 Chapter 4, Part 2 of A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier by Joseph Plum Martin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, the campaign of 1778, Part 2. By this time the British had come in contact with the New England forces at the fence when a sharp conflict ensued. These troops maintained their ground till the whole force of the enemy that could be brought to bear had charged upon them through the fence. And after being overpowered by numbers and the platoon officers had given orders for their several platoons to leave the fence, they had to force them to retreat. So eager were they to be avenged on the invaders of their country and rights. As soon as the troops had left this ground, the British planted their cannon upon the place and began a violent attack upon the artillery and our detachment, but neither could be routed. The cannonade continued for some time without intermission, when the British pieces being mostly disabled, they reluctantly crawled back from the height which they had occupied and hid themselves from our sight. Before the cannonade had commenced, a part of the right wing of the British army had advanced across a low meadow and brook and occupied an orchard on our left. The weather was almost too hot to live in, and the British troops in the orchard were forced by the heat to shelter themselves from it under the trees. We had a four-pounder on the left of our pieces which kept a constant fire upon the enemy during the whole contest. After the British artillery had fallen back and the cannonade had mostly ceased in this quarter, and our detachment had an opportunity to look about us, Colonel Silly of the New Hampshire line, who was attached to our detachment, passed along in front of our line, inquiring for General Varnum's men, who were the Connecticut and Rhode Island men belonging to our command. We answered, Here we are. He did not hear us in his hurry, but passed on. In a few minutes he returned, making the same inquiry. We again answered, Here we are. Ah, said he, You are the boys I want to assist in driving those rascals from beyond orchard. We were immediately ordered from our old detachment and joined another, the whole composing a corps of about five hundred men. We instantly marched towards the enemy's right wing, which was in the orchard and kept concealed from them as long as possible by keeping behind the bushes. When we could no longer keep ourselves concealed, we marched into the open fields and formed our line. The British immediately formed and began to retreat to the main body of their army. Colonel Silly finding that we were not likely to overtake the enemy before they reached the main body of the army, on account of the fences and other obstructions, ordered three or four platoons from the right of our corps to pursue and attack them, and thus keep them in play till the rest of the detachment could come up. I was in this party. We pursued without order. As I passed through the orchard I saw a number of the enemy lying under the trees, killed by our field piece mentioned before. We overtook the enemy just as they were entering upon the meadow, which was rather bushy. When within about five rods of the rear of the retreating foe, I could distinguish everything about them. They were retreating in line, though in some disorder. I singled out of man and took my aim directly between his shoulders. They were divested of their packs. He was a good mark, being a broad-shouldered fellow. What became of him I know not. The fire and smoke hid him from my sight. One thing I know, that is, I took deliberate aim at him as ever I did at any game in my life. But after all, I hope I did not kill him, although I intended to at the time. By this time our whole party had arrived and the British had obtained a position that suited them, as I suppose, for they returned our fire in good earnest, and we played the second part of the same tune. They occupied a much higher piece of ground than we did, and had a small piece of artillery, which the soldiers called a grasshopper. We had no artillery with us. The first shot they gave us from this piece cut off the thigh bone of a captain just above the knee and the whole heel of a private in the rear of him. We gave it to poor Sonny, for they were Scotch troops so hot that he was forced to fall back and leave the ground they occupied. When our commander saw them retreating and nearly joined with their main body, he shouted, Come, my boys, reload your pieces, and we will give them a set off. We did so and gave them a parting salute, and the firing on both sides ceased. We then laid ourselves down under the fences and bushes to take breath, for we had need of it. I presume everyone has heard of the heat of that day, but none can realize it that did not feel it. Fighting is hot work in cool weather. How much more so in such weather as it was on the 28th of June, 1778? After the action in our part of the army had ceased, I went to a well a few rods off to get some water. Here I found the wounded captain, mentioned before, lying on the ground and begging his sergeant, who pretended to have the care of him, to help him off the field, or he should bleed to death. The sergeant and a man or two he had with him were taken up hunting after plunder. It grieved me to see the poor man in such distress, and I asked the sergeant why he did not carry his officer to the surgeons. He said he would directly. Directly, said I, why he will die directly. I then offered to assist them in carrying him to a meeting house a short distance off where the rest of the wounded men and the surgeons were. At length he condescended to be persuaded to carry him off. I helped him to the place and tarried a few minutes to see the wounded and two or three limbs amputated, and then returned to my party again, where we remained the rest of the day and the following night, expecting to have another hack at them in the morning, but they gave us the slip. As soon as our party had ceased firing, it began in the center, and then upon the right. But as I was not in that part of the army, I had no adventure in it. But the firing was continued in one part or the other of the field the whole afternoon. Our troops remained on the field all night with the commander in chief. A regiment of Connecticut forces were sent to lie as near the enemy as possible, and to watch their motions. But they disappointed us all. If my readers wished to know how they escaped so slyly without our knowledge, after such precautions being used to prevent it, I must tell them I know nothing about it. But if they will take the trouble to call upon John Trumbull Esquire, perhaps he will satisfy their curiosity. If he should chance to be out of the way, and ten chances to one if he is not, apply to McFingal, can't go forth. One little incident happened during the heat of the cannonade which I was eyewitness to, and which I think would be unpardonable not to mention. A woman whose husband belonged to the artillery, and who was then attached to a peace in the engagement, attended with her husband at the peace the whole time. While in the act of reaching a cartridge, and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs, without doing any other damage, then carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and ended her and her occupation. The next day after the battle, each man received a gill of rum, but nothing to eat. We then joined our regiments in the line, and marched for Hudson's River. We marched by what was called easy marches. That is, we struck our tents at three o'clock in the morning, marched ten miles, and then encamped, which would be about one or two o'clock in the afternoon. Every third day we rested all day. In this way, we went to King's Ferry, where we crossed the Hudson. Each brigade furnished its own ferrymen to carry the troops across. I was one of the men from our brigade. We were still suffering for provisions. Nearly the last trip the bateau that I was in made, while crossing the river empty, a large sturgeon, a fish in which this river abounds, seven or eight feet in length, in his gambolines, sprang directly into the boat, without doing any other damage than breaking down one of the seats of the boat. We crossed and took in our freight and recrossed. Landed the men and our prize, gave orders to our several messmates as to the disposal of it, and proceeded on our business, till the whole of the brigade had crossed the river, which was not long. We were working with new energy in expectation of having something to eat when we had done our job. We then repaired to our messes to partake of the bounty of Providence, which we had so unexpectedly received. I found my share, which was about the seventh part of it, cooked. That is, it was boiled in salt and water, and I fell to it in eight, perhaps a pound and a half, for I well remember that I was as hungry as a vulture and as empty as a blown bladder. Many of the poor fellows thought us happy in being thus supplied. For my part, I felt happy. From King's Ferry, the army proceeded to Territown, and from thence to the White Plains. Here we drew some small supplies of summer clothing, of which we stood in great need. While