Joseph Plumb Martin joined the Connecticut militia at age 15 and served for nearly eight years.
He saw action in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He
endured hunger, disease, and bitter winters, and kept a journal the whole time.
Years later, he published his memoir under the long-winded
title: A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a
Revolutionary Soldier. It’s one of the most detailed accounts we have of
what life was really like for an ordinary soldier.
Martin didn’t sugarcoat anything. “We were absolutely, literally
starved,” he wrote of the winter at Valley Forge. In another entry, he joked,
“We had nothing to eat but fire-cake and water—fire-cake is flour and water
mixed and baked in the ashes.”
His honesty and humor helped people understand while generals
made the plans. It was kids like him who carried them out.
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