Revolutionary War, 1775 to 1783



The American Revolutionary War was fought from 1775 to 1783. It was also known as the American War of Independence. The Revolutionary War began with the confrontation between British troops and local militia at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on 19 April 1775. Throughout the war, state troops and local militias supplemented the Continental (Federal) Army. The total number of men who served is not known. Men between the ages of 16 and 60 may have served during the war in either the Continental Army, State Line Troops, or local militia mustered to help the Continental Troops.

Getting Started

 * US Military Basic Search Strategies
 * US Military Records at the FS Library
 * Finding Your Revolutionary War Ancestor
 * Additional Research Guides

State Revolutionary War Records
The Revolutionary War was fought before these states existed. However, many of these states have information specific to their area on individuals that served in the war and later lived in these states.

Online Collections

 * 1775-1783 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1775-1783 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1775-1783 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1776 United States, Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, 1776 at Findmypast - index ($)
 * 1778-1783 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1818-1872 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1829-1832 United States: Revolutionary War Naval Pensioners' Receipts, 1829-1832 at American Ancestors - index & images ($)
 * 1840 United States, Census Of Revolutionary War Pensioners, 1840 at Findmypast - index & images ($)
 * 1880-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * United States British Loyalists at Findmypast - index & images ($)
 * United States, Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War at Findmypast - index & images ($)
 * US Revolutionary War at Fold3.com($)
 * American Revolution at NPS.gov

Chronology of Major Events
[https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/367492 Peckham, Howard, ed. The Toll of independence : engagements & battle casualties of the American Revolution. Chicago, Illinois : University of Chicago Press, 1974. FS Library973 M2ti]

Continental Congress

 * Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, NARA pub., M247
 * Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, NARA pub, M332
 * John P. Butler, comp., Index, the papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 3 vols. Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1973 Digital Images
 * Kenneth E. Harris and Steven D. Tilley, comps. Index/Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service. General Services Administration, 1976 FS Library Digital Images
 * Worthington Chauncey Ford, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 : edited from the original records in the Library of Congress Washington, D.C. : Government printing Office, 1904-1937. Vols. 5,7,19,20,23,25 FS Library Digital Images
 * Central treasury records of the Continental and Confederation governments relating to military affairs, 1775-1789, NARA pub., M1015
 * Charles C. Jones. Biographical sketches of the delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress Boston, Massachusetts : Houghton Mifflin and Co, 1891.'' FS Library Digital Images

Continental Army

 * Second Continental Congress. Continental Army. 6/14/1775-3/2/1781 NARA Organization Authority Record
 * Congress of the Confederation. Continental Army. 3/2/1781-1783 NARA Organization Authority Record
 * Charles Patrick Neimeyer. America Goes to War. A Social History of the Continental Army. New York: New York University Press, 1996.
 * Robert K. Wright. The Continental Army. Washington, D.C. : Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1983. FS Library 973 M2wr Digital Images
 * Berg, Fred Anderson. Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units: Battalions, Regiments and Independent Corps. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Stackpole Company, 1972. FS Library 973 M2be
 * Continental Army
 * Continental Army Units
 * Harry M. Ward. George Washington's Enforcers. Policing the Continental Army. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,2009.
 * Caroline Cox. A Proper Sense of Honor. Service and Sacrifice in George Washington's Army. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,2007.
 * William Saffell. Records of the revolutionary war : containing the military and financial correspondence of distinguished officers ; names of the officers and privates of regiments, companies, and corps, with the dates of their commissions and enlistments ; general orders of Washington, Lee, and Greene, at Germantown and Valley Forge ; with a list of distinguished prisoners of war ; the time of their capture, exchange, etc. To which is added the half-pay acts of the Continental congress ; the revolutionary pension laws ; and a list of the officers of the Continental army who acquired the right to half-pay, commutation, and lands.New York : Pudney and Russell, 1858. FS Library Digital Book
 * John Pierce. Pierce's register : register of the certificates issued by John Pierce, Esquire, Paymaster General and Commissioner of Army accounts for the United States, to officers and soldiers of the Continental Army under act of July 4, 1783 ; seventeenth report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Reprint. Originally published as Senate Documents, v. 9, no 988, 63rd Congress, 3rd Session, Washington, D.C., 1915.Baltimore, Maryland : Genealogical Publishing Company, 1973, 1984, 1987. FS Library 973 M2up
 * Joseph M. Toner. The medical men of the revolution : with a brief history of the medical department of the continental army. Containing the names of nearly twelve hundred physicians. An address before the alumni association of Jefferson medical college, March 11, 1876.Philadelphia : Collins Printer, 1876. FS Library Digital Images
 * Oscar Reiss. Medicine and the American Revolution : how diseases and their treatments affected the colonial army. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers, 2005, ©1998. FS Library 973 M2rei
 * C. Rogers McLane, editor American chaplains of the Revolution. Louisville, Kentucky : National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, c1991 FS Library 973 M2aco
 * J.T. Headley, The chaplains and clergy of the Revolution New York, New York : C. Scribner, 1864 FS Library Digital Images