we were here, I, with some of my comrades who were in the battle of the White Plains in the year seventy-six, one day took a ramble on the ground where we were then engaged with the British and took a survey of the place. We saw a number of the graves of those who fell in that battle. Some of the bodies had been so slightly buried that the dogs or hogs, or both, had dug them out of the ground. The skulls and other bones and hair were scattered about the place. Here were Hessian skulls as thick as a bombshell. Poor fellows, they were left unburied in a foreign land. They had, perhaps, as near and dear friends to lament their sad destiny as the Americans who lay buried near them. But they should have kept it home. We should then never have gone after them to kill them in their own country. But the reader will say they were forced to come and be killed here, forced by their rulers who have absolute power of life and death over their subjects. Well then, reader, bless a kind providence that has made such a distinction between your condition and theirs. And be careful, too, that you do not allow yourself ever to be brought to such an abject, servile, and debased condition. We lay at the White Plains some time. While here I was transferred to the Light Infantry when I was immediately marched down to the Lines. I had hard duty to perform during the remainder of the campaign. I shall not go into every particular, but only mention a few incidents and accidents which transpired. There were three regiments of Light Infantry composed of men from the whole main army. It was a motley group, Yankees, Irishmen, Buckskins, and whatnot. The regiment that I belonged to was made up of about one half New Englanders, and the remainder were chiefly Pennsylvanians, two sets of people as opposite in manners and customs as light and darkness. Consequently, there was not much cordiality subsisting between us. For, to tell the sober truth, I had in those days as like have been incorporated with a tribe of western Indians as with any of the southern troops, especially of those which consisted mostly, as the Pennsylvanians did, of foreigners. But I was among them, and in the same regiment, too, and under their officers, but the officers in general were gentlemen, and had to do duty with them. To make a bad matter worse, I was often, when on duty, the only Yankee that happened to be on the same tour for several days together. The bloody Yankee, or the damned Yankee, was the mildest epithets that they would bestow upon me at such times. It often made me think of home, or at least of my regiment of fellow Yankees. Our regiment was commanded by a Colonel Butler, a Pennsylvanian, the same, I believe, who was afterwards General Butler, and was slain by the Indians at the defeat of General Sinclair at the Miami's, but of this I was not certain. He was a brave officer, but a fiery austere hot-head. Whenever he had a dispute with a brother officer, and that was pretty often, he would never resort to pistols and swords but always to his fists. I have more than once or twice seen him with a black eye, and have seen other officers that he had honored with the same badge. As I have said before, I shall not be very minute in relating my adventures during my continuance in this service. The duty of the Light Infantry is the hardest while in the field of any troops in the Army, if there is any hardest about it. During the time the Army keeps the field, they are always on the lines near the enemy, and consequently always on the alert, constantly on the watch. Marching and guard-keeping, with all the other duties of troops in the field, fall plentifully to their share. There is never any great danger of Light Infantry men dying of the scurvy. We had not been long on the lines when our regiment was sent off, lower down towards the enemy upon a scouting expedition. We marched all night. Just at day dawn, we halted in a field and concealed ourselves in some bushes. We placed our sentinels near the road, lying down behind bushes, rocks, and stone heaps. The officers had got wind of a party of the enemy that was near us. The detachment of cavalry, which accompanied us, had taken the same precaution to prevent being discovered that the infantry had. We had not been long in our present situation before we discovered a party of Hessian horsemen advancing up the road, directly to where we were lying in ambush for them. When the front of them had arrived within hail, our colonel rose up from his lurking place and very civilly ordered them to come to him. The party immediately halted, and as they saw but one man of us, the commander seemed to hesitate, and concluded, I suppose, not to be in too much of a hurry in obeying our colonel's command, but that it was the best way for him to retrace his steps. Our colonel then, in a voice like thunder, called out to him, Come here, you rascal! But he paid very little attention to the colonel's summons, and began to endeavor to free himself from what, I suppose, he thought a bad neighborhood, upon which our colonel ordered the whole regiment to rise from their ambush and fire upon them. The order was quickly obeyed and served to quicken their steps considerably. Our horsemen had, while these transactions were in progress, by going round behind a small wood, got into their rear. We followed the enemy hard up, and when they met our horsemen there was a trifle of clashing. A part forced themselves past our cavalry and escaped. About thirty were taken and a number killed. We had none killed, and but two or three of the horsemen slightly wounded. The enemy were armed with short rifles. There was an Irishman belonging to our infantry, who, after the affray was over, seeing a wounded man belonging to the enemy lying in the road and unable to help himself, took pity on him, as he was in danger of being trodden upon by the horses, and having shouldered him was staggering off with his load in order to get him to a place of more safety. While crossing a small worn-out bridge over a very muddy brook, he happened to jostle the poor fellow more than usual, who cried out, Good rebel, don't hurt poor hushman. Who do you call a rebel, you scoundrel, said the Irishman, and tossed him off his shoulders as unceremoniously as though he had been a log of wood. He fell with his head into the mud, and as I passed I saw him struggling for life, but I had other business on my hands than to stop to assist him. I did sincerely pity the poor mortal, but pity him was all I could do then. What became of him after I saw him in the mud I never knew. Most likely he there made his final exit. The infantry marched off with the prisoners, and left the horsemen to keep the field, till we were out of danger with our prize. Consequently, I never heard anything more of him. But the Irishmen reminded me that the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Soon after this I had another fatiguing job to perform. There was a militia officer, a colonel. His name I have forgotten, though I think it was Jones, who had collected some stores of flour, pork, etc., for the use of the militia in his neighborhood when any small parties of them were required for actual service. A party of the enemy, denominated cowboys, refugees, had destroyed his stores. He solicited some men from the Light Infantry to endeavor to capture some of the gang whom he was personally acquainted with, who belonged to, or were often at Westchester, a village near King's Bridge. Accordingly, a captain and two subaltern officers, and about eighty men, of which I was one, was sent from our regiment, then lying at a village called Bedford, to his assistance. We marched from our camp in the dusk of the evening, and continued our march all night. We heard repeatedly during the night the tories firing on our sentries that belonged to the horse guards who were stationed on the lines near the enemy. This was often practiced by those villains, not only upon the cavalry, but the infantry also, when they thought they could do it with impunity. We arrived at the colonels early in the morning, and stayed there through the day. At night, the lieutenant of our detachment, with a small party of our men, guided by two or three militia officers, were sent off in pursuit of some of those shooting gentry whom the colonels suspected. We first went to a house where were a couple of free blacks who were strongly suspected of being of the number. The people of the house denied having any knowledge of such persons, but some of the men, inquiring of a small boy belonging to the house, he very innocently told us that there were such men there, and that they lay in a loft over the hogsty. We soon found their nest, but the birds had flown. Upon further inquiry, however, we found their sculking place, and took them both. We then proceeded to another house, a mile or two distant. Here we could not get any intelligence of the vermin we were in pursuit of. We, however, searched the house, but found none. But we, the soldiers, desired the man who attended us with a light to show us into the dairy house, pretending that the suspected persons might be there, and he accordingly accompanied us there. We found no enemy in this