Born in western Massachusetts in 1760, Joseph Plumb Martin was the son of a pastor; at the age of seven, he began living with his affluent grandfather. Almost as soon as the Revolutionary War broke out in the spring of 1775, young Joseph was eager to lend his efforts to the patriotic cause. In June 1776, at the tender age of 15, Martin enlisted for a six-month stint in the Connecticut state militia. By the end of the year, Martin had served at the Battles of Brooklyn, Kip’s Bay and White Plains in New York. Though Martin declined to reenlist when his six-month stint ended in December 1776, he later changed his mind, and on April 12, 1777 he enlisted in the 8th Connecticut division of General George Washington’s Continental Army, led by Colonel John Chandler. He would serve for the duration of the war (until 1783). Did You Know? Around 200,000 men enlisted for service at one time or another during the Revolutionary War. They served in state militias or in the new Continental Army, created by the Continental Congress in May 1775 and commanded by General George Washington. The life of a common soldier fighting on behalf of colonial independence during the American Revolution was a difficult one. Recruiters for the Continental Army targeted young and less wealthy men, including apprentices or laborers. Some (like Martin) enlisted voluntarily, while others were drafted. Among the discomforts Continental soldiers suffered were shortages of food or other supplies, long periods away from home, sinking morale and the constant threat of death. Under Siege in Pennsylvania In the fall of 1777, Martin’s division was one of those called to Pennsylvania, where British forces led by General William Howe had managed to take the rebel capital ... ... middle of paper ... ...firmity” he was unable to work and support his wife and five children. In 1830, at the age of 70, Martin published his diaries, under the title “A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents that Occurred Within His Own Observation.” Published anonymously, as was customary at the time, the book sold poorly, and was largely forgotten by the time Martin died in 1850. More than a century later, however, the work was rediscovered and republished as “Private Yankee Doodle.” Though Martin’s account was often exaggerated and embellished (at times he recounted events he could not possibly have witnessed firsthand or improved the outcomes of incidents), it stands as the most graphic, vivid and detailed first-person account of the life of a Continental soldier during the American Revolution.
Boyd talks about how everyone was very eager to volunteer to join the military to have fun and to make some money and it seemed to be very easy because the war was expected to be very short. Things started to look a bit different even when, the volunteers got to the first destination to be sworn into duty. They started to wonder why they were being sworn in to service for 3 years when they all thought the war was going to be very short. Boyd and the rest of them figured that the government must know something more than everyone else knows. Even during the beginning of the service the conditions for the service did not look as good as they had expected, and the officer had seen that the volunteers started having second guesses about doing it so they put them into more comfortable quarters to keep them from going home. During the war most of the time the conditions were horrible. There were many problems with the soldiers during the war. Many died from being wounded, being shot, and the worst of all was the disease. The conditions were so horrible that many men couldn't get enough sleep and even when they did get sleep they were sleeping in the rain or in the snow.
Something we didn’t get a chance to learn about in the lectures that Martin discusses was the light infantry. The light infantry typically consisted of the fasted and most skilled soldiers in the Continental
On April 19th, 1775 British troops marched to Lexington and Concord, where many militia men already awaited their arrival. The British were after the ammunition of the militia. Paul Revere previously warned the militia so that they could be prepared. Many people are unaware of the fact that Paul Revere was accompanied by William Dawes on his midnight ride.
It is the year of 1777, December 3rd. My name is John Smith. And I was born in 1737 on August 21. I am a man as you now because I am in the Continental Army. Before I joined the army I was a farmer and I grew onions and raised cows. I got married on March 1, 1775. We moved from Britain that same year and are new to the 12 colonies. When we hear that we were at war I decided to join the Army and I have been here since then.
Martin was a civilian relief volunteer during the war. He gave me an account of
Following the events in Massachusetts at Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, state militiamen from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont gathered in Cambridge and the area surrounding Boston. British General Gage and 6,500 soldiers and marines were in possession of Boston proper, while the American force consisted of over 16,000 men. Sickness and missing brought the number of available soldiers closer to 9,000. In addition the American force was extremely short of gunpowder, having only some 30 or so half barrels of powder beyond that carried in the horns of the citizen soldiers.
Later, Arnold joined the Continental Army in April 1775 when the Revolutionary War broke out. Once the Battles of Lexington and Concord were fought, he proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety a plan to capture Fort Ticonderoga. The Committee made Arnold colonel and ordered him to enlist as many as 400 men to
The Conscription Act delivered the final straw in the long list of discrepancies, the catalyst that turned that small forest fire into a raging inferno of hate and fear. The white working class (mostly Irish immigrants) were infuriated, they couldn’t understand how they, white, hard-working voters were being punished. The government was forcing them to fight a war they didn’t support and the only way they could avoid it was to pay 300 dollars (a years wages for most), yet they would pay African Americans 1,000 dollars for volunteering. The new federal draft conditions also expanded to include a wider age range of men it would take. “The conscription law targeted men between the ages of 20 and 35, and all unmarried men up to age 45.” Adding to the already high tensions of laborers, since the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation they ...
