 Preface in Chapter 1 of A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Barry Eads. A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. By Joseph Plumb Martin. Preface. I have read somewhere of a limner who, when he had dobed a representation of some animal, was always compelled, for the information of the observer, to write under it what he intended it to represent, as, this is a goose, this is a dog, etc. So many books, and mine in particular, amongst the rest, would perhaps be quite unintelligible as to the drift of them unless the reader was informed beforehand what the author intended. I shall therefore, by way of preface, inform the reader that my intention is to give a succinct account of some of my adventures, dangers, and sufferings during my several campaigns in the Revolutionary Army. My readers, who, by the by, will I hope none of them be beyond the pale of my own neighborhood, must not expect any great transactions to be exhibited to their notice. No alpine wonders thunder through my tail, but they are here, once for all, requested to bear it in mind that they are not the achievements of an officer of high grade which they are perusing, but the common transactions of one of the lowest in station in an army, a private soldier. Should the reader chance to ask himself this question, and I think it very natural for him to do so, how could any man of common sense ever spend his precious time in writing such a rhapsody of nonsense? To satisfy his inquiring mind, I would inform him that, as the adage says, every crow thinks her own young the whitest. So every private soldier in an army thinks his particular services as essential to carry on the war he is engaged in as the services of the most influential general. And why not? What could officers do without such men? Nothing at all. Alexander never could have conquered the world without private soldiers. What says the reader, this is low, the author gives us nothing but everyday occurrences. I could tell as good a story myself. Very true, Mr. Reader, everyone can tell what he has done in his lifetime, but everyone has not been a soldier, and consequently can know but little or nothing of the sufferings and fatigues incident to an army. All know everyday occurrences, but few know the hardships of the tented life. I wish to have a better opinion of my readers, whoever they may be, than even to think that any of them would wish me to stretch the truth, to furnish them with wonders that I never saw, or acts and deeds I never performed. I can give them no more than I have to give, and if they are dissatisfied after all, I must say I am sorry for them and myself too, for them that they expect more than I can do, and myself that I am so unlucky as not to have it in my power to please them. But after all I have said the real cause of my ever undertaking to rake up circumstances and actions that have so long rested in my own mind, and to spread them upon paper was this. My friends, and especially my juvenile friends, have often urged me so to do. To oblige such, I undertook it, hoping it might save me often the trouble of verbally relating them. The critical grammarian may find enough to feed his spleen upon if he peruses the following pages, but I can inform him beforehand, I do not regard his sneers. If I cannot write grammatically, I can think, talk, and feel like other men. Besides, if the common readers can understand it, it is all I desire, and to give them an idea, though but a faint one, of what the army suffered that gained and secured our independence is all I wish. I never studied grammar and hour in my life. When I ought to have been doing that, I was forced to be studying the rules and articles of war. As to punctuation, my narrative is in the same predicament as it is in respect to the other parts of grammar. I never learned the rules of punctuation any further than just to assist in fixing a comma to the British depredations in the State of New York, a semicolon in New Jersey, a colon in Pennsylvania, and a final period in Virginia. A note of interrogation, why we were made to suffer so much in so good and just a cause, and a note of admiration to all the world that an army voluntarily engaged to serve their country when starved and naked and suffering everything short of death, and thousands even that, should be able to preserve through an eight years war and come off conquerors at last. But least I should make my preface longer than my story. I will here bring it to a close. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY Have patience just to hear me out, and I'll tell you what I've been about. The heroes of all histories, narratives, adventures, novels, and romances have, or are supposed to have, ancestors, or some root from which they sprang. I conclude then that it is not altogether inconsistent to suppose that I had parents too. I shall not undertake to trace my pedigree, like the Welsh, some thousand years beyond the creation, but just observe that my father was the son of a substantial New England farmer, as we Yankees say, in the then colony, but now state of Connecticut, and county of Windham. When my father arrived at puberty he found his constitution too feeble to endure manual labor. He therefore directed his views to gaining a livelihood by some other means. He accordingly fitted himself for and entered as a student in Yale College, sometime between the years 1750 and 55. My mother was likewise a farmer's daughter. Her native place was in the county of New Haven, in the same state. She had a sister, married and settled in the vicinity of the college, who often boarded the students when sick. My father being once in that condition, and being at board at this aunt's, my mother happened to be there on a visit. My father seeing her, it seems, like a great many others in like circumstances, took a fancy to her. He filled up his courtship, and very possibly obtained her consent as well as her parents, married her a year and a half before his collegial studies were ended, which, if known at the time, would have been cause of his expulsion from college, but it seems it never was known there, and he, of course, escaped a keel hauling. After my father left college he studied divinity, had a call, accepted it, and was settled in a county of Berkshire, in the now Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As a gospel minister of the congregational order, in which county of Berkshire I, the redoubtable hero of this narrative, first made my appearance in this crooked, fretful world upon the twenty-first day of November, in the year 1760. I have been told that the day on which I was born was a thanksgiving day, which day is generally celebrated with good cheer. One might have thought it a little ominous being born upon such a day, but I can assure the reader it was no omen of good to me, especially for the seven or eight years I was in the army, nor indeed ever since. My grandsire, on my mother's side, having at this time no other daughter but my mother, my aunt mentioned above being dead, she of course became the darling, for which reason I suppose I was his favorite grandson, and received his Christian and surnames as my given name. I lived with my parents until I was upwards of seven years old, when I went to live with this good old grandsire, for good he was, particularly to me. He was wealthy, and I had everything that was necessary for life, and as many superfluities as was consistent with my age and station. There were none belonging to the family, as constant residents except the old gentleman, lady, and myself. It is true my grandsire kept me pretty busily employed, but he was kind to me in every respect, always gave me a play-day when convenient, and was indulgent to me almost to a fault. Ah, I ought not to have left him while he lived, I fouled my own nest most sadly when I did it, but children are full of notions. I remember this stirrer in the country occasioned by the Stamp Act, but I was so young that I did not understand the meaning of it. I likewise remember the disturbances that followed the repeal of the Stamp Act, until the destruction of the tea at Boston and elsewhere. I was then thirteen or fourteen years old, and began to understand something of the works going on. I used about this time to inquire a deal about the French war, as it was called, which had not been long ended. My grandsire would talk with me about it while working in the fields, perhaps as much to beguile his own time as to gratify my curiosity. I thought then nothing should induce me to get caught in the toils of an army. I am well, so I'll keep, was my motto then, and it would have been well for me if I had ever retained it. Time passed smoothly on with me till the year 1774 arrived. The smell of war began to be pretty strong, but as I determined to have no hand in it happen when it might, I felt myself to be a real coward. What? Venture my carcass where bullets fly? That will never do for me. Stay at home out of harm's way, thought I. It will be as much to your health as credit to do so. But the pinch of the game had not arrived yet. I had seen nothing of war affairs, and consequently was but a poor judge in such matters. One little circumstance that happened in the autumn of this year will exhibit my military prowess at this time in a high point of view. In the afternoon one Sabbath day, while the people were assembled in meeting, word was brought to the British, regulars as the good people then called them, were advancing from Boston, spreading death and desolation in their route in every direction. What was the intent of spreading this rumor? I know not, unless it was to see how people would stand affected. Be it what it would, it caused me a terrible fright. I went out of the house in the dusk of the evening, when I heard the sound of a carriage on the road in the direction of Boston. I thought they were coming as sure as a gun. I shall be dead or a captive before tomorrow morning. However I went to bed late in the evening, dreamed of fire and sword I suppose, waked in the morning, found myself alive, and the house standing just where it did the evening before. The winter of this year passed off without any frightening alarms, and the spring of 1775 arrived. Expectation of some fatal event seemed to fill the minds of most of the considerate people throughout the country. I was plowing in the field about half a mile from home, about the twenty-first day of April, when all of a sudden the bells fell to ringing, and three guns were repeatedly fired in succession down in the village, what the cause was we could not conjecture. I had some fearful forebodings that something more than the sound of a carriage-wheel was in the wind. The regulars are coming, and good earnest thought I. My grand sire sighed, he smelt the rat. He immediately turned out the team and repaired homeward. I sat off to see what the cause of the commotion was. I found most of the male kind of the people together. Soldiers for Boston were in requisition. A dollar deposited upon the drum-head was taken up by someone as soon as placed there, and the holder's name taken and he enrolled, with orders to equip himself as quick as possible. My spirits began to revive at the sight of the money offered. The seeds of courage began to sprout. Or contrary to my knowledge, there was a