place, but we found a friend indeed because a friend in need. Here was a plenty of good bread, milk, and butter. We were as hungry as Indians and immediately fell to and spared not, while the man of the house held the candle and looked at us as we were devouring his eatables. I could not see his heart, and, of course, could not tell what sort of thoughts harbored there, but I could see his face, and that indicated pretty distinctly what passed in his mind. He said nothing, but I believe he had as life his bread and butter had been arsenic as what it was. We cared little for his thoughts or his maledictions. They did not do us half so much hurt as his victuals did us good. We then returned to our party at the kernels, where we arrived before daybreak. We stayed here through the day, drew some pork and biscuit, and prepared for our expedition after the cowboys. At dark we sat off, accompanied by the militia kernel and three or four subaltern militia officers. This was the third night I had been on my feet, the whole time without any sleep, but go we must. We marched but a short way in the road and then turned into the fields and pastures, over brooks and fence, through swamps, mire and woods, endeavoring to keep as clear of the inhabitants as possible. About midnight we crossed a road near a house, the inmates of which I suppose were friendly to our cause, as the officers ordered us to stand still and not to speak, nor leave our places on any account whatever, while they all entered the house for a few minutes. Upon what errand I know not. As soon as the officers joined us again we marched off, one of our sergeants having disobeyed orders and gone round to the back side of the house, unobserved by the rest of us, it being quite dark. Upon some occasion best known to himself, we marched off and left him. We had not gone fifty rods before he returned to the place where we were standing when he left us, and not finding us there he hallowed like a brave fellow, but the militia officers said that it would not do to answer. So we marched on and left him to find the way to camp, through what might with propriety be called an enemy's country as well as he could. He however arrived there, with some considerable difficulty, safe and sound. We kept on still through the fields, avoiding the houses as much as possible. I shall never forget how tired and beat out I was. Every grove of trees or piece of woods I could discern I hope would prove a resting place, but there was no rest. About two o'clock we took to the high road when we were between the village of West Chester and Kings Bridge. We then came back to the village where we were separated into small divisions, each led by an officer, either of our own or of the militia, and immediately entered all the suspected houses at once. What we had to do must be done quickly, as the enemy were so near that they might have been informed of us in less than half an hour. There were several men in the house into which I was led, but one only appeared to be obnoxious to the officer who led us. This man was a Tory refugee, in green uniform. We immediately secured him. An old man as blind as a bat came out of a bedroom who appeared to be in great distress. For fear there would be murder committed as he termed it. I told him it was impossible to commit murder with refugees. We directly left the house with our prisoner and joined the other parties and hurried off with all possible speed. When we got away and daylight appeared, we found that we had twelve or fourteen prisoners, the most or all of whom had been concerned in the destruction of the Colonel's stores. We did not suffer the grass to grow long under our feet until we considered ourselves safe from the enemy that we had left behind us. We then slackened our pace and took to the road, where it was easier getting along than in the fields. Oh, I was so tired and hungry when we arrived at the Colonel's, which was not till sundown or after. The most of the fellows we had taken belonged in the neighborhood of this place. As we passed a house just at night there stood in the door an elderly woman who seen among the prisoners some that she knew, she began to open her batteries of black guardism upon us for disturbing, what she termed, the king's peaceable subjects. Upon a little closer inspection, who should her ladyship spy amongst the herd but one of her own sons? Her resentment was then raised to the highest pitch and we had a drenching shower of implications let down upon our heads. Hell for war, said she, why you have got my son, Josie, too. Before old Simpleton she might as well have saved her breath to cool her porridge. We here procured another day's rations of the good Colonel's pork and bread. We stayed through the night and got some sleep and rest. Early next morning we left our prisoners, blacks and all, to the care of the militia, who could take care of them after we had taken them for them. And marched off for our encampment at Balford where we arrived at night, sufficiently beat out and in good condition to add another night's sleep to our stock of rest. We lay at Bedford till the close of the season. Late in the autumn the main army lay at New Milford in the northwestern part of Connecticut. While there the Connecticut troops drew some winter clothing. The men belonging to that state, who were in the light infantry, had none sent them. They therefore thought themselves hardly dealt by. Many of them, fearing they should lose their share of clothing, of which they stood in great need, abscounded from the camp at Bedford and went to New Milford. This caused our officers to keep patrolling parties around the camp during the night to prevent their going off. In consequence of this, I had one evening nearly obtained a final discharge from the army. I had been in the afternoon at a small brook in the rear of the camp, where the troops mostly got their water, to wash some clothes. Among the rest was a handkerchief, which I had laid upon a stone or stump and when I went to my tent I forgot to take it with me. Finding it after roll call I went to the place to get it. It was almost dark and quite so in the bushes when I got there. I was puzzled for some time to find the place, and longer before I could find the handkerchief. After finding it I did not hurry back, but loitered till the patrols were out, for I did not once think of them. It had now become quite dark and I had to pass through a place where the soldiers had cut firewood. It was a young growth of wood, and the ground was covered with brush and the stumps about knee high, quite thick. Just as I entered upon this spot I heard somebody challenge with, who comes there? I had no idea of being the person hailed and kept very orderly on my way, blundering through the brush. I, however, received a second and third invitation to declare myself, but paid no attention to the request. The next compliment I received was a shot from them. The ball passed very near to me, but I still kept advancing when instantly I had another salute. I then thought that since I had been the cause of so much noise and alarm, it would be best for me to get off if possible, for I knew that if I was brought before our hot spur of a kernel, I should buy the rabbit. Accordingly I put my best foot foremost. The patrol, which consisted of 12 or 15 men, all had a hack at me, some of the balls passing very near me indeed, one in particular passed so near my head as to cause my ear to ring for some time after. I now sprang to it for dear life, and I was in those days tolerable light of foot, but I had not made many leaps before I ran my knee with all my force against a white oak stump, which brought me up so short that I went heels overhead over the stumps. I hardly knew whether I was dead or alive. However, I got up and blundered on till I reached my tent into which I pitched and lay as still as the pain in my knee would allow me. My messmates were all asleep and knew nothing of the affair then, nor did I ever let them or anyone else know of it till after the close of the campaign when I had joined my regiment in the line and was clear of the southern officers. But my knee was in a fine pickle. The next morning it was swelled as big as my head and lame enough. However, it did not long remain so. When I was questioned by the officers or any of the men how I came by my wound, I told them I fell down and thus far I told the truth, but when anyone asked me how I came to fall down, I was compelled to equivocate a little. I had often heard of some of the low bread Europeans, especially Irishmen, boxing with each other in good fellowship as they termed it, but I could not believe it till I was convinced by actual demonstration. While we tarried here, I was one day at a settler's tent or hut, where were a number of what we Yankees called old countrymen. Soon after entering the hut, I observed one who was, two appearance, pretty well over the bay. Directly there came in another who, it appeared, was an old acquaintance of the former's. They seemed exceedingly glad to see each other, and so must take a drop of the crature together. They then entered into conversation about former times. The first mentioned was a stout athletic