack Sweetman, 161-172. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991.
Brewington, Marion V. "American Naval Guns, 1775-1785." American Neptune 3 (January 1943): 11- 18, 148-158.
_____. "The Designs of Our First Frigates." American Neptune 8 (January 1948): 11-25.
Buel, Richard. In Irons: Britain's Naval Supremacy and the American Revolutionary Economy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. 397 pp.
Buker, George E. The Penobscot Expedition: Commodore Saltonstall and the Massachusetts Conspiracy of 1779. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2002. 204 pp.
Callo, Joseph. John Paul Jones: America's First Sea Warrier. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2006. 250 pp.
Cayford, John E. The Penobscot Expedition: Being an Account of the Largest American Naval Engagement of the Revolutionary War. Orrington, Maine: C & H Pub. Co., 1976. 131 pp.
Chadwick, French E., ed. The Graves Papers and Other Documents Relating to the Naval Operations of the Yorktown Campaign, July to October, 1781. New York: Naval History Society, 1916. 268 pp. (Reprinted 1968 by Arno).
Admiral Thomas Graves commanded the British fleet at Yorktown.
Clark, William Bell. Ben Franklins Privateers: A Naval Epic of the American Revolution. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1956. 198 pp. (Reprinted 1969 by Greenwood).
_____. George Washington's Navy: Being an Account of His Excellency's Fleet in New England Waters. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1960. 275 pp.
Coggins, Jack. Ships and Seamen of the American Revolution: Vessels, Crews, Weapons, Gear, Naval Tactics, and Actions of the War for Independence. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1969. 224 pp. (Reprinted 1975 by Promontory Press).
Crawford, Michael J. 'The Joint Allied Operation at Rhode Island, 1778.' In New Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers From the Ninth Naval History Symposium, edited by William R. Roberts and Jack Sweetman, 227-242. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991.
Daughan, George C. If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy' From the Revolution to the War of 1812. New York: Basic Books, 2008. 535 pp.
Doniol, Henri. Histoire de la Participation de la France a 'l'Etablissement des Etats-Unis d' Amerique. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1886-1892. 5 vols. (Reprinted 1967 by B. Franklin).
Dudley, William S. "Maryland at War on the Chesapeake, 1776-1783." In New Aspects of Naval History: Selected Papers Presented at the Fourth Naval History Symposium, United States Naval Academy, 25-26 October 1979, edited by Craig L. Symonds, 102-121. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1981.
Dull, Jonathan R. The Age of the Ship of the Line: The British and French Navies 1650-1815. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. 250 pp.
The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774-1787. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1975. 437 pp.
Eller, Ernest M., ed. Chesapeake Bay in the American Revolution. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Pubs., 1981. 600 pp.
A collection of fourteen documented essays. The editor, Rear Admiral Ernest McNeill Eller, former Director of Naval History, contributed the opening and closing essays. Includes a chronology.
_____. Naval Weapons of the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Washington: American Defense Preparedness Assn., 1976. 32 pp.
Fanning, Nathaniel. Fanning's Narrative: Being the Memoirs of Nathaniel Fanning, an Officer of the Revolutionary Navy, 1778-1783. Edited and annotated by John S. Barnes. New York: Naval History Society, 1912. 258 pp. (Reprinted 1968 by Arno).
Critical appraisal of John Paul Jones by one of his officers.
Fowler, William M. Rebels Under Sail: The American Navy During the Revolution. New York: Scribner, 1976. 356 pp.
French, Allen. The First Year of the American Revolution. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934. 795 pp. (Reprinted 1967 by Octagon).
Hopkins, Esek. The Correspondence of Esek Hopkins, Commander- in-Chief of the United States Navy . . . in the Library of the Rhode Island Historical Society. Edited by Alverda S. Beck. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1933. 101 pp.
_____. The Letter Book of Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Navy, 1775-1777 . . . in the Library of the Rhode Island Historical Society. Edited by Alverda S. Beck. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1932. 151 pp.
Jackson, John W. The Pennsylvania Navy, 1775-1781: The Defense of the Delaware. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1974. 514 pp.
James, William M. The British Navy in Adversity: A Study of the War of American Independence. London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1926. 459 pp. (Reprinted 1970 by Russell).
Jamieson, Allan G. "The Battle of Grenada and Caribbean Strategy, 1779." In Naval History: The Seventh Symposium of the U.S. Naval Academy, edited by William B. Cogar, 55-62. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1988.
_____. "War in the Leeward Islands: 1775-1783." D. Phil, Oxford University, 1981.
Jones, John Paul. John Paul Jones' Memoir of the American Revolution Presented to King Louis XVI of France. Translated and edited by Gerard W. Gawalt. Washington: Library of Congress; GPO, 1978. 116 pp.
Knox, Dudley W. The Naval Genius of George Washington. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932. 138 pp.
Larrabee, Harold A. Decision at the Chesapeake. New York: C. N. Potter, 1964. 317 pp.