scattering of them sowed, but they had not as yet germinated. I felt a strong inclination when I found I had them to cultivate them. Oh, thought I, if I were but old enough to put myself forward, I would be the possessor of one dollar, the dangers of war to the contrary notwithstanding, but I durst not put myself up for a soldier for fear of being refused, and that would have quite upset all the courage I had drawn forth. The men that had engaged to go to war went as far as the next town, where they received orders to return, as there was a sufficiency of men already engaged, so that I would have had but a short campaign had I have gone. This year there were troops raised both for Boston and New York. Some from the back towns were billeted at my grand sires. Their company and conversation began to warm my courage to such a degree that I resolved at all events to go a soldiering. Accordingly I used to pump my grand sire in a roundabout manner to know how he stood affected respecting it. For a long time he appeared to take but little notice of it. At length one day I pushed the matter so hard upon him he was compelled to give me a direct answer, which was that he should never give his consent for me to go into the army unless I had the previous consent of my parents. And now I was completely graveled. My parents were too far off to obtain their consent before it would be too late for the present campaign. What was I to do? Why I must give up the idea, and that was hard, for I was as earnest now to call myself and being called a soldier as I had been a year before not to be called one. I thought over many things and formed many plans, but they all fell through, and poor, just consoled I was forced to set down and gnaw my fingernails in silence. I said but little more about soldiering, until the troops raised in and near the town in which I resided came to march off for New York. Then I felt bitterly again. I accompanied them as far as the town line, and it was hard parting with them then. Many of my young associates were with them. My heart and my soul went with them, but my mortal part must stay behind. By and by they will come swaggering back, thought I, and tell me of all their exploits, all their hair-breaths scapes, and poor Huff will not have a single sentence to advance. Oh, that was too much to be borne with by me. The thoughts of the service still haunted me after the troops were gone, and the town clear of them, but what planned to form to get the consent of all, parents and grandparents, that I might procure thereby to myself, thee to me then be whiching name of a soldier I could not devise? As I thought I would enlist at all hazards, let the consequences be what they would. Then again I would think how kind my grandparents were to me, and ever have been, my grand-sire in particular. I could not bear to hurt their feelings so much. I did sincerely love my grand-sire. My grand-ma'am I did not love so well, and I feared her less. At length a thought struck my mind. Should they affront me grossly, I would make that a plea with my conscience to settle the controversy with. Finally I wished nothing more than to have them, or either of them, give his honor a high affront, that I might thereby form an excuse to engage in the service without their consent, leave, or approbation. It happened that in the early part of the autumn of this year I was gratified in my wishes, for I thought I received provocation enough to justify me in engaging in the army during life. Little thinking that I was inflicting the punishment on myself, but I fancied I was laying on my grandparents for there, as I thought, willful obstinacy. And as this affair was won, and the chief cause of my leaving those kind people in their hospitable house, and precipitating myself into an ocean of distress, I will minutely describe the affair. My grand-sire, as I have before observed, often gave me play-days, especially after the spring and fall sowing, when I went where I pleased, a gunning or fishing, or to whatever recreation took my fancy. This fall, said the old gentleman to me one day, come, spring to it, and let us get the winter grain in as soon as possible, and you shall have a play-day after the work is done. Accordingly, I did do the best I could to forward the business, and I believe I gave him satisfaction, for he repeated his promise to me often. Just before we had done sowing, I told him that all my young associates were going to New Haven to commencement this season. Well, said he, you shall go too, if you choose, and you shall have one of the horses, you shall have your choice of them, and I will give you some pocket money. Mighty well thought I, I hope it will not prove delusive. I shall be happy indeed. Our young club often met in caucus to settle the mighty business of going to commencement, formed a thousand and one plans how we should enjoy ourselves, dropped them all successively, and formed as many more until the time arrived for the consummation of our felicity. My grand sire had a piece of salt marsh about three miles from home, which he had mowed three or four days before the day arrived, which was to make me completely happy, at least for a time. Two days previous he sent me to rake up the hay. I buffeted heat and mosquitoes and got the hay all up, and as that sort of hay is not easily injured by the weather, I thought there was nothing to prevent my promised happiness. Well, the day arrived. I got up early, did all the little jobs about the place that my grand sire might have nothing to accuse me of. He had gone out during the morning and did not return till breakfast time. I was waiting with impatience for his coming in that I might prepare for my excursion, when, lo, he did come, much to my sorrow, for the first words I heard were, Come, get up to the team I have gotten such a one, naming a neighbor's boy, somewhat older than myself, to go with us and cart home the salt hay. Had thunder and lightning fallen upon the four corners of the house, it would not have struck me with worse feelings than these words of his did. Shame, grief, spite, revenge, all took immediate possession of me. What could I do? Go, I must. That was certain. There was no remedy. And go I did. With a full determination that the old gentleman should know that I had feelings of some sort or other, let him think of me as he would. I, according to his orders, prepared the team. He undertook to act teamster, and I sat off before them for the marsh, alone, that I might indulge myself in my grief without molestation. The way to the marsh lay about a mile and a half on the highway to the college. I had hardly got into the highway before I was overtaken by a troop of my young mates, all rigged off for commencement, swaggering like nabobs. The first compliment was, Hello, where are you going? We thought you was one of the foremost in the party. Your grand sire never intended to let you go, and you was a fool to believe him. I did not believe them. My grand sire had never deceived me in such circumstances before, and I was willing, even then, vexed as I was, to attribute it to forgetfulness or to anything but willfulness. However, I was balked. No commencement for me. I considered myself as much injured as though it had been done ever so designedly. I, however, went to the marsh. My grand sire, team and boy, arrived soon after me. We put a load of hay upon the cart, and, as it was getting rather late in the day, the old gentleman concluded to go home with the team and left the other youngster and me to pull the rest of the hay off the marsh to the upland, as it was dangerous going upon the lower part of it, being in many places soft and mirey. He told us to go to some of the fences and cut a pair of sassafras poles, those being light, and have the remainder of the hay in readiness by his return. And now comes the catastrophe of the play. I concluded, Now was the time for me to show my spunk. We went up to the upland, where was plenty of fruit. I lay down under an apple-tree and fell to eating. The other boy ate, too, but still urged me to obey my orders. I was resolved to disobey, let the consequences be what they would. However, he, by his importunity, at length got me down upon the marsh. We pulled one cock of hay off the marsh, when we saw the old gentleman coming, full drive, jahulike. Down he came, when, lo and behold, we had gotten one cock of hay only, in a condition to be taken upon the cart. What was to be done? To go on to the marsh was dangerous in the extreme. To stop, then, to pull it off would not do, the time would not allow it. O, my grandsire was in a woeful passion. I stood aloof. Whose fault was it, he inquired? The blame was quickly laid to my account, and justly, too, for I was the only culprit. The old gentleman came at me, hammer and tongs, with his six-feet cart-whip. Ah, thought I to myself, good legs, do your duty now, if ever. I hod the gravel, or rather the marsh, in good earnest. There were twenty people or more near us at work. They all suspended their labor to see the race. But I was too light-footed for the old gentleman. And the people on the marsh, setting up a laugh, it rather disconcerted him. He, however, chased me about thirty or forty rods when he gave over the pursuit and returned. I ran as much further before I dared to look back. But hearing no sound of footsteps behind me, I at last ventured to look over my shoulder, and saw him almost back to his team. I followed him in my turn, but not quite so nimble as I went from him. He endeavored to spit a little of his spite upon the other youngster. But he stepped close up to him, so that he could not use his whip, and then pled his own cause so well that the old gentleman said no more to him. He then had to venture upon the marsh at all events. I took a rake and raked after the cart, but took special care to keep out of harm's way till the hay was all upon the cart. I was then called upon to help bind the load. I complied, but I kept on tiptoe all the time, ready to start in case I saw any symptoms of war. But all passed off. We got off the marsh safe and without hindrance, and it was well for me, after all, that we met with no disaster. And here ends my introductory chapter. If the reader thinks that some passages in it record incidents not altogether to my credit as a boy, I can tell him that I thought at the time I did right, and to tell the truth I have not materially altered any opinion respecting them since. One thing I am certain of, and that is, reader, if you had been me, you would have done just as I did. What reason have you then to cavill? Chapter 2 Part 1 of A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier by Joseph Plum Martin. Chapter 2 Part 1 Campaign of 1776 At Uncle Joe's I lived at Ease, had cider and good bread and cheese. But while I stayed at Uncle Sam's, I'd not to eat but faith in clams. During the winter of 1775-6, by hearing the conversation and disputes of the good old farmer politicians of the times, I collected pretty correct ideas of the contest between this country and the mother country as it was then called. I thought I was as warm a patriot as the best of them. The war was waged, we had joined issue, and it would not do to put the hand to the plow and look back. I felt more anxious than ever, if possible, to be called a defender of my country. I