fellow. The other was a much smaller man. All of a sudden the first says, Faith, Jimmy, will you take a box? I and thank ye, too, replied the other. No sooner said than done, out they went, and all followed to see the sport, as they thought it, I suppose. It was a cold, frosty day in the month of December. The ground all around the place was plowed and frozen as hard as pavement. They immediately stripped to the buff, and a broad ring was directly formed for the combatants, and they needed a broad one, when they prepared for the battle. The first pass they made at each other, their arms drawing their bodies forward, they passed without even touching either. The first that picked them up was the frozen ground, which made the claret, as they called the blood, flow plentifully. They, however, with considerable difficulty, put themselves into a position for a second bout, when they made the same pass by as at the first. The little fellow, after getting upon his feet again, as well as he could, cried out, I am too drunk to fight, and crawled off as fast as he was able to the settler's hut again. The other followed, both as bloody as butchers, to drink friends again, where no friendship had been lost. And there I left them and went to my tent, thankful that Yankees, with all their follies, lacked such a refined folly as this. The main army, about this time, quitted the eastern side of the Hudson River and passed into New Jersey to winter quarters. The Connecticut and New Hampshire troops went to Reading and Danbury in the western part of Connecticut. The light inventory, likewise, broke up their encampment at Bedford and separated to join their respective regiments in the line. On our march to join our regiment, some of our gentlemen officers happening to stop at a tavern or rather a sort of grog shop, took such a seasoning that two or three of them became quite frisky, as the old Indians said of his young squaw. They kept running and chasing each other backward and forward by the troops, as they walked along the road, acting ridiculously. They soon, however, broke up to sport, for two of them at last got by the ears, to the no small diversion of the soldiers, for nothing could please them better than to see the officers' quarrel amongst themselves. One of the officers used his sword in a scabbard, the other a cane, and as the song says, at every stroke their jackets did smoke, as though they had been all on fire. Some of the other officers who had not dipped their bills quite so deep parted them, at the same time representing to them the ridiculous situation they stood in, fighting like black guards in sight of the soldiers. At length, shame, so far as they had reason to let it operate, beginning to take hold of them, the other officers persuaded them to shake hands in token of future friendship, but they carried wonderful long faces all the rest of the day. We arrived at reading about Christmas, or a little before, and prepared to build huts for our winter quarters, and now came on the time again between grass and hay, that is the winter campaign of starving. We had not long been here under the command of General Putnam. Before the old gentleman heard, or fancied he heard, that a party of the enemy were out somewhere down below. We were alarmed about midnight, and as cold a night as need be, and marched off to find the enemy, if he could be found. We marched all the remaining part of the night, and all four noon of the next day, and when we came where they were, they were not there at all, as the Irishman said. We now had nothing more to do but to return as we came, which we immediately set about. We marched back to Bedford near the encamping ground I had just left. We were conducted into our bedroom, a large wood by our landlords, the officers, and left to our repose, while the officers stowed themselves away snuggly in the houses of the village about half a mile distant. We struck us up fires, and laid down to rest our weary bones, all but our jawbones, they had nothing to weary them. Throughout midnight it began to rain, which soon put out all our fires, and by three or four o'clock it came down in torrents. There we were, but where our careful officers were, or what had become of them we knew not, nor did we much care. The men began to squib off their pieces in derision of the officers, supposing they were somewhere amongst us, and careless of our condition, but none of them appearing, the men began firing louder and louder, till they had brought it to almost fire. At the dawn the officers, having I suppose heard the firing, came running from their warm dry beds almost out of breath, exclaiming, poor fellows, are you not almost dead? We might have been for ought they knew or cared. However, they marched us off to the village, wet as drowned rats, put us into the houses where we remained till the afternoon and dried ourselves. It cleared off towards night, and about sundown we marched again till sometime in the evening, when we were ordered to get into the houses under the care of the non-commissioned officers, the commissioned officers having again taken care of themselves at an early hour of the night. Myself, and ten or fifteen others of our company, being under the charge of our orderly sergeant, could not get any quarters, as the people at every house made some excuse, which he thought all true. We kept pushing on till we had got three or four miles in advance of the night. We then concluded to try for lodgings no longer, but to make the best of our way to camp, which we did, and arrive there in the latter part of the night. I had nothing to do but to endeavor to get a little rest, for I had no cooking, although I should have been very glad to have had it to do. The rest of the troops arrived in the course of the day, and at night, I think, we got a little something to eat, but if we did not, I know what I had to do. When I got so well as to work, I assisted in building our winter huts. We got them in such a state of readiness that we moved into them about New Year's Day. The reader may take my word if he pleases. When I tell him we had nothing extraordinary, either of eatables or drinkables, to keep a new year or house warming. And as I have got into winter quarters again, I will here bring my book. Chapter 5 of a narrative of a revolutionary soldier, some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plum Martin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Campaign of 1779. You may think what you please, sir. I, too, can think. I think I can't live without victuals and drink. If that is their food, sir, their spirits must fall. How then can I labor with nothing at all? We got settled in our winter quarters at the commencement of the new year and went on in our old continental line of starving and freezing. We now and then got a little bad bread and salt beef. I believe chiefly it was a mere chance if we got anything at all to eat. Our condition at length became insupportable. We concluded that we could not or would not bear it any longer. We were now in our own state and were determined that if our officers would not see some of our grievances redressed, the state should. Accordingly, one evening after roll calling, the men generally turned out, but without their arms in need of informing the officers, we well knew that they would hear of our muster without our troubling ourselves to inform them. We had hardly got paraded before all our officers, the colonel at their head, came in front of the regiment, expressing a deal of sorrow for the hardships we were compelled to undergo, but much more for what they were pleased to call our mutinous conduct. This latter expression of their sorrow only served to ease their tone and endeavored to soothe the Yankee temper they had excited and, with an abundance of fair promises, persuaded us to return to our quarters again. But hunger was not to be so easily pacified and would not suffer many of us to sleep. We were therefore determined that none others should sleep. Martial law was very strict against firing muskets in camp. Nothing could, therefore, raise the but it was beyond the power or vigilance of all the officers to prevent the men from making the void on that night. Finding they were watched by the officers, they got an old gun barrel which they placed in a hut that was unfinished. This they loaded a third part full and putting a slow match to it would then escape to their own huts when the old barrel and the noise or where it came from. This farce was carried on the greater part of the night but at length the officers getting tired of running so often to catch Mr. Nobody without finding him that they soon gave up the chase and the men seeing that they could no longer go the officers gave up the business likewise. We fared a little better for a few days after this momentum to the officers but it soon became an old story and the old system commenced again we endeavored to bear it with our usual fortitude until it again became intolerable and the soldiers determined to try once more to raise some provisions if not at least to raise another dust. Accordingly one evening after dark we all turned out again with our arms appointed a commander and