| Add MS | BL, Additional Manuscripts |
| ADM | TNA, Admiralty |
| AH | Alexander Hamilton |
| AHR | American Historical Review |
| Am. Arch. | Peter Force, American archives: consisting of a collection of authentick records, state papers, debates, and letters and other notices of publick affairs, the whole forming a documentary history of the origin and progress of the North American colonies; of the causes and accomplishment of the American revolution; and of the Constitution of government for the United States, to the final ratification thereof, 9 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1837–53) |
| AO | TNA, Audit Office |
| Bancroft | Bancroft Collection, NYPL |
| BF | Benjamin Franklin |
| BHQP | British Headquarters (Sir Guy Carleton) Papers, NYPL |
| BL | British Library, London |
| CC | Continental Congress |
| Clinton Papers | WLCL, Sir Henry Clinton Papers |
| CO | TNA, Colonial Office |
| CSHS | Commissioners for Sick and Hurt Seamen (Sick and Hurt Board) |
| DAR | K. G. Davies, ed., Documents of the American Revolution, 1770–1783 (Colonial Office Series), 21 vols. (Shannon, 1972–81) |
| Dartmouth MSS | Staffordshire Record Office, Dartmouth MSS, D(W) 1778 |
| DLAR | David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA |
| EHR | English Historical Review |
| Evans | Early American Imprints, Series I, 1639–1800 |
| Germain Papers | WLCL, George Germain Papers |
| GG | George Germain |
| GW | George Washington |
| HC | Henry Clinton |
| HEH | Huntington Library, San Marino, CA |
| HL | Henry Laurens |
| HMC | Historical Manuscript Commission, U.K. |
| HSP | Historical Society of Pennsylvania |
| IOR | BL, India Office Records |
| JA | John Adams |
| JCC | Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 34 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1904–37) |
| JSAHR | Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research |
| LCP | Library Company of Philadelphia, PA |
| LDC | Paul Hubert Smith, Gerard W. Gawalt, Rosemary Fry Plakas, and Eugene R. Sheridan, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, 26 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1976–2000) |
| LOC | Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. |
| Mackenzie Papers | WLCL, Frederick Mackenzie Papers |
| MHS | Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston |
| NARA | National Archives and Record Administration, Washington, D.C. |
| NDAR | William Clark Bell, ed., Naval Documents of the American Revolution, 11 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1964–2005) |
| NEQ | New England Quarterly |
| NG | Nathanael Greene |
| NMM | National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, U.K. |
| NYCD | John Romeyn Brodhead, Documents relative to the colonial history of the State of New York, 15 vols. (Albany, NY, 1853–87) |
| NYPL | New York Public Library, New York City, NY |
| OED | Oxford English Dictionary: http://www.oed.com |
| PAH | Harold Coffin Syrett and Jacob Ernest Cooke, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 27 vols. (New York, 1961–87) |
| Parl. Hist. | William Cobbett and T. C. Hansard, Cobbett’s Parliamentary history of England. From the Norman conquest, in 1066. To the year, 1803, 36 vols. (London, 1806–20) |
| PBF | Leonard W. Labaree and Whitfield J. Bell, eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 41 vols. to date (New Haven, CT, 1959–) |
| PGW | Theodore J. Crackel et al., The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition (Charlottesville, VA, 2007–), http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN.html |
| PGW/EA | Theodore J. Crackel et al., The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition (Charlottesville, VA, 2007–), Early Access, http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/FOEA.html |
| PHL | Philip M. Hamer et al., eds., The Papers of Henry Laurens, 16 vols. (Columbia, SC, 1968–2003) |
| PJA | Robert J. Taylor, Mary-Jo Kline, Gregg L. Lint, et al., eds., Papers of John Adams, 17 vols. to date (Cambridge, MA, 1977–) |
| PMHB | Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |
| PNG | Dennis M. Conrad, Robert E. McCarthy, E. Carp, and Richard K. Showman, eds., The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, 13 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC, 1976–2005) |
| PTJ | Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 41 vols. to date (Princeton, 1950–) |
| PWL | Carl E. Prince, Dennis P. Ryan, Pamela B. Schafler, and Donald W. White, eds., The Papers of William Livingston, 5 vols. (Trenton, NJ, 1979–88) |
| RDC | United States Department of State, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, 6 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1889) |
| SP | TNA, State Papers |
| TJ | Thomas Jefferson |
| TNA | The National Archives, Kew, U.K. |
| WH | William Howe |
| WJA | Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, 10 vols. (Boston, 1850–56) |
| WL | William Livingston |
| WLCL | William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI |
| WMQ | William and Mary Quarterly |
| WO | TNA, War Office |