Lewis, James A. Neptune's Militia<: The Frigate South Carolina During the American Revolution. Kent, Ohio: Kent State Univ. Press, 1999. 235 pp.
Long, C. Thomas. "Green Water Revolution: The War for American Independence on the Waters of the Southern Chesapeake Theater." Ph.D. diss, The George Washington Univ., 2005. 672 pp.
Lossing, Benson J. The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution. New York: Harper, 1859. 2 vols. (Reprinted 1976 by New Hampshire Pub. Co.).
Lundeberg, Philip K. The Continental Gunboat Philadelphia and the Northern Campaign of 1776. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1966. unp.
Mackesy, Piers. The War for America, 1775-1783. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1964. 565 pp.
Maclay, Edgar S. A History of American Privateers. New York: Appleton, 1899. 519 pp. (Reprinted 1967 by Books for Libraries).
Mahan, Alfred T. The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence. Boston: Little, Brown, 1913. 280 pp. (Reprinted 1968 by Greenwood).
Metzger, Charles H. The Prisoner in the American Revolution. Chicago: Loyola Univ. Press, 1971. 309 pp.
Middlebrook, Louis F. History of Maritime Connecticut During the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1925. 2 vols.
Miller, Nathan. Sea of Glory: The Continental Navy Fights for Independence, 1775-1785. New York: D. McKay Co., 1974. 558 pp.
Morgan, William J. "The Governor's Floating Town." The Iron Worker 35 (Autumn 1971): 2-10.
The plight of Lord Dunmore's Tory followers at Gwynn Island and elsewhere in Chesapeake Bay.
_____. "'The Pivot Upon Which Everything Turned': French Naval Superiority That Ensured Victory at Yorktown." The Iron Worker 22 (Spring 1958): 1-9.
Reprinted in Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine 93 (May 1959): 485-487. Also reprinted in All Hands (December 1959): 59-63, under the title, "Seapower Turns the Tide-1781."
Neeser, Robert W., ed. Letters and Papers Relating to the Cruises of Gustavus Conyngham, a Captain of the Continental Navy, 1777-1779. New York: Naval History Society, 1915. 241 pp. (Reprinted 1970 by Kennikat).
Nelson, James L. Benedict Arnold's Navy: The Ragtag Fleet that Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but Won the American Revolution. Camden, ME: International Marine/McGraw-Hill, 2006. 386 pp.
_____. George Washington's Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 378 pp.
Patton, Robert H. Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution. New York: Pantheon, 2008.
Paullin, Charles O. The Navy of the American Revolution: Its Administration, Its Policy and Its Achievements. Cleveland: Burrows, 1906. 549 pp. (Reprinted 1970 by Haskell).
Peckham, Howard H. The War for Independence, a Military History. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1958. 226 pp.
Pengelly, Colin. Sir Samuel Hood and the Battle of the Chesapeake. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009.
Powell, Nowland Van. The American Navies of the Revolutionary War. New York: Putnam, 1974. 128 pp.
Rankin, Hugh F. "The Naval Flag of the American Revolution." William and Mary Quarterly 2 (1954): 339-353.
Rider, Hope S. Valour Fore & Aft: Being the Adventures of the Continental Sloop Providence, 1775- 1779, Formerly Flagship Katy of Rhode Island's Navy. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1977. 259 pp.
Rodger, N.A.M. The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich 1718-1792. New York: Norton, 1993. 425 pp.
Rogers, Ernest E. Connecticut's Naval Office at New London during the War of the American Revolution, Including the Mercantile Letter Book of Nathaniel Shaw, Jr. New London, Conn.: New London County Historical Society, 1933. 358 pp.
Sands, John O. Yorktown's Captive Fleet. Mariners Museum Pub. No. 41. Published for the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, by the University Press of Virginia, 1983. 267 pp.
Sandwich, John Montague, 4th Earl of. The Private Papers of John, Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, 1771-1782. Edited by G. R. Barnes and J. H. Owen. London: Navy Records Society, 1932-1938. 4 vols.
Scheina, Robert L. 'A Matter of Definition: A New Jersey Navy, 1777-1783.' American Neptune 39 (July 1979): 209-217.
Schermerhorn, Frank E. American and French Flags of the Revolution, 1775-1783. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, 1948. 148 pp.
Serle, Ambrose. The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, Secretary to Lord Howe, 1776-1778. Edited by Edward H. Tatum, Jr. San Marino, Calif.: The Huntington Library, 1940. 369 pp. (Reprinted 1969 by Arno).
Shuldham, Molyneux, Baron. The Despatches of Molyneux Shuldham, Vice-Admiral of the Blue and Commander-in-Chief of His Britannic Majesty's Ships in North America, January-July, 1776. Edited by Robert W. Neeser. New York: Naval History Society, 1913. 330 pp.