The recruiters for the army mostly targeted to recruit less wealthy and stronger more healthy men to send to the battlefield. Some of the young men such as in Joseph’s case volunteered to fight while the others were drafted into the army. Among the discomforts that the continental soldiers had to suffer were shortages of food and multiple other supplies, long periods away from their home, sinking morale and the constant threat of death. It was not just about being at threat when they were engaged in battle with the opposing army but just as well just being there. The enemy was just one of the many threats they had. At any given time really they could fall short of food and starve to death or run out of clothes to warm themselves and suffer an agonizing death because of the cold. Another vital supply they were short on was ammunition Bullets were scarce as well as guns so every time they fired their arm it had to be for a kill because there was no margin for error, if they messed up it could be the difference between life and death. Joseph his partners in the war had to suffer to fight for what they believed in because everything was against
The soldiers of that era faced a lot of hardships like severe cold weather, lack of food, lighting struck, deadly diseases, and dirty water. Also, they lacked sufficient clean clothes. Most of them were discouraged and felt like giving up on several occasions. Moreover, the soldiers were confused and frustrated due to shortage of ammunition. During the revolutionary war, soldiers missed home food at the thought of home. But they were even more saddened at the fact that their home was far away . Unfortunately they were already in the field and could not turn back. Even though the soldiers faced all these mishaps, according to Martin Plumber, the most daunting one was the living conditions. Most people were still very excited about joining the
Ordinary Courage is a phenomenal narrative of a descriptive soldier in the revolutionary war. Joseph Plum Martin was born in 1760 to a minister and his wife but was soon given to his mother’s father to be raised properly on his farm. Martin says himself that he was spoiled but well taken care of by his grandparents and never wanted for anything. As Joseph Plum Martin grew in became more and more apparent the discontent the colonies had with their mother country, England. Martin recalls being too young to remember much about the Stamp Act but knew that it caused an obvious stir among his countrymen. When the Boston Tea Party occurred Martin was somewhere between 13 and 14 years of age. It was at this time he began to understand what was beginning
“The real war will never get in the books” Walt Whitman, who had volunteered as a nurse in army hospitals, famously claimed in Specimen Days (1892) (Whitman). The American Civil War represents a decisive and far-reaching turning point in the development of the United States as a nation. But how much of the “real war” can actually be conveyed via literary narrative? The gruesome experiences of the soldiers and the aftermath of battle? What about the establishment of a national identity and the transformation or disintegration of national ideals and ideology? Writers such as Ambrose Bierce, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Francis Lieber, or Henry W. Bellows did attempt to provide representations of war experiences and provide interpretations of the conflict. Mid 19th-century American nationalism tended to employ literature as a means of sustaining national ideals, evoke patriotic feeling and provide meaning in the face of unprecedented human tragedies. A comparison between two essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 can provide an assessment of the role of literature during the war. These texts have been chosen not as a comprehensive representation of political, social or perhaps aesthetic attitudes regarding the Civil War and its meanings, but rather as an indication of the various, often contradictory, responses the war provoked. A close reading of the essays will enhance our understanding not only of public interpretations of the Northern war aims, but also the conflicting views on national promise and idealized hopes for the future along with the notion of national crisis – or a possible crisis in art and representation.
Soldiers typically did two different types of work: martial or civil work. Martial work included digging entrenchments, marching, fighting, and general warfare. Civil work included cutting wood, harvesting crops, and hunting. While the soldiers got paid wages for their martial work, they expected higher compensation when performing civil work, since these usually required more skills. Most soldiers in the colonies fought using hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, but fighting was not the most important aspect of the soldier’s life. Instead, soldiers used most of their time building, digging, farming, and other grueling jobs that made them unhappy. The army increasingly looked towards its own soldiers to do work because the cost of using civilians was too high. Moreover, as the military’s numbers increased, paying soldiers became harder. Because of low wages, soldiers had to rely on illegal measures to earn money, including selling off their uniforms and stealing the goods of their fellow comrades. Soldiers often deserted because of the army broke the terms of their enlistment. When caught, almost all deserters were executed, so soldiers started to desert in larger and larger groups until finally, the entire enlisted corps started to mutiny against the officers due to unfair conditions. Since officers were usually
born in Virginia in 1765. At the close of the Revolutionary War, Giddeon Martin, his after
Their parents died, and I came from Britain to raise them. I lost my job and being a British soldier is the only way to make money, darling. I would much rather work for Washington,” answered the tired looking, burly, soldier.