On Finding Books

Its been a while since I've posted on my blog. I've been in the throes of researching the Siege of Boston (1775-1776) and have actually begun writing chapter 6 of my book. The chapter is about the first months of the siege of Boston from June 1775 after the battle of Bunker Hill to the point in December 1775 where the Americans ready to make the final blow on the besieged British. Have also been researching the British in Halifax from April to May 1775, and the chapter on the Ethiopian Brigade in Virginia in 1775-1776. At the moment I'm waiting for about twenty one books to arrive, one on Halifax, which will almost complete my research on that chapter apart from some documents and a journal I've found on line which is not in print in book form.

One book I've been able to find which I've been trying to get for several years and have finally located at a reasonable price is Lieut. Williams Discord and Civil Wars .. And I've finally been able to afford to buy Alan Frost's The Global Reach of Empire, recommended to me by my ex-supervisor for this book. It will, I hope be very useful for setting the exploits of the First Fleeters in the American War of Independence in a wider global context. (And I very much  like Frost's work anyway.) I'm also getting Allen French's The Siege of Boston. I don't know if it will simply reiterate material in his magisterial The First Year of the American Revolution, which was written after he'd completed the former book, but I can't take the risk of missing something out.  I'm also getting Volume 5 of the Naval Documents of the American Revolution, which will be very useful for both my research into Halifax and the latter stages of Lord Dunmore's failed Virginian campaign. Another book which will be infinitely useful is Stedman's The History of the Origin, Progress and Termination of the American War. So far I'm only getting volume one. It is the only contemporary history written from the British side, and I hope it will be very useful.

On the American side I'm getting Thacher's Journal, three journals by ordinary soldiers in the Continental army, (though I'm not sure if one of them deals with Boston. I bought it on spec as it turned up in a sidebar in the bookseller's confirmation of a purchase); and a book on Washington's Navy and another on his generals. I;m also getting Selby's history of the American Revolution in Virginia, which I expect to be very good. So I have more than enough to keep me busy for a while, and that I'll be able to get back to writing chapter 5 pretty soon.