were determined that time if we could not be better accommodated to march into the center of the state and disperse to our homes in presence and be spectators. After we had organized ourselves and regulated the plan for our future operations it was the design of our regiment to have marched to our field officers quarters and through them to demand of our country better usage but before we had got all our little matters of etiquette settled our adjutant came up he having been over at the village on some errand best known to himself and seeing us in arms upon the parade he passed us without saying a word and went directly and informed the other officers all of whom were soon upon the parade our major was the first that arrived he was a fine bold looking man and made a fine appearance he came on to the right of the regiment and soon after the colonel and other officers came in front the commanding sergeant ordered the men to shoulder arms and then to present which is a token of respect well sergeant you have got a larger regiment than we had this evening at roll call but I should think it would be more agreeable for the men to be asleep in their huts this cold night than to be standing here on the parade for I remember that they were very impatient at roll call on account of the cold yes sir said the sergeant Solomon says that the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep and we find come to where the major and sergeant were arguing the case and the old mode of flattery and promising was restored to and produced the usual effect we all once more returned to our huts and fires and there spent the remainder of the night muttering over our forlorn condition it was now the beginning of february many of the men had attained furlows to go home and visit their friends before I had left the light I prepared for the journey which was about 30 miles and started from the camp about nine o'clock in the morning intending to go the whole distance that day I had not a mouthful of anything to eat or to carry with me I had it is true two or three shillings of old continental money worth about as much as its weight in rags I however void up my spirits until I had got within about five miles of home when coming to a tavern about sunset I consulted with myself whether I had not better call and get me a glass of spirits as I did not possess wherewith to procure me a mule of victuals concluding that I should soon be where I could get that gratis I accordingly did call and drank a glass of spirits and water and immediately pursued my journey I soon came ahead and take to one that struck across the country and a fairy by the time I had got to this road I had become so faint that I thought I could not reach the nearest house which was more than a mile distant I was acquainted with this road but the main road which led to a large village I was unacquainted with any further than where I then was I sat down and rested myself a few minutes and I had need of it I concluded to keep on find a house in a less distance than on the other I went on often having to rest myself from mere faintness I travelled however nearly a mile and a half without seeing the least sign of a house at length after much fatigue I came to an old house standing as the Irishman said out of doors I made up to it and knocked at the door who's there cried an old woman from within a friend I replied what do you want said she I want to rest here tonight I cannot entertain you said she I am alone and cannot let a stranger in I told her I could not and would not go any further after some enquiring on her part and answering on mine she condescended to admit me she needed not to have feared me and had she been a virgin and as beautiful as Helen I should have had no inclination to have soiled her chastity that night I had something for Loth the old lady was to admit me she used me extremely well where she provided me with a good supper and a field bed before the fire where I slept soundly till the morning nor would she let me depart in the morning till I had breakfast while she was preparing my breakfast I chopped off a backlog and put it on the fire which was all the compensation she required nor even that it was my own will we then before the ground was quite clear of snow but during the night there fell nearly a foot in depth of light snow and I had to return to the road I had left the preceding evening there was no track in the new fallen snow until I came to the crossroad where I found a footman had passed before me he appeared by his track in the mark of a cane he used to be an old man I could not see he was covered by the snow when he would spatter the snow about like a horse I soon overtook him he was an old black man when I came to the ferry it was frozen over and covered with snow a foot deep I went into the ferryman's house one of whose daughters was wife to the drum major and her children to shift for themselves as well as they could I could have told her a little more of his amiable conduct than she knew but I thought she might as well get her information from some other quarter the people here told me that it was dangerous crossing the river as the ice was full of holes which were mostly covered by the snow there was no way for me but to venture on the ice or go five or six miles lower down the river to another ferry I did not I therefore ventured upon the ice and passed over to the opposite shore in safety with some danger and trouble when I arrived at the other side I found the tide up and the edge of the ice a rod or two from the shore I then had to travel up the river on the ice three times the distance that it was to cross the river and with more danger before I could get off I got off however without drowning I then went to the town but very few recollected me I arrived at my good old grandsires about eight or nine o'clock in the morning with a keen appetite for my breakfast although I had eight one that day I believe the old people were glad to see me they appeared to be much so and I am quite sure I was glad to see them and all my other friends if I had any I had now an opportunity of seeing the place of my boyhood visit old acquaintance and ramble but my time was short and I had of course to employ every minute to the best advantage I remained at home till my furlough had fully expired I intended my country should give me a day to return to camp the day before I intended to set off for the army my lieutenant arrived at home to spend a week with his family he called upon me and told me that if I chose I might stay and accompany him to camp and he would be responsible for me I did not want the situation to comply with his desire and accordingly remained another week and then went with the lieutenant to camp and had no fault found I had not been at camp more than a week before I was sent off with a large detachment to new London to guard the fortifications in and about that town on our march we passed through the place of my residence when at home and the detachment carried a night there so I had an opportunity of being at home another night we marched and remained the following night at New Haven I was quartered for the night in a house in the skirts of the town there was a young lady belonging to the house who, as it was Sabbath Eve had gone out to see the daughters of the land like Dinah of old just as we were about to lie down I went to the back door of the house where was a small field of dry corn stalks I met the young lady with a gallant just at the door the moment she saw me he left his sweet heart and went off to see the stalks making as much noise as if a whirlwind had passed through them I thought he was a brave fellow thus to leave his mistress in the power of those he was afraid of himself and not stopped so long as to ask quarters for her but upon the first alarm to desert her to save his own four quarters from receiving damage many pretended heroes have done the same perhaps worse we went by easy marches and nothing of consequence occurred until here we were put into houses and here too we almost starved to death and I believe should have quite starved had we not found some clams which kept us from absolutely dying we had nothing to eat except now and then a little miserable beef or a little fresh fish and a very little bread baked by a baker belonging to the town which had some villainous drug incorporated with it that took all the skin off our mouths I sincerely believe it was done on purpose to prevent being I was not free from a sore mouth the whole time I stayed there just before we left this place a privateer brig arrived from a cruise she was hauled up and dismantled one day I went on board her and in the bread room I found one or two bushels of sea biscuit at night I again went on board and filled my knapsack which was a relief to my hungry stomach but this white ash pole was consequently it required a deal of circumspection in eating it however it was better than snowballs the other men in my room likewise used to avail themselves of the opportunity to procure some after I had told them where it might be obtained several funny and some serious accidents occurred while I remained here but as they would be tedious to narrate and