Primary Resources

Life at the Center of the Storm: Massachusetts and the American Revolution

Courtesy of the Andover Historical Society

John Abbot Diary
Abbot lists the expenses and enlistment of Andover soldiers in the Revolution.

Courtesy of the Boston Public Library

“Memoir by Capt. Benjamin Gould of Newburyport, written a few years before his death.”
Gould’s memoirs record his activities during Battles in Lexington, Concord, and New York, and include accounts of an officer pilfering supplies for himself and a small pox outbreak in camp.

Courtesy of the Ipswich Historical Society

1776 letters of William Goodhue, Jr.
Goodhue writes to his family to ask them to send him warm clothes and report on his activities in the militia.

Courtesy of the Beverly Historical Society

Nathaniel Cleaves Diary
From the document: “A diary of Lieut. Nathaniel Cleaves of Beverly from May 25, 1775 to February 12, 1776. He was wounded in the Concord fight, was in the battle of Saratoga and was lost at sea in December 1779.

Courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society

The Diary of Benjamin Farnum (excerpt), 1775, 1777-1778
From the diary intro: “The writer of this diary was one of the yeomen of Andover North Parish, who enlisted at the first call for minutemen in February 1775. He was chosen lieutenant of the company. As he chronicles, they marched at the Lexington Alarm, April nineteenth. Promoted to the rank of captain, he commanded a company at Bunker Hill and was there severely wounded by two balls in the thigh. This wound never fully healed, but through his long life continued at times to fester and be painful. He kept a bullet and piece of bone taken from the wound as trophies and mementos of that bloody day. He lived to the age of eighty-seven, dying in 1833. He was, till his death deacon of the North (First) Chirch, the records of which office he made with the same exactness as he had those of his military duty. As I copy his diary, I can see the stone which marks his grave in the Old North Burying Ground not far from where repose the two North Andover Colonels, Frye (?) and Johnson under whom he successively served.” UEH has excerpted his account of Lexington.

Hardcover Copy of Journal Made by Phineas Ingalls’ children
Copy of journal kept by my father Phineas Ingalls during the war of the Revolution, commenced the 19th of April, 1775, the day of the battle of Lexington and terminated Dec., 1776.

Account of Supplies Sent to Concord” and “In Provincial Congress, May 5th, 1775” in Misc. Manuscripts, Jan-June 1775
These miscellaneous manuscripts include a record of the supplies sent to Concord to provide for the town’s defense and the text of the oath that soldiers took upon entering the Massachusetts army.

Thomas Poor’s Roster of Minutemen Recruited in Andover, 1775
A list of the Andover recruits.

Online Sources

Archiving Early America
This website offers a variety of ways to explore and use primary resources relating the early American history. For example, the “Bookmarks” page allows you to click through to images of primary documents from contextualizing essays about famous people and events.

“The Coming of the American Revolution”
This website is run by the Massachusetts Historical Society. It allows users to access primary sources in order to understand life during the American Revolution. The site is specifically designed to be used by teachers and students to understand the context of the American Revolution and the decisions that go into creating a narrative of history.

The Library of Congress Web Guide – “American Revolution and the New Nation”
The Library of Congress has digitized some of the most important documents for understanding the Revolutionary War and the Early Republic including the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Treaty of Paris, and Washington’s Farewell Address.

The National Archives and Records Administration“100 Milestone Documents”
The National Archives has compiled some of the nation’s most important documents into this collection. The documents chronicle the nation’s history from 1776 to 1965. Revolutionary era documents include the Lee Resolution, the Treaty of Alliance with France, and the Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States (1782).

Lexington Minutemen
The website of the Lexington Minutemen, a group of reenactors who portray the Lexington soldiers from 1775. The website provides a roster of Lexington soldiers with links to any known information about the historical figure. It also provides a link to the PBS website for “Patriots Day”, part of the American Experience series. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/patriotsday/