had not forgot the commencement affair that still stuck in my crop, and it would not do for me to forget it. For that affront was to be my passport to the army. One evening, very early in the spring of this year, I chanced over here, my grand-mam telling my grand-sire that I had threatened to engage on board a man of war. I had told her that I would enter on board a privateer then fitting out in our neighborhood. The good old lady thought it a man of war, that and privateer being synonymous terms with her. She said she could not bear the thought of my being on board of a man of war. My grand-sire told her that he supposed I was resolved to go into the service in some way or other, and he had rather I would engage in the land service if I must engage in any. This I thought to be a sort of tacit consent for me to go, and I determined to take advantage of it as quick as possible. Soldiers were at this time enlisting for a year's service. I did not like that. It was too long a time for me at the first trial. I wished only to take a priming before I took upon me the whole coat of paint for a soldier. However, the time soon arrived that gratified all my wishes. In the month of June, this year, orders came out for enlisting men for six months from the 25th of this month. The troops were styled new levies. They were to go to New York, and notwithstanding I was told that the British army at that place was reinforced by 15,000 men. It made no alteration in my mind. I did not care if there had been fifteen times fifteen thousand. I should have gone just as soon as if there had been but fifteen hundred. I never spent a thought about numbers. The Americans were invincible, in my opinion. If anything affected me, it was a stronger desire to see them. Well, as I have said, enlisting orders were out. I used frequently to go to the rendezvous, where I saw many of my young associates enlist, had repeated banterings to engage with them, but still, when it came case in hand, I had my misgivings. If I once undertake, thought I, I must stick to it. There will be no receding. Thoughts like these would, at times, almost over- set my resolutions. But maugher all these doful ideas, I one evening went off with a full determination to enlist at all hazards. When I arrived at the place of rendezvous, I found a number of young men of my acquaintance there. The old bantering began, Come, if you will enlist, I will, says one. You have long been talking about it, says another. Come, now is the time. Thanks I to myself, I will not be laughed into it or out of it at any rate. I will act my own pleasure after all. But what did I come here for tonight? Why to enlist? Then enlist I will. So seating myself at the table, enlisting orders were immediately presented to me. I took up the pen, loaded it with the fatal charge, made several mimic imitations of writing my name, but took a special care not to touch the paper with the pen until an unlucky wit, who was leaning over my shoulder, gave my hand a stroke, which caused the pen to make a woeful scratch on the paper. Oh, he has enlisted, said he. He has made his mark. He is fast enough now. Well thought I, I may as well go through with the business now as not. So I wrote my name fairly upon the indentures. And now I was a soldier, in name at least, if not in practice. But I had now to go home, after performing this, my heroic action. How shall I be received there? But the report of my adventure had reached there before I did. In the morning when I first saw my grandparents, I felt considerably of the sheepish order. The old gentleman first accosted me with, Well, you are going thus oldrain, then, are you? I had nothing to answer. I would much rather he had not ask me the question. I saw that the circumstance hurt him and the old lady too. But it was too late now to repent. The old gentleman proceeded. I suppose you must be fitted out for the expedition, since it is so. Finally they did fit me out in order, with arms and accoutrements, clothing and cake, and cheese and plenty, not forgetting to put my pocket-bible into my knapsack. Good old people! They wished me well, soul and body. I sincerely thank them for their kindness and love to me. From the time I first came to live with them, to the last parting hour, I hope, nay, I believe that their spirits now rest in the realms of bliss. May it be my happy lot to meet them there. I was now what I had long wished to be, a soldier. I had obtained my heart's desire. It was now my business to prove myself equal to my profession. Well, to be short, I went, with several others of the company, on board a sloop bound to New York. Had a pleasant, though protracted, passage, passed through the strait called Hellgate, where all who had not before passed it had to pay a treat. I had been through it before. Arrived at New York, marched up into the city, and joined the rest of the regiment that were already there. And now I had left my good old Grand Sire's house, as a constant resident, for ever, and had to commence exercising my function. I was called out every morning at Reveley Beading, which was at Daybreak, to go to our regimental parade in Broad Street, and there, practice the manual exercise, which was the most that was known in our new levees, if they knew even that. I was brought to an allowance of provisions, which, while we lay in New York, was not bad. If there was any deficiency, it could, in some measure, be supplied by procuring some kind of sauce. But I was a stranger to such living. I began soon to miss Grand Sire's table and cellar. However, I reconciled myself to my condition as well as I could. It was my own seeking. I had had no compulsion. Soon after my arrival at New York, a forty-gun ship, the Phoenix, and a small frigate, the Rose, I think, came down to the north, or Hudson River. They had been some time in the river, and passed the city in fine style, amidst a cannonade from all our fortifications, in and near the city. I went into what was then called the Grand Battery, where I had a complete view of the whole affair. Here I first heard the muttering of cannon shot, but they did not disturb my feelings so much as I apprehended they would before I had heard them. I rather thought the sound was musical, or at least grand. I heard enough of them afterwards to form what ideas I pleased of them, whether musical, grand, or doleful, and perhaps I have formed each of those ideas upon different occasions. I would hear, once for all, remark that as I write altogether from memory, the reader must not expect to have an exact account of dates. I mean of days and weeks, as to years and months I shall not be wide from the mark. As I have entitled my book, The Adventures, et cetera, of a revolutionary soldier, it is possible the reader may expect to have a minute detail of all my adventures. I have not promised any such thing. It was what belonged to me, and what transpired in my line of duty that I proposed to narrate. But when some mischievous incident occurred, I am willing to give a short detail of it. I never wished to do anyone an injury through malice in my life, nor did I ever do anyone an intentional injury while I was in the army, unless it was when sheer necessity drove me to it. And my conscience bears me witness, that innumerable times I have suffered rather than take from anyone what belonged of right to them, even to satisfy the cravings of nature. But I cannot say so much in favor of my levity. That would often get the upper hand of me, do what I would. And sometimes it would run riot with me. But still I did not mean to do harm. Only recreation, reader, recreation. I wanted often to recreate myself, to keep the blood from stagnating. The soldiers at New York had an idea that the enemy, when they took possession of the town, would make a general seizure of all property that could be of use to them as military or commissary stores. Hence they imagined that it was no injury to supply themselves when they thought they could do so with impunity, which was the case of my having any hand in the transaction I am going to relate. Whether the reader will attribute it to levity, necessity, or roguery, I am not able to say. Perhaps to one or the other of them it may be to all. I was stationed in Stone Street, near the southwest angle of the city. Directly opposite to my quarters was a wine cellar. There were in the cellar at this time several pipes of material wine. By some means the soldiers had smelt it out. Some of them had at midday taken the iron grating from a window in the backyard, and one had entered the cellar, and by means of a powder horn divested of its bottom had supplied himself with wine, and was helping his comrades through the window with a delicious draught. When the owner of the wine, having discovered what they were about, very wisely as it seemed, came into the street and opened an outer door to the cellar in open view of every passenger. The soldiers quickly filled the cellar when he, to save his property, proposed to sell it at what he called a cheap rate, I think a dollar a gallon. In one corner of the cellar lay a large pile of oil flasks, holding from half a gallon to a gallon each. They were empty and not very savory, neither, as they had lain there till the oil which adhered to the sides and bottoms had become quite rancid. While the owner was drawing for his purchasers on one side of the cellar, behind him on the other side another set of purchasers were drawing for themselves, filling those flasks. As it appeared to have a brisk sale, especially in the latter case, I concluded I would take a flask amongst the rest, which I accordingly did and conveyed it in safety to my room, and went back into the street to see the end. The owner of the wine soon found out what was going forward on his premises, and began remonstrating. But he preached to the wind, finding that he could affect nothing with them. He went to General Putnam's quarters, which was not more than three or four rods off. The general immediately repaired in person to the field of action. The soldiers getting wind of his approach hurried out into the street, when he, mounting himself upon the doorsteps of my quarters, began haranguing the multitude, threatening to hang every mother's son of them. Whether he was to be the hangman or not he did not say, but I took every word he said for gospel, and expected nothing else but to be hanged before the morrow night. I sincerely wished him hanged and out of the way, for fixing himself upon the steps of our door, but he soon ended his discourse, and came down from his rostrum. And the soldiers dispersed, no doubt much edified. I got home as soon as the general had left the coast clear, took a drought of the wine, and then flung the flask and the remainder of the wine out of my window, from the third story into the water cistern in the backyard, where it remains to this day for ought I know. However, I might have kept it if I had not been in too much haste to free myself from being hanged by General Putnam, or by his order. I never heard of anything further about the wine or being hanged about it. He doubtless forgot it. I remained in New York two or three months in which time several things occurred, but so strifling that I shall not mention them. In some time in the latter part of the month of August I was ordered upon a fatigue