perhaps uninteresting to the reader I shall pass them by unnoticed we stayed here starving until the first of May when we received orders to march to camp and join our regiments the troops belonging to New Hampshire marched sometime before we did while on our march we halted in a village here I went into a house with several other soldiers which happened to be a deacons while there some of the men chanced to swear a circumstance extremely uncommon with the soldiers upon which the good woman of the house checked them for a minute said one of them yes said she well said he may I not say swamp it no said she nor maple log roll over me neither she then turned to me and said I do not like you soldiers I asked her why because said she there came some along here the other day and they stole every morsel of my dinner from the pot while it was her case was upon the hole rather a calamitous one but said I I suppose the soldiers thought your pot could be easier replenished than their kettles she made no answer whatever she thought we went on to New Haven where we arrived upon a Sabbath eve and stayed to Wednesday on the Tuesday following there was to be a muster of the militia on Monday we washed our clothes and as we understood we went at condition as we possibly could to witness the militia exhibition the next day early next morning there was a general stir in the town a regiment of foot and a troop of horse were paraded on the green and they made a very good appearance considering the times to speak the truth but they seem to be rather shy of displaying their knowledge of military tactics in the morning we marched again I then applied to our commander and obtained permission to go on in advance of the troops and see my grandparents again I would have done this sooner but I could not forego the pleasure of seeing the militia muster I remained at home that day and the next and then started for camp I was acquainted with the country and consequently could reach camp by a much shorter way than the troops would recollect what I was deprived of my rest for a night or two the next day I took a ramble into the woods near the camp determined if I could to take a nap the trees had just begun to leave out and all nature was gay I walked about half a mile when I came to a flat ledge of rocks covered with soft thick moss as smooth as a carpet I laid myself down in the woods and I had a predictable disorder the nightmare I recovered partly from the first attack but before I could fully overcome it it took a second grip upon me more serious than the first I had often heard people say when they had been under the influence of this disorder that they were confident they were awake and had the full consideration why I was so or not accordingly I took a survey of the trees about me which I imagined I saw distinctly one tree in particular I noticed a large Black birch tree which had a limb broken off leaving a stump some five or six feet long and a foot in diameter but when I was I should not have mentioned so trivial a matter, but to satisfy those that read this, that they may be as much deceived in their conjectures as I was at the time I have mentioned. We remained here a short time after my return from New London, when we received information that the British were moving up the Hudson River in force, had taken possession of Stoney Point and were fortifying it. We were immediately ordered to march, which order was quickly put in execution. We went directly to the fish kill on the Hudson, and from thence down nearly opposite to West Point. We remained here some days. I was the most of that time on a station guard, keeping the horses that belonged to the army at pasture. I procured some damaged cartridges, and after converting the balls into shot and getting out of hearing from the camp, diverted myself by killing birds or squirrels or any such game. This I often practiced, though I ran the risk of a keel hauling if detected. Here I had a good opportunity to exercise myself at the business, being a considerable distance from camp. Pigeons were plenty, and we fared pretty comfortably with what provisions we were allowed otherwise. After being relieved from this guard, I was detached with a small party to the peak skill in the southern edge of the Highlands. We took up our quarters in some old barracks. There was a number of bombshells and some old damaged wagon wheels lying near the barracks. One day after diverting ourselves by filling the shells with water, plugging them up and setting them on the fire, while the water boiling, the steam would force the plug out with a report as loud as that of a pistol. Tired with exercising ourselves at this diversion, we began to contrive some other mischief. When four or five of us took one of the old wagon wheels, and after considerable trouble and fatigue, we carried the wheel about thirty or forty rods up the mountain at the back of the barracks and a considerable distance from them when we gave the wheel the liberty to shift for itself and find its own way back. It went very regular for a few turns when taking a glancing stroke against something, it took a course directly for the barracks and just in that part too where the men were, who we could hear distinctly laughing and talking. Ah, me, what would I not have given had I never meddled with the ugly thing? But it was then too late to repent. The evil one had come. I confess, I felt myself in a forlorn case. The barracks were only a single board thick and those rotten and old, and the wheel might have gone through them and the men too that stood in its route without scarcely retarding its progress. We all stood breathless, waiting the result when, as it happened, and well for us there was such a thing as chance, the wheel, when within about fifteen feet of the barracks and with the motion almost of a cannonball, struck something that gave it an elevation of twenty or thirty feet into the air and passed over the barracks and several rods beyond them before it struck the ground again. The reader may rest satisfied that this last circumstance did not cause many tears of grief to fall. The Americans had a fortification upon Ver Plank's point. At the eastern end of the Hudson, opposite Stoney Point, garrisoned by a captain and about one hundred men. The British took this place and made the garrison prisoners after a closed siege of about a week and fortified the point. They appeared by their conduct to have a strong inclination to possess West Point. To make a diversion in their own favor and draw off some of our forces from the vicinity of that fortress, they sent the infamous Governor Tyrone into Connecticut with his bandita who took possession first of New Haven and plundered it and then embarked and went and plundered and burnt Fairfield and Norwalk. The two Connecticut brigades were then sent in pursuit of them. We marched nearly down to the sea coast. When the enemy getting sent to us, they took to their shipping and made the best of their way back to New York. We returned as soon as possible. Being on our march the fifteenth day of July and destitute of all kinds of eatables, just at night I observed a cheese in a press before a farmer's door and we being about to halt for the night I determined to return after dark and lay siege to it. But we went further than I expected before we halted and a smart shower of rain with thunder happening at the time the cheese escaped. It cleared off with a brisk wind at northwest and cold. We were all wet to the skin and had no tents with us lying on the western side of a cleared hill. I never came nearer perishing with the cold in the middle of summer in all my life, either before or since. In the night we heard the cannon at Stony Point and early next morning had information of the taking of that place by the light infantry of our army under the command of General Wayne. Our officers were all on tiptoe to show their abilities in executing some extraordinary exploit. Fur Plank's point was the word. So the light infantry get all the honor and we do nothing, said they. Accordingly we sat off full tilt to take Fur Plank's point. We marched directly for the peak skill and arrived near there early in the day. We then received information that the British at Fur Plank's point were reinforced and advancing to attack us. We were quite knocked on the head by this news, however we put ourselves in as good a condition as our circumstances would admit and waited their approach. They were afraid of us or we of them or both for we did not come in contact that time and thus ended the taking of Fur Plank's point and our honorable expectations. We then fell back and encamped, but soon after we broke up our encampment and fell back to Robinson's farm just below West Point on the eastern side of the river. Here we lay the rest of the season employed in building two strong bomb-proof redoubts on two hills near the river. Sometime late in the fall the British evacuated all their works and retired to New York. A large detachment of which I was one was sent to Fur Plank's point to level the British works. We were occupied in this business nearly two weeks working and starving by day and at night having to lie in the woods without