united states

Joseph Plumb Martin (1760-1850) served as an enlisted soldier in the American Revolutionary War, and published a memoir of his war experiences in 1830. That book, "A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier," is an amazing document of a pivotal era in United States history.

Martin recalls his experiences in military campaigns from 1776 to 1783. He was an enlisted man who rose to the rank of sergeant, and his memoirs present the war from that perspective, rather than from the viewpoint of generals or political leaders. The suffering of the common troops is vividly detailed. Martin tells of the sleep deprivation, hostile weather conditions, combat death and injury, and lack of clothes. The men suffered from many diseases. But their most constant enemy was probably "the monster Hunger." Martin describes at length the horrible foods the men had to eat: bread "hard enough to break the teeth of a rat," carrion beef, and even tree bark.

From a tactical standpoint, Martin's descriptions of 18th century trench warfare are fascinating. Martin is eventually transferred to the Corps of Miners, and I was especially interested by the descriptions of his corps' duties: blasting rocks, dismantling enemy fortifications with axes, etc. He gives insights into how the miners' corps worked together with the infantry.

Martin's narrative is enlivened by his wit and humor. One of my favorite lines comes after he mentions the village of Maidenhead: "don't stare, dear reader, I did not name it."

Martin ends his narrative with a passionate defense of the rights and dignity of veterans. He notes with anger that Revolutionary soldiers were "turned adrift like old worn out horses" after the war. He strikes me as very ahead-of-his time in his concern for veterans.

This book is a remarkable piece of early United States literature. It should be read by current military personnel, veterans' advocates, students of history, and students of U.S. literature.

Joseph Plumb Martin who writes of his own experiences during the American Revolution is such an interesting and multifaceted character. He is a true rarity as he left us a firsthand account of a private soldier in the Revolutionary War. He is very human and suffers miserably under excruciating circumstances; yet, he is able to see the humorous side to things as well. There seem to be so few personal accounts of the Revolutionary War, but I am thankful that his is one of the few. Joseph is very intelligent as well, even philosophical at times. He is gentleman enough to even have sympathy for individual British enemy soldiers who are wounded and/or dying. He also thinks about the future and tries to give the reader many things to contemplate. Just one of many examples are as follows:
"...I, with some of my comrades who were in the battle of the White plains in the year '76, one day took a ramble on the ground where we were then engaged with the British and took a survey of the place. We saw a number of the graves of those who fell in that battle; some of the bodies had been so slightly buried that the dogs or hogs, or both, had dug them out of the ground. The sculls [sic] and other bones, and hair were scattered about the place. Here were Hessian sculls as thick as a bomb shell; ---poor fellows! they were left unburied in a foreign land; ---they had, perhaps, as near and dear friends to lament their sad destiny as the Americans who lay buried near
them. But they should have kept at home, we should then never have gone after them to kill them in their own country. But, the reader will say, they were forced to come and be killed here;
forced by their rulers who have absolute power of life and death over their subjects. Well then, reader, bless a kind Providence that has made such a distinction between your condition and
theirs. And be careful too that you do not allow yourself ever to be brought to such an abject, servile and debased condition."
Please get this book and read it. This should be required reading for every American citizen!

An invaluable primary source. There are few first hand accounts of the American Revolutionary War and of those few, Martin's is the most famous. And justly so. It offers many insights into the attitudes of the day, for example when he describes the enmity that existed between the 'Yankees', such as himself, and the Pennsylvanians with which he served and says that he would as happily serve with a tribe of Western Indians as with those 'southerners'. Such comments remind us how concepts of race and nationhood evolve through the generations. There is much humour too, sometimes rather grim, such as the description of the 'tricks' that the men play on an unpopular officer, that come close to killing him. If the common soldiers' greatest enemies were hunger, cold and disease, it seems that the officers' greatest enemies were sometimes the men they commanded. It is important to remember that these are the memoirs of a man writing late in life about events in his youth, events that had already become mythologized. Half a century and a strong patriotic sense take their toll on objectivity. So this personal narrative is not a substitute for a sober academic history; it is an essential adjunct. And a damn fine read.