America rose dramatically from the sea and from it has increasingly drawn strength in the incredible events since Columbus' first thrilling landfall.The New World was discovered on the eve of and accelerated, if it did not in part cause, the series of ... Continue Reading

Only those who have sailed into horizons that ever recede can begin to comprehend the immensity of the sea or its power. That its influence upon history has been vast will not surprise them. A similar realization comes when one explores the oceans of ... Continue Reading

Volume 3 of our series opens at a critical stage in the affairs of America. At Boston General Washington perennially short of munitions besieges the British in a stalemate while his little Navy contributes importantly in slowing British supply by sea—the ... Continue Reading

Several of the most significant events of the war for independence appear in the pages of this, the fourth volume of Naval Documents of the American Revolution. Foremost are the resolves of the Continental Congress establishing a definite naval policy ... Continue Reading

The turbulent vast oceans of the world—ever moving, ever changing—are in themselves the very embodiment of freedom and liberty defined so clearly almost two hundred years ago in the Declaration of Independence. Men who take to the sea to trade, ... Continue Reading

Naval power at sea and on inland waters played key roles in the period of the Revolutionary War covered by this volume of documents. British transports and the convoying fleet, commanded by Admiral Lord Howe, had sailed through the Narrows of New York ... Continue Reading

This, the seventh volume of the series, encompasses the closing months of 1776 and the first two of 1777. The Continental Army had been forced out of the New York area and was retreating through New Jersey. Henceforth New York and its ... Continue Reading

The court of inquiry report into the loss of the Continental Navy brig Cabot, printed in this volume, was released publicly on 19 April 1777. Unnoted in the rush of events was the fact that this date also marked the second anniversary of Lexington and ... Continue Reading

Samuel Curwen, an American loyalist refugee in England and a former Admiralty Judge, confided to his journal in July 1777 "that an insurrection excited by an enthusiastic ardor for liberty, rightly or wrongly understood, and in such distant provinces, is not to be ... Continue Reading

"The day is I hope near at hand when we can say with safety that America is free and Independent," wrote Thomas Wharton, Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council, to John Hazelwood, commodore of the Pennsylvania State Navy ... Continue Reading

The United States Navy has a long tradition of making the record of its activi­ ties and accomplishments available to the public through publication of historical documents. The tradition goes back to the 1880s, when the Navy's judgment that it was important ... Continue Reading

On 1 December 2008 the Naval Historical Center was officially renamed the Naval History and Heritage Command. The name change reflects a transformation in function. The Naval History and Heritage Command is not a history center located in the ... Continue Reading

In particular, this volume covers the period when America’s first ally, France, sent direct military support to the thirteen colonies. A fleet under Vice Admiral comte d’Estaing arrived off the American coast in the summer of 1778... Continue Reading