tents. Some of our men got some peas which had been left there by the British, but one might as well have boiled gravel stones soft. Some affirmed that they had seen them growing where the British soldiers had dropped them after they had passed through them. After we had finished leveling these works we returned to camp. While lying at or near the peak skill a man belonging to the cavalry was executed for desertion to the enemy and as none of the corps to which he belonged were there no troops were paraded as was customary on such occasions except a small guard. The ground on which the gallows was erected was literally covered with pebble stones. A brigade major attended the execution, his duty on these occasions being the same as the high sheriffs in civil matters. He had somewhere procured a ragamuffin fellow for an executioner to preserve his own immaculate reputation from defilement. After the culprit had hung the time prescribed by law or custom the hangman began stripping the corps, the clothes being his perquisite. He began by trying to pull off his boots but for want of a boot jack he could not readily accomplish his aim. He kept pulling and hauling at them like a dog at a root until the spectators who were very numerous, the guard having gone off, growing disgusted began to make use of the stones by tossing several at his pretty carcass. The brigade major interfering in behalf his aid to camp shared the same usage. They were both quickly obliged to quit the field as they retreated the stones flew merrily. They were obliged to keep at a proper distance until the soldiers took their own time to disperse when they returned and completed their honorable business. We remained at and near peace scale till some time in the month of December. The cold weather having commenced earlier than usual, we had hard combating with hunger, cold, nakedness and hard duty but were obliged to grapple with them all as well as we could. As the old woman said by her husband when she baked him instead of his clothes to kill the vermin, you must grin and bear it. About the middle of this month, December, we crossed the Hudson at Kings Ferry and proceeded into New Jersey for winter quarters. The snow had fallen nearly a foot deep. Now I request the reader to consider what must have been our situation at this time. Naked, fatigued and starved, forced to march many a weary mile in winter through cold and snow to seek a situation in some to us unknown would to build us habitations to starve and suffer in. I do not know how the hearers of this recital may feel, but I know how I felt at the time and I know how I yet feel at the recollection of it, but there was no remedy. We must go through it and we did go through it and I am yet alive. Our destination was at a place in New Jersey called Baskinridge. It was cold and snowy. We had to march all day through the snow and at night take up our lodgings in some wood where, after shoveling away the snow, we used to pitch three or four tents facing each other and then join in making a fire in the center. Sometimes we could procure an armful of buckwheat straw to lie upon which was deemed a luxury. Provisions as usual took up but a small part of our time though much of our thoughts. We arrived on our wintering ground in the latter part of the month of December and once more, like the wild animals, began to make preparations to build us a city for habitation. The soldiers, when immediately going about the building of their winter huts, would always endeavor to provide themselves with such tools as were necessary for the business. It is no concern of the readers as I conceive by what means they procured their tools, such as cross-cut saws, handsaws, frows, augers, etc., to expedite the erection and completion of their dwelling places. Do not blame them too much, General Reader, if you should chance to make a shrewd Yankee guess how they did procure them. Remember, they were in distress and you know when a man is in that condition, he will not be overscrupulous how he obtains relief, so he does obtain it. We encamped near our destined place of operation and immediately commenced. It was upon the southerly declivity of a hill. The snow, as I have already observed, was more than a foot deep, and the weather none of the warmest. We had to level the ground to set out huts upon. The soil was a light loam. When digging just below the frost, which was not deep, the snow having fallen early in the season, we dug out a number of toads that would hop off when brought to the light of day as lively as in summertime. We found by this where toads take up their winter quarters, if we can never find where swallows take up theirs. As this will be the last time I shall have occasion to mention my having to build huts for our winter habitations, I will, by the Reader's leave, just give a short description of the fashion and manner of erecting one of those log towns. After the ground was marked out by the quartermasters, much after the same manner as for pitching tents in the field, we build the huts in the following manner. Four huts, two in front and two in the rear, then a space of six or eight feet, when four more huts were placed in the same order, and so on to the end of the regiment, with a parade in front and a street through the hole, between the front and rear, the whole length, twelve or fifteen feet wide. Next in order, in the rear of these huts, the officers of the companies built theirs with their waiters in the rear of them. Next, the field officers in the same order. Every two huts, that is one in front and one in the rear, had just their width in front indefinitely, and no more, to procure the materials for building. The officers had all in the rear. No one was allowed to transgress these bounds on any account whatever, either for building or firewood. The next thing is the erecting of the huts. They were generally about twelve by fifteen or sixteen feet square, all uniformly of the same dimensions. The building of them was thus. After procuring the most suitable timber for the business, it was laid up by notching them in at the four corners. When arrived at the proper height, about seven feet, the two end sticks, which held those that served for plates, were made to jut out about a foot from the sides, and a straight pole made to rest on them, parallel to the plates. The gable ends were then formed by laying on pieces with straight poles on each, which served for ribs to hold the covering, drawing in gradually to the ridge pole. Now for the covering. This was done by sawing some of the larger trees into cuts about four feet in length, splitting them into bolts, and riving them into shingles, or rather staves. The covering then commenced by laying on those staves, resting the lower ends on the poles by the plates. They were laid on in two thicknesses, carefully breaking joints. These were then bound on by a straight pole with withers, then another double tier with the butts resting on this pole, and bound on as before, and so on to the end of the chapter. A chimney was then built at the center of the backside, composed of stone as high as the eaves, and finished with sticks and clay, if clay was to be had, if not with mud. The last thing was to hew stuff and build us up cabins or burst to sleep in. And then the buildings were fitted for the reception of gentlemen officers with all their rich and gay furniture. Such were the habitations we had to construct at this time. We got into them about the beginning of the year when the weather became intensely cold. Cold weather and snow were plenty, but beef and bread were extremely scarce in the army. Let it be recollected that this was what had been termed the hard winter, and hard it was to the poor soldiers, as it will appear in the sequel. So here I will close the narrative of my campaign of 1779. And happy should I then have thought myself if that had ended the war, but I had to see a little more trouble before that period arrived. End of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 Part 1 of a narrative of a revolutionary soldier, some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The soldier defending his country's rights is grieved when that country his services slights. But when he remonstrates and finds no relief, no wonder his anger takes place of his grief. The winter of 1779 and 80 was very severe. It has been denominated the hard winter, and hard it was to the army in particular in more respects than one. The period of the revolution has repeatedly been styled the times that tried men's souls. I often found that those times not only tried men's souls, but their bodies too. I know they did mine, and that effectually. Sometime in the month of January there happened to be a spell of remarkably cold weather. In the height of the cold a large detachment from the army was sent off on an expedition against some fortifications held by the British on Staten Island. The detachment was commanded by Major General John Sullivan. It was supposed by our officers that the bay before New York was frozen sufficiently to prevent any sucors being sent to the garrisons in their works. It was therefore determined to endeavor to surprise them and