The Revolutionary War Collection contains a variety of materials from and about the Revolutionary War in Lancaster County and Pennsylvania. The original records include correspondence, military pay certificates, court records, and an orderly book kept by Lt. Col. Adam Hubley, Jr. during the Sullivan Campaign of 1779. There are also research notes and secondary sources, including a list of prisoners of war, a list of males in Lancaster County in 1776, Continental Hospital Returns 1777-1780, articles, information on soldiers buried in Lancaster County, and an article about John Paul Jones.
Harmful Language Warning: LancasterHistory is committed to preserving and providing access to materials chronicling Lancaster County's heritage. As a historical resource, this orderly book reflects the racial prejudices of the era and the violence perpetrated against the Haudenosaunee Confederacy during the American War of Independence. In order to maintain the historical integrity and context of collection items, LancasterHistory does not censor historical documents or edit language, titles, or organization names when transcribing original content. This volume contains language that is offensive, oppressive, graphic, and may cause distress. LancasterHistory does not condone the use of this language.
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"Reprinted from the Pennsylvania genealogical magazine volume XXIII, number 3, 1964."
Index compiled by Duncan Cairnes Ely.
Summary
"The organization of the Pennsylvania militia, as established under the act passed 17 March 1777, has never been adequately explained or fully understood. Complete records pertaining to the militia have not survived. Those which have been published in the various series of the Pennsylvania Archives are, in many instances, incorrectly identified and arranged in a confused manner. Too often, as a result, the fact that a man's name appears in those records has been accepted as prima facie evidence that the man was a patriot who served his county faithfully and diligently. The dual purpose of this study, therefore, is to render intelligible the meaning of those records, and then to relate them to the actual operation of the militia, with particular reference to the first year of its operation under the act." [from the text]
A detailed account of the engagements around Whitemarsh, PA, December 5-8 1777, which ended with Washington's forces retiring to Valley Forge. "After the reverses at Brandywine, Paoli and Germantown, it was significant that the skirmishes around Whitemarsh constituted an important moral victory for the American cause, for had General Howe succeeded in destroying the Continental Army by his well planned surprise attack, there might very well have been no Valley Forge!" [from the foreward]
The continuing effect of the American Revolution : an address, on the occasion of the celebration of the Prelude to Independence, June 10, 1961 at the eighteenth-century capitol, Williamsburg, Virginia. Opening remarks by Winthrop Rockefeller
"What Dr.Stoudt has done is to cull a variety of sources- military journals, diaries, memoirs, newspapers, and published letters- and to reconstruct life at Valley Forge, day by day, during the terrible winter of 1777-1778. The 'chronicle' that emerges is not genuine history, since Dr.Stoudt has varied, modified, reorganized, transposed, and rewritten his source material to suit his purpose. This purpose is to dramatize that episode in American military history which has become a national symbol of courage and patriotism for the general reader and the Revolutionary Warbuff. As such,Ordeal at Valley Forge is a commendable effort." [From a book review by Milton Klein of Long Island University]