party. We had scarcely reached the grand parade when I saw our Sergeant Major directing his course up Broadway, towards us, and rather an unusual step for him. He soon arrived and informed us, and then the commanding officer of the party, that he had orders to take off all belonging to our regiment and marches to our quarters, as the regiment was ordered to Long Island, the British having landed in force there. While this was not unexpected to me, yet it gave me a rather disagreeable feeling, as I was pretty well assured I should have to snuff a little gunpowder. However, I kept my cogitations to myself, went to my quarters, packed up my clothes, and got myself in readiness for the expedition as soon as possible. I then went to the top of the house where I had a full view of that part of the island. I distinctly saw the smoke of the field artillery, but the distance and the unfavorableness of the wind prevented my hearing their report, at least but faintly. The horrors of battle then presented themselves to my mind in all their hideousness. I must come to it now, thought I. Well, I will endeavour to do my duty as well as I am able, and leave the event with Providence. We were soon ordered to our regimental parade, from which, as soon as the regiment was formed, we were marched off for the ferry. At the lower end of the street were placed several casks of sea bread, made, I believe, of cannell and peasmeal, nearly hard enough for musket flints. The casks were unheaded, and each man was allowed to take as many as he could as he marched by. As my good luck would have it, there was a momentary halt made, I improved the opportunity thus offered me. As every good soldier should, upon all important occasions, to get as many of the biscuit as I possibly could, no one said anything to me, and I filled my bosom, and took as many as I could hold in my hand, a dozen or more in all, and when we arrived at the ferry stairs, I stowed them away in my knapsack. We quickly embarked on board the boats. As each boat started, three cheers were given by those on board, which was returned by the numerous spectators who thronged the wharfs. They all wished us good luck, apparently. Although it was with most of them perhaps nothing more than ceremony. We soon landed at Brooklyn, upon the island, marched up the ascent from the ferry to the plain. We now began to meet the wounded men, another sight I was unacquainted with, some with broken arms, some with broken legs, and some with broken heads. The sight of these a little daunted me. It made me think of home. But the sight and thought vanished together. We marched a short distance when we halted to refresh ourselves. Whether we had any other victuals besides the hard bread I do not remember, but I remember my gnawing at them. They were hard enough to break the teeth of a rat. One of the soldiers, complaining of thirst to his officer, look at that man, said he, pointing to me, he is not thirsty. I will warrant it. I felt a little elevated to be styled a man. While resting here, which was not more than twenty minutes or half an hour, the Americans and British were warmly engaged within sight of us. What were the feelings of most or all the young soldiers at this time? I know not, but I know what were mine. But let mine or theirs be what they might. I saw a lieutenant who appeared to have feelings not very enviable. Whether he was actuated by fear or the canteen I can not determine now. I thought at fear at the time, for he ran round among the men of his company, sniveling and blubbering, praying each one if he had ought against him, and if he had injured any one that they would forgive him, declaring at the same time that he, from his heart, forgave them if they had offended him, and I gave him full credit for his assertion. For had he been at the gallows with a halter about his neck he could not have shown more fear or penitence. A fine soldier you are, I thought, a fine officer, an exemplary man for young soldiers. I would have then suffered anything short of death rather than have made such an exhibition of myself. But as the poet says, fear does things so like a witch, to his heart to distinguish which is which. The officers of the new levees wore cockades of different colors to distinguish them from the standing forces as they were called. The field officers wore red, the captains white, and the subaltern officers green. While we were resting here our lieutenant colonel and major, our colonel not being with us, took their cockades from their hats. Being asked the reason, the lieutenant colonel replied that he was willing to risk his life in the cause of his country, but unwilling to stand a particular mark for the enemy to fire at. He was a fine officer and a brave soldier. We were soon called upon to fall in and proceed. We had not gone far, about half a mile, when I heard one in the rear ask another where his musket was. I looked round and saw one of the soldiers stemming off without his gun, having left it where we last halted. He was inspecting his side as if undetermined whether he had it or not. He then fell out of the ranks to go in search of it. One of the company, who had brought it on, wishing to see how far he would go before he missed it, gave it to him. The reader will naturally enough conclude that he was a brave soldier. Well, he was a brave fellow for all this accident, and received two severe wounds by musket-balls while fearlessly fighting for his country at the battle of white planes. So true is the proverb, a singed cat may make a good mouser, stranger things may happen. We overtook a small party of the artillery here, dragging a heavy twelve-pounder upon a field carriage, sinking halfway to the knaves in the sandy soil. They pled hard for some of us to assist them to get on their peace. Our officers, however, paid no attention to their entreaties, but pressed forward towards a creek, where a large party of Americans and British were engaged. By the time we arrived, the enemy had driven our men into the creek, or rather, mil-pond, the tide being up, where such as could swim got across. Those that could not swim and could not procure anything to buoy them up sunk. The British, having several field pieces stationed by a brick house, were pouring the canister and grape upon the Americans like a shower of hail. They would doubtless have done them much more damage than they did, but for the twelve-pounder mentioned above, the men having gotten it within sufficient distance to reach them and opening a fire upon them soon obliged them to shift their quarters. There was in this action a regiment of Maryland troopers, 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 day in the afternoon, we had a considerable tight scratch with about an equal number of the British, which began rather unexpectedly and a little whimsically. A few of our men, I mean of our regiment, went over the creek upon business that usually employed us, that is, in search of something to eat. There was a field of Indian corn at a short distance from the creek. With several cocks of hay about half way from the creek to the cornfield, the men purposed to get some of the corn or anything else that was eatable. When they got up with hay cocks, they were fired upon by about an equal number of the British from the cornfield. Our people took to the hay and the others to the fence, where they exchanged a number of shots at each other, neither side inclining to give back. A number, say forty or fifty more of our men, went over and drove the British from the fence. They were by this time reinforced in their turn and drove us back. The two parties kept thus alternately reinforcing until we had the most of our regiment in the action. After the officers came to command, the English were soon routed from the place, but we dare not follow them for fear of falling into some snare, as the whole British army was in the vicinity of us. I do not recollect that we had anyone killed outright, but we had several severely wounded, and some, I believe, mortally. Our regiment was alone, no other troops being near where we were lying. We were upon a rising ground covered with a young growth of trees. We felled offensive trees around us to prevent the approach of the enemy's horse. We lay there a day longer. In the latter part of the afternoon there fell a very heavy shower of rain which wed us all to the skin, and much damaged our ammunition. About sunset, when the shower had passed over, we were ordered to parade and discharge our pieces. We attempted to fire by platoons for improvement, but we made blundering work of it. It was more like a running fire than firing by divisions. However, we got our muskets as empty as our stomachs, and with half the trouble, nor was it half the trouble to have reloaded them, for we had wherewithal to do that, but not so with our stomachs. Just at dusk, I, with one or two others of our company, went off to a barn about half a mile distant with intent to get some straw to lodge upon, the ground and leaves being drenched in water, and we as wet as they. It was quite dark in the barn, and while I was fumbling about the floor, someone called to me from the top of the mow, inquiring where I was from. I told him. He asked me if we had not had an engagement there, having heard us discharging our guns. I told him we had, and a severe one too. He asked if many were killed. I told him that I saw none killed, nor any very badly wounded. I then heard several others, as it appeared, speaking on the mow. Poor fellows, they had better have been at their post than skulking in a barn on account of a little wet, for I have not leased out but that the British had possession of their mortal parts before the noon of the next day. I could not find any straw, but I found some wheat in the sheaf, standing by the side of the floor. I took a sheaf or two, and returned as fast as I could to the regiment. When I arrived, the men were all paraded to march off the ground. I left my wheat, seized my musket, and fell into the ranks. We were strictly enjoined not to speak, or even cough while on the march. All orders were given from officer to officer, and communicated to the men in whispers. What such secrecy could mean we could not divine. We marched off in the same way that we had come on to the island, forming various conjectures among ourselves as to our destination. Somewhere of the opinion that we were to endeavor to get on the flank, or in the rear of the enemy. Others that we were going up to the East River to attack them in that quarter, but none it seems knew the right of the matter. We marched on, however, until we arrived at the ferry, where we immediately embarked on board the bateau, and conveyed safely to New York, where we were landed about three o'clock in the morning, nothing against our inclinations. The next day the British showed themselves to be in possession of our works upon the island, by firing upon some of our boats, passing to and from Governor's Island. Our regiment was employed during this day, and throwing up a sort of breastwork at their alarm post upon the wharfs, facing the enemy, composed of spars and logs, and filling the space between with the materials of which the wharfs were composed. Old broken junk bottles, flintstones, etc., which, had a cannonball pass through, would have a chance to kill five