 Continental Soldier
 * Harold L. Peterson ; with three technical contributions by Detmar H. Finke and Marko Zlatich. The book of the continental soldier : being a complete sic. account of the uniforms, weapons, and equipment with which he lived and fought.Harrisburg, Pennsylvania : Stackpole Co., c1968. FS Library 973 M2ph
 * Charles Knowles Bolton. The Private Soldier Under Washington. Port Washington, New York: Kenniket Press, Inc. 1964. reprint edition.
 * Elias Brewster Hillard, FamilySearch Digital Library. The last men of the Revolution : a photograph of each from life, together with views of their homes printed in colors; accompanied by brief biographical sketches of the men. Hartford: N.A. & R.A. Moore, 1864. FamilySearch Digital Book.

 Officers
 * Francis B. Heitman. Historical register of officers of the Continental Army : during the War of the Revolution, April 1775 to December 1783.Washington, D.C. : The Rare Book Shop Pub. Co., Inc.,1914. FS Library Digital Book

Prisoners of War

 * Prisoners of War
 * Larry G. Bowman. Captive Americans : prisoners during the American Revolution.Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 1976. FS Library973 M2bow
 * Danske Bedinger Danbridge. ''American Prisoners of the Revolution."Charlottesville, Virginia : Michie Co., 1911. FS Library Digital Book
 * Charles H. Metzer. The prisoner in the American Revolution.Chicago, Illinois : Loyola University Press, 1971. FS Library 973 M2met
 * Henry R. Stiles. Account of the interment of the remains of American patriots who perished on board the British prison ships : during the American Revolution, with notes and an appendix. New York : Privately reprinted, 1865. FS Library fiche 6078236
 * Prison ship Jersey

Naval Sources

 * Charles E. Claghorn, Naval officers of the American Revolution : a concise biographical dictionary Metuchen, New Jersey : Scarecrow Press, c1988 FS Library 973 M3c
 * William Bell Clark, ed.  Naval Documents of the American Revolution. vol. 1. Washington, 1964.
 * William Bell Clark, ed.  Naval Documents of the American Revolution. vol. 3. Washington, 1968.
 * William James Morgan, ed. Naval Documents of the American Revolution. vol. 7. Washington, 1976.
 * William James Morgan, ed. Naval Documents of the American Revolution. vol. 8. Washington, 1980.
 * Nova Scotia Vice-Admiralty Court, American vessels captured by the British during the Revolution and War of 1812 Salem, Massachusetts : Essex Institute, 1911
 * Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture. 1/15/1780-5/16/1787
 * Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture. Revolutionary War Prize Cases, 1780–1787 National Archives RG 267 NAID 1518851
 * Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture. Selected Revolutionary War Prize Case Documents, 1780–1784 RG 267 NAID 1518853

