Apparently this site has been up for some time now but I just learned of it. The online index will make the project I've described go much faster. If you aren't familiar with the East Florida Papers, here's a brief description:

http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/collections/EFP/descript.htm

The link below goes to the beginning of the search section. I put in my favorite search term, "artillery" and got 1249 hits, some of which sound very interesting.