men where the ball would one. But the enemy did not see fit to molest us. We stayed several days longer in the city, when one morning we discovered that a small frigate had advanced up, and was lying above Governor's Island, close under the Long Island shore. Several other ships had come up, and were lying just below the town. They seemed to portend evil. In the evening, just at dark, our regiment was ordered to march to Turtle Bay, a place about four miles distant, on the east river, where were a large warehouse or two, called then, the King's Stores, built for the storing of marine stores belonging to the government, before the war. There was at this time about twenty-five hundred barrels of flour in those storehouses, and it was conjectured that the design of the aforementioned frigate, or rather the officers and crew of her, was to seize on this flour. We were therefore ordered to secure it, before the British should have an opportunity to lay their unhallowed hands upon it. We arrived at the place about midnight, and by sunrise, or a little after, had secured the whole of it, by rolling it up a steep bank and piling it behind a ledge of rocks. While we were employed in doing this, some other troops were constructing a small battery on a point of land opposite the frigate. She having arrived during the night, and anchored just below us, not being able to get quite up, by the failure of the wind. And as soon as we had finished our work at the flour, the battery opened upon her with two long, 12-pounders, which so gulled her ribs that her situation began to grow rather uneasy to her. She never returned a shot at the battery, but got under way as quick as possible and ran by us, there being then a little wind. We all stood gazing at her as she passed, when she sent us a nine-pound shot, perhaps the best she had to send us, which passed through amongst us without injuring anyone. She ran a little way up the river, and came to anchor again. We continued here some days to guard the flour. We were forbidden by our officers to use any of it, except our daily allowance. We used, however, to perloin some of it to eat and exchange with the inhabitants for milk, sauce, and such small matters as we could get for it of them. While we lay here, I saw a piece of American workmanship that was, as I thought, rather remarkable. Going one evening upon a piquet guard in a subaltern officer's command, a mile or two farther up the river, we had to march through the enclosures close upon the bank of the river. There was a small party of British upon an island in the river, known generally by a queer name, given it upon as queer an occasion, which I shall not stop now to unfold. These British soldiers seemed to be very busy in chasing some scattering sheep that happened to be so unlucky as to fall in their way. One of the soldiers, however, thinking perhaps he could do more mischief by killing some of us, had posted himself on a point of rocks at the southern extremity of the island and kept firing at us as we were passed along the bank. Several of his shots passed between our files, but we took little notice of him, thinking he was so far off that he could do us but little hurt, and that we could do him none at all, until one of the guard asked the officer if he might discharge his piece at him. As it was charged and would not hinder us long, the officer gave his consent. He rested his old six-foot barrel across the fence and sent an express to him. The man dropped, but as we then thought it was only to amuse us, we took no further notice of it but passed on. In the morning, upon our return, we saw the brick-colored coat still lying in the same position we had left it in the evening before. It was a long distance to hit a single man with a musket. It was certainly over half a mile. One evening, while lying here, we heard a heavy cannonade at the city, and before dark saw four of the enemy ships that had passed the town and were coming up the east river, they anchored just below us. These ships were the Phoenix of 44 guns, the Roebuck of 44, the Rose of 32, and another, the name of which I have forgotten. Half of our regiment was sent off under the command of our major, to man something that were called lines, although they were nothing more than a ditch dug along the bank of the river with the dirt thrown out towards the water. They stayed in these lines during the night and returned to the camp in the morning, unmolested. The other half of the regiment went the next night under the command of the Lieutenant Colonel, upon the like errand. We arrived at the lines about dark and were ordered to leave our packs in a cop's wood under a guard and go into the lines without them. What was the cause of this piece of wise policy I never knew, but I knew the effects of it, which was that I never saw my knapsack from that day to this, nor did any of the rest of our party unless they came across them by accident in our retreat. We manned the lines and lay quite as unmolested during the whole night as Sampson did the half of his day in the city of Gaza, upon about as foolish a business, though there was some difference in our getting away. We did not go off in so much triumph quite as he did. We had a chain of sentinels quite up the river for four or five miles in length. At an interval of every half hour, they passed the watchword to each other, all is well. I heard the British on board their ship answering, we will alter your tune before tomorrow night, and they were as good as their word for once. It was quite a dark night and at daybreak the first thing that saluted our eyes was all the four ships at anchor with springs upon their cables and within musket shot of us. The phoenix lying a little quartering and her stern towards me, I could read her name as distinctly as though I had been directly under her stern. What is the meaning of all this, thought I? What is coming forward now? They appeared to be very busy on shipboard, but we lay still and showed our good breeding by not interfering with them, as they were strangers, and we knew not, but they were bashful with all. As soon as it was fairly light, we saw their boats coming out of a creek or cove on the long island side of the water, filled with British soldiers. When they came to the edge of the tide, they formed their boats in line. They continued to augment their forces from the island until they appeared like a large clover field in full bloom. And now was coming on the famous Kipps Bay Affair, which has been criticized so much by the historians of the Revolution. I was there and will give a true statement of all that I saw during that day. It was on a Sabbath morning, the day in which the British were always employed about their devil tree, if possible. Because they said they had the prayers of the church on that day. We lay very quiet in our ditch, waiting their motions, till the sun was an hour or two high. We heard a cannonade at the city, but our attention was drawn toward our own guests. But they, being a little dilatory in their operations, I stepped into an old warehouse which stood close by me, with the door open, inviting me in, and sat down upon a stool. The floor was strewed with papers which had in some former period been used in the concerns of the house, but were then lying in woeful confusion. I was very demurely perusing these papers, when all of a sudden there came such a peel of thunder from the British shipping that I thought my head would go with the sound. I made a frog's leap for the ditch and lay as still as I possibly could, and began to consider which part of my carcass was to go first. The British played their parts well. Indeed, they had nothing to hinder them. We kept the lines till they were almost leveled upon us. When our officers, seeing we could make no resistance and no orders coming from any superior officer and that we must soon be entirely exposed to the rake of their guns, gave the order to leave the lines. In retreating, we had to cross a level-clear spot of ground, 40 or 50 yards wide, exposed to the hole of the enemy's fire, and they gave it to us in prime order. The grape-shot and language flew merrily, which served to quicken our motions. When I had gotten a little out of the reach of their combustibles, I found myself in company with one who was a neighbor of mine when at home, and one other man belonging to our regiment, where the rest of them were I knew not. We went into a house by the highway, in which were two women and some small children, all crying most bitterly. We asked the women if they had any spirits in the house. They placed a case bottle of rum upon the table and bid us help ourselves. We each of us drank a glass and bidding them goodbye, we took ourselves to the highway again. We had not gone far before we saw a party of men, apparently hurrying on in the same direction with ourselves. We endeavored hard to overtake them, but on approaching them we found that they were not of our way of thinking. They were Hessians. We immediately altered our course and took the main road leading to King's Bridge. We had not long been on this road before we saw another party just ahead of us, whom we knew to be Americans. Just as we overtook these, they were fired upon by a party of British from a cornfield and all was immediately in confusion again. I believe the enemy's party was small, but our people were all militia and the demons of fear and disorder seemed to take full possession of all and everything on that day. When I came to the spot where the militia were fired upon, the ground was literally covered with arms, knapsacks, staves, coats, hats, and old oil flasks. Perhaps some of those from the Madeira wine cellar in New York. All I picked up of the plunder was a block tin syringe, which afterwards helped to procure me a Thanksgiving dinner. Myself and the man whom I mentioned as belonging to our company were all who were in company at this time, the other man having gone on with those who were fired upon. They did not tarry to let the grass grow much under their feet. We had to advance slowly, for my comrade having been some time unwell was now so overcome by heat, hunger, and fatigue that he became suddenly and violently sick. I took his musket and endeavored to encourage him on. He was, as I before observed, a nigh neighbor of mine when at home, and I was loathed to leave him behind, although I was anxious to find the main part of the regiment if possible before night, for I thought that that part of it which was not in the lines was in a body somewhere. We soon came in sight of a large party of Americans ahead of us, who appeared to have come into this row by some other route. We were within sight of them when they were fired upon by another party of the enemy. They returned but a very few shots and then scampered off as fast as their legs could carry them. When we came to the ground they had occupied, the same display of lumber presented itself as at the other place. We here found a wounded man and some of his comrades endeavoring to get him off. I stopped to assist them in constructing a sort of litter to lay him upon when my sick companion, growing impatient, moved on, and as soon as we had placed the wounded man upon the litter, I followed him. While I was here, one or two of our regiment came up and we went on together. We had