¶ … military narrative of the American Revolutionary War is often depicted in clear, bright shades of red, white and blue, with the "Star Spangled Banner" blaring loudly in the background. However, the lived reality of the American Revolutionary War was often quite brutal and harsh, particularly for the ordinary soldiers in the Colonial Army. The account of the Patriot soldier Joseph Plumb Martin, as related in the book Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Experiences of Joseph Plumb Martin, (edited by the historian James Kirby Martin), makes this fact abundantly clear.
It is important to note that the editor James Kirby Martin, unlike many chroniclers of the American Revolution both past and present, did not chose to edit the work of a prominent founding father to present a new perspective upon the war. Instead, he chose to look at the conflict through the eyes of an ordinary soldier. Rather than rhetoric about freedom, democracy, and no taxation by the British without proper representation in Parliament, more human and ordinary concerns emerge from this vision of Revolutionary America.
In early September of 1776, Joseph Plumb Martin wrote this entry that depicts the less glamorous and sad side of warfare, even in an age of muskets rather than semi-automatic weapons.
There was in this action a regiment of Maryland troops, (volunteers) all young gentlemen. When they came out of the water and mud to us, looking like water rats, it was a truly pitiful sight. Many of them were killed in the pond, and more were drowned. some of us went into the water after the fall of the tide, and took out a number of corpses and a great many arms that were sunk in the pond and creek. Our regiment lay on the ground we then occupied the following night. The next afternoon, we had a considerable tight scratch with about an equal number of the British. I do not recollect that we had anyone killed outright, but we had several severely wounded, and some, I believe, mortally.
This entry makes it clear how difficult it was to fight the British, and how easy it was to die or become wounded while fighting the opposing forces. The Colonist soldiers were less well clothed, well shod, and well armed than their opponents were. Thus even the gentlemen looked like "water rats" when going through a high tide. The poor protection the army had from the elements is further reinforced by the end of this entry which states "In the latter part of the afternoon there fell a very heavy shower of rain which wet us all to the skin and much damaged our ammunition." Ammunition and uniforms were both scarce.
A later entry form mid-November of 1777 makes the threat of death all labored under even more apparent to a reader.
We heated some shot, but by mistake twenty-four-pound shot were heated instead of eighteen, which was the caliber of the guns in that part of the fort. The enemy soon began firing upon us and there was music indeed. The soldiers were all ordered to take their posts at the palisadoes, which they were ordered to defend to the last extremity, as it was expected the British would land under the fire of their cannon and attempt to storm the fort.
Some of our officers endeavored to ascertain how many guns were fired in a minute by the enemy, but it was impossible. The fire was incessant.
Although warfare of this era is often thought of as less dire than our own, it was still a brutal practice. The only music in this unromantic account is that of guns. Because of the relative inexperience of the army, as is evidenced by the aforementioned mistake, warfare is even dangerous for the Patriots than for the British. "And I saw men who were stooping to be protected by the works, but not stooping low enough, split like fish to be broiled," Martin concludes.
Martin's contemporary account of his wartime experiences is particularly interesting because of the sense of humor he exhibits in his narration, demonstrating the grim satire Patriot soldiers evidenced in the face...
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