San Antonio College Library

Naval history of the American Revolution, which recognizes the war for independence as a maritime conflict and explores the struggle for command of the sea.

Every schoolchild knows that the American Revolution began on Lexington Green in April, 1775. but how many people are aware that in 1764 a Royal Navy cutter, St. John, engaged in the suppression of smuggling and was fired upon by Rhode Islanders; that in 1769, the revenue sloop Liberty was seized and burned by the people of Newport; or that in 1772, the navy cutter Gaspee was burned in the night by armed patriots attacking from small boats? It was...

Traces the activities of one special group of Marines; the successes and failures of the group as a whole, and the fundamental aspects of modern Marine amphibious doctrine which grew out of Continental Marine experience during the eight-year fight for American independence.

America in 1775 was on the verge of revolution-- or, more likely, disastrous defeat. After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, England's King George sent hundreds of ships westward to bottle up American harbors and prey on American shipping. Colonists had no force to defend their coastline and waterways until John Adams of Massachusetts proposed a bold solution: The Continental Congress should raise a navy.

Two years after joining the American Revolutionary War army at age 15, Jacob Nagle began a naval career that lasted 45 years. In often poignant but decidedly unpolished prose, Nagle's diary paints a vivid picture of naval life in the late eighteenth century. Bit players in Nagle's life include major figures of his era. Among other encounters, Nagle meets George Washington at Brandywine and Horatio Nelson in the Mediterranean. Quite global in its scope,...