proceeded but a short distance, however, before we found our retreat cut off by a party of the enemy stretched across the island. I immediately quitted the road and went into the fields where there happened to be a small spot of boggy land covered with low bushes and weeds. Into these I ran and squatting down concealed myself from their sight. Several of the British came so near to me that I could see the buttons on their clothes. They, however, soon withdrew and left the coast clear for me again. I then came out of my covert and went on, but what had become of my sick comrade or the rest of my companions I knew not. I still kept the sick man's musket. I was unwilling to leave it for it was his own property and I knew he valued it highly and I had a great esteem for him. I had indeed enough to do to take care of my own concerns. It was exceeding hot weather and I was faint, having slept but very little the preceding night, nor had I eaten a mouthful of victuals for more than twenty-four hours. I waddled on as well and as fast as I could and soon came up with a number of men at a small brook where they had stopped to drink and rest themselves a few moments. Just as I arrived a man had lain down to drink at the brook and as he did not rise very soon one of the company observed that he would kill himself with drinking, upon which another, touching him without his appearing to notice it, said he had already killed himself, which was the case. Leaving them I went on again and directly came to a foul piece in the road where the soldiers had taken down the fence to pass into the fields. I passed across the corner of one field and threw a gap in a cross fence into another. Here I found a number of men resting upon the trees and bushes in the fences. Almost the first I saw, after passing the gap in the fence, was my sick friend. I was exceeding glad to find him, for I had but little hope of ever seeing him again. He was sitting near the fence with his head between his knees. I tapped him upon the shoulder and asked him to get up and go on with me. No, said he, at the same time regarding me with a most pitiful look, I must die here. I endeavored to argue the case with him, but all to no purpose. He insisted upon dying there. I told him he should not die there nor anywhere else that day if I could help it, and at length, with more persuasion and some force, I succeeded in getting him upon his feet again and to moving on. There happened just at this instant a considerable shower of rain, which wet us all to the skin, being very thinly clad. We, however, continued to move on, although but slowly. After proceeding about half a mile, we came to a place where our people had begun to make a stand. A number, say two or three hundred, had collected here, having been stopped by the artillery officers. They had two or three field pieces fixed and fitted for action, in case the British came on, which was momentarily expected. I and my comrades, for I had found another of our company when I found my sick man, were stopped here, a sentinel being placed in the road to prevent our going any further. I felt very much chagrin to be thus hindered from proceeding. As I felt confident that our regiment, or some considerable part of it, was not far ahead, unless they had been more unlucky than I had. I remonstrated with the officer who detained us. I told him that our regiment was just ahead. He asked me how I knew that. I could not tell him, but I told him I had a sick man with me who was wet and would die if exposed all night to the damp cold air, hoping by this to move his compassion. But it would not do. He was inexorable. I shall not soon forget the answer he gave me when I made the last mentioned observation respecting the sick man. Well, said he, if he dies, the country will be rid of one who can do it no good. Pretty fellow, thought I, a very compassionate gentleman. When a man has got his bane in his country's cause, let him die like an old horse or dog, because he can do no more. The only wish I would wish such men would be to let them have exactly the same treatment which they would give to others. I saw but little chance of escaping from this very humane gentleman by fair means, so I told my two comrades to stick by me and keep together and we would get from them by some means or other during the evening. It was now almost sundown and the air quite chilly after the shower, and we were as wet as water could make us. I was really afraid my sick man would die in earnest. I had not stayed there long after this entertaining dialogue with my obliging friend, the officer, waiting for an opportunity to escape before one offered. There came to the sentinel, I suppose, an old acquaintance of his with a canteen containing some sort of spirits. After drinking himself, he gave it to the sentinel who took a large pull upon it. They then fell into conversation together, but soon taking a hair from the same hound, it put them into quite a talkative mood. I kept my eyes upon them and when I thought I saw a chance of getting from them, I gave my companions a wink and we passed by the sentinel without his noticing us at all. A walk of a very few rods concealed us from his view by a turn in the road in some bushes and thus we escaped from prison, for we thought we were hardly dealt by to be confined by those whom we took to be our friends after having labored so hard to escape being made prisoners by the common enemy. We went on a little distance when we overtook another man belonging to our company. He had just been refreshing himself with some bread and dry saltfish and was putting the fragments into his knapsack. I longed for a bite, but I felt too bashful to ask him and he was too thoughtless or stingy to offer it. We still proceeded, but had not gone far when we came up with the regiment, resting themselves on the cold ground after the fatigue of the day. Our company all appeared to rejoice to see us thinking we were killed or prisoners. I was sincerely glad to see them, for I was once more among friends or at least acquaintances. Several of the regiment were missing, among whom was our major. He was a fine man and his loss was much regretted by the men of the regiment. We were the last who came up, all the others who were missing were either killed or taken prisoners. And here ends the Kipps Bay Affair, which caused at the time and has since caused much ink shed. Anadotes, jests, implications and sarcasm have been multiplied and even the grave writers of the Revolution have said and written more about it than it deserved. I could make some observations, but it is beyond my province. End of Chapter 2, Part 1. Chapter 2, Part 2 of the Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier by Joseph Plumb Martin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 2, Part 2, the Campaign of 1776. One anecdote which I have seen more than once in print I will notice. A certain man or the friends of a certain man have said that this certain man was sitting by the highway side when the commander-in-chief passed by and asked him why he sat there. His answer, as he or they say, was that he had rather be killed or taken by the enemy than trodden to death by cowards. A brave man he. I doubt whether there was such another there that day and I much doubt whether he himself was there under such circumstances as he or his friends relate. Every man that I saw was endeavoring by all sober means to escape from death or captivity, which, at that period of the war, was almost certain death. The men were confused, being without officers to command them. I do not recollect of seeing a commissioned officer from the time I left the lines on the banks of the East River in the morning until I met with the gentlemanly one in the evening. How could the men fight without officers? The man who represented himself as being so valiant was a braggadocia and I never yet met with one of that class who was not at heart a sheer coward. We lay that night upon the ground which the regiment occupied when I came up with it. The next day in the forenoon, the enemy, as we expected, followed us hard up and were advancing through a level field. Our rangers and some few other light troops under the command of Colonel Nolton of Connecticut and Major Leach of, I believe, Virginia were in waiting for them. Seeing them advancing, the rangers, et cetera, concealed themselves in a deep gully overgrown with bushes. Upon the western verge of this defile was a post and rail fence and over that the forementioned field. Our people let the enemy advance until they arrived at the fence when they arose and poured in a volley upon them. How many of the enemy were killed and wounded could not be known as the British were always as careful as Indians to conceal their losses. There were doubtless some killed as I myself counted 19 ball holes through a single rail of the fence at which the enemy were standing when the action began. The British gave back and our people advanced into the field. The action soon became warm. Colonel Nolton, a brave man and commander of the detachment fell in the early part of the engagement. It was said by those who sought that he lost his valuable life by unadvisably exposing himself singly to the enemy. In my boyhood I had been acquainted with him. He was a brave man and an excellent citizen. Major Leach fell soon after and the troops who were then engaged were left with no higher commanders than their captains but they still kept the enemy retreating. Our regiment was now ordered into the field and we arrived on the ground just as the retreating enemy were entering a thick wood, a circumstance as disagreeable to them as it was agreeable to us at that period of the war. We soon came to action with them. The troops engaged being reinforced by our regiment kept them still retreating until they found shelter under the cannon of some of their shipping lying in the North River. We remained on the battleground till nearly sunset expecting the enemy to attack us again but they showed no such inclination that day. The men were very much fatigued and faint having had nothing to eat for forty-eight hours. At least the greater part were in this condition and I among the rest. While standing on the field after the action had ceased one of the men near the Lieutenant Colonel complained of being hungry. The Colonel, putting his hand into his coat pocket took out a piece of an ear of Indian corn burnt as black as coal. Here, said he to the man complaining, eat this and learn to beat a soldier. We now returned to camp if camp it was. Our tent held the whole regiment and might have held ten millions more. When we arrived on the ground we had occupied previous to going into action. We found that our invalids consisting of the sick, the lame and the lazy had obtained some fresh beef. Where the commissaries found the beef or the men found the commissaries in this time of confusion, I know not nor did I stop to ask. They were broiling the beef on small sticks in Indian style round blazing fires made of dry chestnut rails. The meat when cooked was as black as a coal on the outside and as raw on the inside as if it had not been near the fire. I asked no questions for conscience's sake but fell to and helped myself to a feast of this raw beef without bread or salt. We had eight or ten of our regiment killed in