Research Guides, Bibliographies and Reference Sources

 * Neagles, James C. and Neagles Lila L. Locating Your Revolutionary War Ancestor: A Guide to the military Records. Logan, Utah: Everton Publishers, Inc., 1983. FS Library 973 D27ne
 * Schweitzer, George K. Revolutionary War Genealogy. Knoxville, Tennessee: The author, 1982. FS Library 973 M2sg 1997
 * edited by J. Todd White and Charles H. Lesser, Fighters for independence : a guide to sources of biographical information on soldiers and sailors of the American Revolution Chicago, [Illinois : University of Chicago Press, c1977 FS Library 973 D33w]
 * Richard L. Blanco, ed. The American Revolution, 1775-1783 : an encyclopedia. 2 vols. New York, New York : Garland Pub. Co., 1993. FS Library 973 M2amr
 * Mark M. Boatner. III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania : Stackpole Books, 1994. FS Library 973 M26be
 * Jack P. Greene, ed. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Basil Blackwell, 1991. FS Library 973 M2ben
 * Ronald M. Gephart, comp.  Revolutionary America, 1763-1789 : a bibliography, 2 volumes. Washington, D.C. : United States. Government Printing Office, 1984 FS Library 973 H23g

Articles
 * Schluz, Constance B. "Revolutionary War Pension Applications: A Neglected Source for Social and Family History." Prologue 15(Summer 1983): 103-114.
 * Theodore J. Crackel. Revolutionary War Pension Records and Patters of American Mobility, 1780-1830. Prologue 16 #3 (Fall 1984)
 * Jean Nudd. Using Revolutionary War Pension Files to Find Family Information. Prologue 47 #2 (Summer, 2015)
 * David Allen Lambert. Strategies for Tracing Revolutionary War Veterans. American Ancestors 11 (Summer 2010): 21-24. FS Library 974 D25nea.
 * (34 minute online video)

Archives and Libraries

 * David Library of the American Revolution
 * National Archives Military Resources: American Revolution
 * National Archives - War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records. Record Group 93
 * Library of Congress Web Guide to the American Revolution
 * The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, Time Line: The American Revolution
 * Museum of the American Revolution: Collections and Resources

National Park Service

 * National Park Service: The American Revolution
 * Yorktown Battlefield - Unit Lists and Casualty Lists

Revolutionary War Sources

 * Records of the British Colonial Office, Class 5, FamilySearch Catalog
 * Lowell, Edward J. The Hessians In The Revolution: Williamstown, Massachusetts, Corner House Publishers. 1970. reprint edition.

Sources for Further Reading
 Histories
 * Alden, John Richard. The American Revolution: 1775-1783. New York: Harper &amp; Row, Publishers, 1954.
 * Ferguson, E. James. The American Revolution: A General History, 1763-1790.rev. ed. Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press, 1979.
 * Gibson, Lawrence Henry. The Coming of the Revolution: 1763-1775. New York: Harper &amp; Row Publishers, 1954.
 * Jensen, Merrill. The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution 1763-1776. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
 * Benson John Lossing. Field-book of the American Revolution : published under the patronage of the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution ... reprint of the 1850-1852 ed. published in New York, Harper and Brothers, 2 vols. Cottonport, Louisiana : Polyanthos, 1972
 * Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution 1763-1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
 * Miller, John C. Origins of The American Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1943.
 * Miller, John C. Triumph of Freedom: 1775-1783. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948.
 * Morgan, Edmund S. The birth of the Republic: 1763-89. rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
 * Peckham, Howard. The War for Independence: A Military History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958. 973 M2ti
 * Resch, John and Walter Sargent, eds. War and society in the American Revolution : mobilization and home fronts. DeKalb, Illinois : Northern Illinois University Press, 2007. FS Library 973 M2rjs
 * Shy, John. A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
 * American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)

Additional Websites

 * Ancestry ($)
 * Fold3 ($)
 * Interactive Map of paths of Patriot Soldiers
 * Massachusetts Historical Society - The Coming of the American Revolution 1764-1776 - The Boston Tea Party
 * Participants in the Boston Tea Party - December 16, 1773