Smith, Charles R. Marines in the Revolution: A History of the Continental Marines in the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Washington: History and Museums Div., Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1975. 491 pp.
Stevens, Benjamin F., comp. B. F. Stevens' Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773-1783. London: Malby & Sons, 1889-1895. 2107 facsim. (Reprinted 1970 by Mellifont).
Index. London: C. Whittingham & Co., 1898. 351 pp. (Reprinted 1970 by Mellifont).
Stewart, Robert A. The History of Virginia's Navy of the Revolution. Richmond: Mitchell & Hotchkiss, 1934. 279 pp.
Stout, Neil R. The Royal Navy in America, 1760-1775: A Study of Enforcement of British Colonial Policy in the Era of the American Revolution. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1973. 227 pp.
Syrett, David. Admiral Lord Howe. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2006. 176 pp.
_____. The Royal Navy in American Waters 1775-1783. Aldershot, Hants, England: Scolar Press, 1989. 250 pp.
_____. The Royal Navy in European Waters during the American Revolutionary War. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. 213 pp.
_____. Shipping and the American War 1775-83: A Study of British Transport Organization. London: Univ. of London, Athlone Press, 1970. 274 pp.
Thomas, Evan. John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. 381 pp.
U.S. Continental Congress. Marine Committee. Out-Letters of the Continental Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty, August, 1776-September, 1780. Edited by Charles 0. Paullin, New York: Naval History Society, 1914. 2 vols.
Primary source material for the administration and operations of the Continental Navy.
U.S. Library of Congress. Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775-1788. Prepared From the Originals in the Library of Congress by Charles Henry Lincoln. Washington: GPO, 1906. 549 pp.
Lists primarily the naval documents of the American Revolution included in the "Papers of the Continental Congress." Second half of volume deals exclusively with Letter of Marque bonds.
U.S. Naval History Division. The American Revolution, 1775-1783: An Atlas of 18th Century Maps and Charts: Theaters of Operations. Compiled by W. Bart Greenwood. Washington: GPO, 1972.
A portfolio of 20 maps (17 " x 23"), with a booklet containing an essay on the art of mapping and an index of 10,000 names.
_____. Naval Documents of the American Revolution. Edited by William Bell Clark and William James Morgan. Washington: Naval Historical Center; GPO, 1964-.
Contains contemporary records from provincial assemblies, committees of safety, the Continental Congress, letters, diaries journals, ships' logs, account books, and newspapers from American sources, as well as similar materials from British, French, Spanish, and other foreign archives, libraries, and museums. Illustrated with works of art, drawings, sketches, maps, and artifacts of the time. Indexed. With Vol. 5, William J. Morgan succeeded the late William Bell Clark as editor. With Vol. 10, Michael J. Crawford succeeded William J. Morgan as editor.
Vol. l, American Theatre, Dec. 1, 1774-Sept. 2, 1775, European Theatre, Dec. 6, 1774-Aug. 9, 1775; Vol. 2, American Theatre, Sept. 3, 1775-Dec. 7, 1775, European Theatre, Aug. 11, 1775- Oct. 31, 1775; Vol. 3, American Theatre, Dec. 8, 1775-Feb. 18, 1776, European Theatre, Nov. 1, 1775-Jan. 31, 1776; Vol. 4, American Theatre, Feb. 19, 1776-May 8, 1776, European Theatre, Feb. 1, 1776-May 25, 1776; Vol. 5, American Theatre, May 9, 1776-July 31, 1776; Vol. 6, American Theatre, Aug. 1, 1776-Oct. 31, 1776, European Theatre, May 26, 1776- Oct. 5, 1776; Vol. 7, American Theatre, Nov. 1, 1776-Feb. 28, 1777, European Theatre, Oct. 6, 1776-Dec. 31. 1776; Vol. 8, American Theatre, Mar. 1, 1777-May 31, 1777, European Theatre, Jan. l, 1777-May 31, 1777; Vol. 9, American Theatre, June 1, 1777- July 31, 1777, European Theatre, June 1, 1777-Sept. 30, 1777, American Theatre, Aug. 1, 1777-Sept. 30, 1777. Vol. 10, American Theater: October 1, 1777-December 31, 1777, European Theater, October 1, 1777-December 31, 1777; Volume 11, American Theater, January 1, 1778-March 31, 1778, European Theater, January 1, 1778-March 31, 1778.
_____. Maritime Dimensions of the American Revolution. Washington: GPO, 1977. 36 pp.
Papers entitled "Naval Policy of the Continental Congress" and "Defeat at Sea: The Impact of American Naval Operations on Britain, 1775-1778," together with comments on the papers presented at the 1976 meeting of the Organization of American Historians.
Volo, James M. Blue Water Patriots: The American Revolution Afloat. New York: Praeger, 2007. 307 pp.
Wood, Virginia Steele. "The Georgia Navy's Dramatic Victory of April 19, 1778." Georgia Historical Quarterly 90 (Summer 2006): 165-195.