the action and a number wounded but none of them belonged to our company. Our lieutenant colonel was hit by a grape shot which went through his coat, west coat and shirt to the skin on his shoulder without doing any other damage than cutting up his epiulet. A circumstance occurred on the evening after this action which although trifling in its nature excited in me feelings which I shall never forget. When we came off the field we brought away a man who had been shot dead upon the spot and after we had refreshed ourselves we proceeded to bury him. Having provided a grave which was near a gentleman's country's seat at that time occupied by the commander in chief we proceeded just in the dusk of the evening to commit the poor man then far from friends and relatives to the bosom of his mother earth. Just as we had laid him in the grave and as decent a posture as existing circumstances would admit there came from the house towards the grave two young ladies who appeared to be sisters. As they approached the grave the soldiers immediately made way for them with those feelings of respect which beauty and modesty combined seldom failed to produce which especially when as in this instance accompanied by piety upon arriving at the head of the grave they stopped and with their arms around each other's neck stooped forward and looked into it and with a sweet pensiveness of countenance which might have warmed the heart of a misogynist asked if we were going to put the earth upon his naked face. Being answered in the affirmative one of them took a fine white gauze handkerchief from her neck and desired that it might be spread upon his face tears at the same time flowing down their cheeks. After the grave was filled up they retired to the house in the same manner they came. Although the dead soldier had no acquaintance present for there were none at his burial who knew him yet he had mourners and females too worthy young ladies. You and such as you are deserving the regard of the greatest of men. What sisters, what wives, what mothers and what neighbors would you make? Such a sight as those ladies afforded at that time and on that occasion was worthy and doubtless received the attention of angels. Another affair which transpired during and after the above mentioned engagement deserves to be recorded by me as no one else has to my knowledge ever mentioned it. A sergeant belonging to the Connecticut forces being sent by his officers in the heat of the action to procure ammunition was met by a superior officer and aid the camp to some general officer I believe who accused him of deserting his post in time of action. He remonstrated with the officer and informed him of the absolute necessity there was of his obeying the orders of his own officers that the failure of his procuring a supply of ammunition might endanger the success of the day but all to no purpose the officer would not allow himself to believe him but drew his sword and threatened to take his life on the spot if he did not immediately return to his core. The sergeant fired with just indignation at hearing and seeing his life threatened cocked his musket and stood in his own defense. He was however taken, confined and tried for mutiny and condemned to be shot. The sentence of the court martial was approved by the commander in chief and the day for his execution set. When it arrived, an embankment was thrown up to prevent the shot fired at him from doing other damage and all things requisite on such occasions were in readiness. The Connecticut troops were then drawn out and formed in a square and the prisoner brought forth after being blindfolded and pinioned he knelt upon the ground. The corporal with his six executioners were then brought up before him ready at the fatal word of command to send a brave soldier into the eternal world because he persisted in doing his duty and obeying the lawful and urgent orders of his superior officers. The failure of which might for ought the officer who stopped him new have caused the loss of hundreds of lives. But the sergeant was reprieved and I believe that it was well that he was for his blood would not have been the only blood that would have been spilt. The troops were greatly exasperated and they showed what their feelings were by their lively and repeated cheerings after the reprieve but more so by their secret and open threats before it. The reprieve was read by one of the chaplains of the army after a long harangue to the soldiers setting forth the enormity of the crime charged upon the prisoner repeatedly using this sentence crimes for which men ought to die which did much to further the resentment of the troops already raised to a high pitch. But as I said before it was well that it ended as it did both on account of the honor of the soldiers and the safety of some others. I was informed that this same sergeant was honored the year following by those who better knew his merits with the captain's commission. We remained here till sometime in the month of October without anything very material transpiring accepting starvation and that had by this time become quite a secondary matter. Hard duty and nakedness were considered the prime evils. For the reader will recollect that we lost all our clothing in the Kipps Bay Affair. The British were quite indulgent to us not having interrupted our happiness since the check they received in the action before mentioned but left us at our leisure to see that they did not get amongst us before we were appraised of their approach and that in all its bearings was enough. It now began to be cool weather, especially the nights to have to lie as I did almost every night for our duty required it on the cold and often wet ground without a blanket and with nothing but thin summer clothing was tedious. I have often while upon guard lain on one side until the upper side smarted with cold then turned that side down to the place warmed by my body and let the other take its turn at smarting while the one on the ground warmed. Thus alternately turning for four or six hours to called upon to go on sentry as the soldiers term it and when we leave from a tour of two long hours at that business and returned to the guard again have had to go through the operation of freezing and thawing for four or six hours more in the morning the ground as white as snow with whore frost or perhaps it would rain all night like a flood all that could be done in that case was to lie down if one could lie down take our musket in our arms and place the lock between our thighs and weather it out. A simple affair happened while I was upon guard at a time while we were here which made considerable disturbance amongst the guard and caused me some extra hours of fatigue at the time as I was the cause of it at first I will relate it. The guard consisted of nearly 200 men commanded by a field officer. We kept a long chain of sentinels placed almost within speaking distance of each other and being in close neighborhood with the enemy we were necessitated to be pretty alert. I was upon my post as sentinel about the middle of the night thinking we had undergone the time in which we ought to have been relieved. I stepped a little off my post towards one of the next centuries it being quite dark and asked him in a low voice how long he had been on sentry. He started as if attacked by the enemy and roared out who comes there. I saw I had alarmed him and stole back to my post as quick as possible. He still kept up his cry, who comes there and receiving no answer he discharged his peace which alarmed the whole guard who immediately formed and prepared for action and sent off a non-commissioned officer and file of men to ascertain the cause of alarm. They came first to the man who had fired and asked him what was the matter. He said that someone had made an abrupt advance upon his premises and demanded, how comes you on, sentry? They next came to me inquiring what I had seen. I told him that I had not seen or heard anything to alarm me but what the other sentinel had caused. The men returned to the guard and we were soon relieved which was all that I wanted. Upon our return to the guard I found as was to be expected that the alarm was the subject of general conversation among them. They were confident that a spy or something worse had been amongst us and consequently greater vigilance was necessary. We were accordingly kept the rest of the night under arms and I cursed my indiscretion for causing the disturbance as I could get no more rest during the night. I could have set all to rights by speaking a word but it would not do for me to betray my own secret. But it was diverting to me to see how much the story gained by being carried about both among the guard and after its arrival in the camp. I had been one night upon a picket guard. That is a guard only for the night. Having been dismissed early in the morning I was returning through a by-road to my quarters. This road led from the main road to the shore of the North River. I was alone the rest of the guard having for some cause which I have now forgotten. Passed on and were out of sight. I saw General Putnam on horseback and alone coming up the road in my rear. In my front and nearer to me than I was to the general was a high fence and a set of high and very heavy bars composed of pretty large poles or young trees. I had only just to go through the bars and cross another fence on my left and I should be in the deep gully and at the very spot where the late action began. This was the way I was actually to go to reach the camp. The general seeing me near the bars bawled out soldier let down those bars. I was then at the bars but seeing that the general was some distance off I took down one bar and slipped through leaving him to let the bars down himself. He was apparently in a dreadful passion drawing a pistol from his holsters. He came after me to the bars with his usual exclamation, curse ye. But I was where he could not see me although I could see him and hear him too. I was safe and perhaps it was as well for me that I was for I verily believed the old fellow would have shot me or endeavored to have done it if he could have got within reach of me. Thus was my life twice threatened by him, here and at the wine cellar in New York but I was not much afraid of his putting either of his threats into execution. Sometime in October the British landed at Frog's Neck or Point and by their motions seemed to threaten to cut off our retreat to York Island. We were there upon order to leave the island. We crossed King's Bridge and directed our course toward the White Plains. We saw parties of the enemy foraging in the country but they were generally too alert for us. We encamped on the heights called Valentine's Hill where we continued some days keeping up the old system of starving. A sheep's head which I begged of the butchers who were killing some for the gentlemen officers was all the provisions I had for two or three days. While lying here, I one day rambled into the woods and fields in order, if possible, to procure something to satisfy the cravings of nature. I found and ate a considerable quantity of chestnuts which are, as Bloomfield says of his acorns, hot thirsty food, which was, I suppose, the cause of our doctor's blunder as I shall relate directly. I returned to camp just at sunset and met our orderly sergeant who immediately warned me to prepare for a two days command. What is termed going on command is what is generally called going on a scouting party or something similar. I told the sergeant I was sick and could not go. He said I must go to the doctor and if he said I was unfit for duty, he must excuse me. I saw our sergeants made close by endeavoring to cook his supper blowing the fire and scratching his eyes. We both stepped up to him and he felt my pulse at the same time, very demirally shutting his eyes while I was laughing in his face. After a minute's consultation with his medical talisman, he very gravely told the sergeant that I was unfit for duty, having a high fever upon me. I was as well as he was. All the medicine I needed was a belly full of victuals. The sergeant turned to go off for another man when I told him that I would go, for I meant to go. I only felt a little cross and did not know how just then to vent my spleen in any other way. I had much rather go on such an expedition than stay in camp, as I stood some chance while in the country to get something to eat. But I admired the doctor's skill, although perhaps not more extraordinary than that of many others of the faculty. We marched from Valentine's Hill for the White Plains in the night. There were but three of our men present. We had our cooking utensils, at that time the most useless things in the army, to carry in our hands. They were made of cast iron and consequently heavy. I was so beat out before mourning with hunger and fatigue that I could hardly move one foot before the other. I told my messmates that I could not carry our kettle further. They said they would not carry it any further. Of what use was it? They had nothing to cook and did not want anything to cook with. We were sitting on the ascent of a hill when this discourse happened. We got up to proceed. When I took up the kettle, which held nearly a common pailful, I could not carry it. My arms were almost dislocated. I sat it down in the road and one of the others gave it a shove with his foot and it rolled down against the fence and that was the last I ever saw of it. When we got through the night's march we found our mess was not the only one that was rid of their iron bondage. We arrived at the White Plains just at dawn of day, tired and faint. Encamped on the plains a few days and then removed to the hills in the rear of the plains. Nothing remarkable transpired while lying here for some time. One day after roll call one of my messmates with me sat off upon a little jaunt into the country to get some sauce of some kind or other. We soon came to a field of English turnips but the owner was there and we could not get any of them without paying for them in some way or other. We soon agreed with the man to pull and cut off the tops of the turnips at the halves until we got as many as we needed. After the good man had set us to work and chatted with us a few minutes he went off and left us. After he was gone we had pulled out and cut as many as we wanted. We packed them up and de-camped leaving the owner of the turnips to pull his share himself. When we arrived at the camp the troops were all parading. Upon inquiry we found that the British were advancing upon us. We flung our turnip plunder into the tent packed up our things which was easily done for we had but a trifle to pack and fell into the ranks. Before we were ready to march the battle had begun. Our regiment then marched off crossed a considerable stream of water which crosses the plain and formed behind a stone wall in company with several other regiments and waited the approach of the enemy. They were not far distant at least that part of them with which we were quickly after engaged. They were constructing a sort of bridge to convey their artillery, et cetera across the before mentioned stream. They however soon made their appearance in our neighborhood. There was in our front about ten rods distant an orchard of apple trees. The ground on which the orchard stood was lower than the ground that we occupied but was level from our post to the verge of the orchard when it fell off so abruptly that we could not see the lower parts of the trees. A party of Hessian troops and some English soon took possession of this ground. They would advance so far as just to show themselves above the rising ground, fire and fall back and reload their muskets. Our chance upon them was as soon as they showed themselves above the level ground or when they fired to aim at the flashes of their guns. Their position was as advantageous to them as a breastwork. We were engaged in this manner for some time when finding ourselves flanked in a danger of being surrounded we were compelled to make a hasty retreat from the stone wall. We lost comparatively speaking very few at the fence but when forced to retreat we lost and killed and wounded a considerable number. One man who belonged to our company when we marched from the parade said now I am going out to the field to be killed and he said more than once afterwards that he should be killed and he was he was shot dead on the field. I never saw a man so prepossessed with the idea of any mishap as he was. We fell back a little distance and made a stand detached parties engaging in almost every direction. We did not come in contact with the enemy again that day and just at night we fell back to our encampment. In the course of the afternoon the British took possession of a hill on the right of our encampment which had in the early part of the day been occupied by some of the New York troops. This hill overlooked the one upon which we were and was not more than half or three-fourths of a mile distant. The enemy had several pieces of field artillery upon this hill and as might be expected entertained us with their music all the evening. We entrenched ourselves where we now lay expecting another attack but the British were very civil and indeed they generally were after they received a check from brother Jonathan for any of their rude actions. They seldom repeated them at least not till the affair that caused the reprimand had ceased in some measure to be remembered. During the night we remained in our new-made trenches the ground of which was in many parts springy. In that part where I happened to be stationed the water before morning was nearly over shoes which caused many of us to take violent colds by being exposed upon the wet ground after a profuse perspiration. I was one who felt the effects of it and was the next day sent back to the baggage to get well again if I could for it was left to my own exertions to do it and no other assistance was afforded me. I was not alone in misery there were a number in the same circumstances. When I arrived at the baggage which was not more than a mile or two I had the canopy of heaven for my hospital and the ground for my hammock. I found a spot where the dry leaves had collected between the knolls. I made up a bed of these and nestled in it having no other friend present but the sun to smile upon me. I had nothing to eat or drink not even water and was unable to go after any myself for I was sick indeed. In the evening one of my mess mates found me out and soon after brought me some boiled hogs flesh it was not pork and turnips without either bread or salt. I could not eat it but I felt obliged to him not withstanding. He did all he could do he gave me the best he had to give and had to steal that poor fellow. Necessity drove him to do it to satisfy the cravings of his own hunger as well as to assist a fellow sufferer. The British soon after this left the White Plains and passed the Hudson into New Jersey. We likewise fell back to Newcastle and Wrights Mill. Here a number of our sick were sent off to Norfolk in Connecticut to recruit. I was sent with them as a nurse. We were billeted among the inhabitants. I had in my ward seven or eight six soldiers who were at least soon after their arrival there as well in health as I was. All they wanted was a cook and something for a cook to exercise his functions upon. The inhabitants here were almost entirely what were in those days termed Tories. An old lady of whom I often procured milk used always when I went to her house to give me a lecture on my opposition to our good King George. She had always said she told me that the regulars would make us fly like pigeons. My patients would not use any of the milk I had of her fear as they said of poison. I told them I was not afraid of her poisoning the milk. She had not wit enough to think of such a thing, nor resolution enough to do it if she did think of it. The man of the house where I was quartered had a smart-looking Negro man, a great politician. I chanced one day to go into the barn where he was threshing. He quickly began to up braid me for my opposition to the British. The King of England was a very powerful Prince, he said, a very powerful Prince. And it was a great pity that the colonists had fallen out with him. But as we had, we must abide by the consequences. I had no inclination to waste the shafts of my rhetoric upon a Negro slave. I concluded he had heard his better say so. As the old cock crows, so crows the young one. And I thought as the white cock crows, so crows the black one. He ran away from his master before I left there and went to Long Island to assist King George. But it seems the King of Terrors was more potent than King George, for his master had certain intelligence that poor Cuff was laid flat on his back. This man had likewise a Negro's who, as he was a widower, kept his house. She was as great a doctor as Cuff was a politician and she wished to be a surgeon. There was an annual Thanksgiving while we were here. The sick men of my ward had procured a fine roasting pig and the old Negro woman having seen the syringe that I picked up in the retreat from Kipps Bay fell violently in love with it and offered me a number of pies of one sort or other for it. Of the pig and the pies, we made an excellent Thanksgiving dinner. The best meal I had eaten since I left my grand sire's table. Our surgeon came amongst us soon after this and packed us all off to camp, save two or three who were discharged. I arrived at camp with the rest where we remained moving from place to place as occasion required, undergoing hunger, cold and fatigue, until the 25th day of December, 1776, when I was discharged, my term of service haven't expired at Phillips Manor in the state of New York near Hudson's River. Here ends my first campaign. I had learned something of a soldier's life, enough I thought to keep me at home for the future. Indeed, I was then fully determined to rest easy with the knowledge I had acquired in the affairs of the army. But the reader will find, if he has patience to follow me a little longer in my details, that the case of a winter spent at home caused me to alter my mind. I had several kind invitations to enlist into the standing army, then about to be raised, especially a very pressing one to engage in a regiment of horse, but I concluded to try a short journey on foot first. Accordingly, I sat off from my good old grand sire's where I arrived, I think, on the 27th, two days after my discharge, and found my friends all alive and well. They appeared to be glad to see me, and I am sure I was really glad to see them. End of Chapter 2, Part 2.