get possession of their fortifications before they could obtain help. Accordingly, our troops were all conveyed in slays and other carriages, but the enemy got intelligence of our approach doubtless by some Tory before our arrival on the island. When we arrived, we found Johnny Bull prepared for our reception. He was always complacent, especially when his own honor or credit was concerned. We accordingly found them all waiting for us so that we could not surprise them and to take their works by storm looked too hazardous. To besiege them in regular form was out of the question, as the bay was not frozen so much as we expected. There was an armed brig lying in the ice not far from the shore. She received a few shots from our field pieces for a morning salutation. We then fell back a little distance and took up our abode for the night upon a bare bleak hill in full rake of the northwest wind with no other covering or shelter than the canopy of the heavens. And no fuel, but some old rotten rails which we dug up through the snow, which was two or three feet deep. The weather was cold enough to cut a man in two. We lay on this accommodating spot till morning when we began our retreat from the island. The British were quickly in pursuit. They attacked our rear guard and made several of them prisoners, among whom was one of my particular associates, poor young fellow. I have never seen or heard anything from him since. We arrived at camp after a tedious and cold march of many hours, some with frozen toes, some with frozen fingers and ears, and half starved into the bargain. Thus ended our Staten Island expedition. Soon after this there came on several severe snow storms. At one time it snowed the greater part of four days successfully, and there fell nearly as many feet deep of snow. And here was the keystone of the arch of starvation. We were absolutely, literally starved. I do solemnly declare that I did not put a single morsel of victuals into my mouth for four days and as many nights, except a little black birch bark which I gnawed off a stick of wood. If that can be called victuals. I saw several of the men roast their old shoes and eat them, and I was afterwards informed by one of the officer's waiters that some of the officers killed and ate a favorite little dog that belonged to one of them. If this was not suffering, I request to be informed what can pass under that name. If suffering like this did not try men's souls, I confess that I do not know what could. The fourth day, just at dark, we obtained a half pound of lean fresh beef and a gill of wheat for each man. Whether we had any salt to season, so delicious a morsel, I have forgotten. But I am sure we had no bread, except the wheat. But I will assure the reader that we had the best of sauce. That is, we had keen appetites. When the wheat was so swell by boiling as to be beyond the danger of swelling in the stomachs, it was deposited there without ceremony. After this, we sometimes got a little beef, but no bread. We, however, once in a while got a little rice. But as to flour or bread, I do not recollect that I saw a morsel of either, I mean wheaten, during the winter. All the bread kind we had was Indian meal. We continued here, starving and freezing until I think sometime in the month of February when the two Connecticut brigades were ordered to the lines near Stanton Island. The small parties from the army which had been sent to the lines were often surprised and taken by the enemy or cut to pieces by them. These circumstances, it seems, determined the commander-in-chief to have a sufficient number of troops there to withstand the enemy, even should they come in considerable force. And now a long continuance of our hardships appeared unavoidable. The first brigade took up its quarters in a village called Westfield and the second in another called Springfield. We were put into the houses with the inhabitants. A fine addition we were doubtless to their families, but as we were so plentifully furnished with necessities, especially in the article of food, we could not become burdensome to them as will soon appear. I think it necessary before I proceed farther to prevent any repetition, to give some information of the nature and kind of duty we had to perform while here, that the reader may form a clearer idea of the hardships we had to encounter in the discharge of it. Well then, I shall speak only of the first brigade as I belong to that. As to the second, I know no more of it, than that those who belong to it doubtless had as hard duty in hard times as we had in the first. I say, as I belong to the first brigade, I shall endeavor to describe some of the hardships and troubles we had to contend with. We were stationed about six miles from Elizabeth town, which is situated near the waters which separates Staten Island from the main. We had sent a detachment to this place which continued on duty there several days. It consisted of about 200 men and hard to form several guards while there. We had another guard which consisted of about 100 men at a place called Woodbridge. This guard stayed there two days before they were relieved and was 10 miles from our quarters. Woodbridge also lay by the same waters. We likewise kept a quarter guard in every regiment at home, besides other small guards. Our duty all winter and spring was thus. Suppose I went upon the Woodbridge guard. I must march from the parade at eight o'clock in the morning, go a distance of 10 miles, and relieve the guard already there, which would commonly bring it to about 12 o'clock, stay there two days and two nights, then be relieved and take up the afternoon of that day to reach our quarters at Westfield, where, as soon as I could get into my quarters and generally before I could lay by my arms, warned for Elizabeth town the next day. Thus it was the whole time we lay here, which was from the middle of February to the latter part of May following. It was Woodbridge and Elizabeth town, Elizabeth town and Woodbridge, alternately, till I was absolutely sick of hearing the names mentioned. And now I will relate some of the incidents and accidents that occurred during this very pleasant tour, that is, as far as I was concerned. The first thing I shall mention is one that has so very seldom been heard of by the reader that it may be he has forgotten it. I mean, we had next to nothing to eat. As I have just before observed, we had no wheat flour. All the bread stuff we got was Indian cornmeal and Indian corn flour. Our Connecticut Yankees were as ignorant of making this meal or flour into bread as a wild Indian would be of making pound cake. All we had, any idea of doing with it was to make it into hasty pudding. And sometimes, though very rarely, we would chance to get a little milk or perhaps a little cider or some such thing to wash it down with. And when we could get nothing to qualify it, we ate it as it was. The Indian flour was much worse than the meal. Being so fine, it was as clammy as glue and as insipid as starch. We were glad to get evenness. Her nothing else could be had. Flesh meat was nearly as scarce as wheat and bread. We had but very little of the former and not any of the latter. There was not the least thing to be obtained from the inhabitants. They being so near the enemy and many of them seemed to be as poor as ourselves. The guard kept at Woodbridge being so small and so far from the troops and so near the enemy that they were obliged to be constantly on the alert. We had three different houses that we occupied alternately during the night. The first was an empty house, the second the Parsons house and the third a farmer's house. We had to remove from one to the other of these houses three times every night from fear of being surprised by the enemy. There was no trusting the inhabitants, for many of them were friendly to the British and we did not know who were or who were not and consequently were distrustful of them all unless it were one or two. The Parsons was a staunch wig as the friends to the country were called in those times and the farmer mentioned before was another and perhaps more that we were not acquainted with. Be that as it would, we were shy of trusting them. Here, especially in the night, we were obliged to keep about one half of the guard upon sentry and besides these, small patrolling parties on all the roads leading towards the enemy. But with all the vigilance we could exercise, we could hardly escape being surprised and cut off by the enemy. They exerted themselves more than common to take some of our guards because we had challenged them to do it and had bid them defiance. I was once upon this guard. It was in the spring after the snow had gone off the ground. Myself and another young man took for our tour of duty to patrol upon a certain road during the night. About midnight or a little after, our guard being then at the farmer's house which was the farthest back from the water's side of any of the houses we occupied. This distance caused some of our sentinels to be three miles from the guard. We patrolled from the guard to the farthest sentries which were two or in military frays, a double sentinel who were standing upon a bridge. After we had visited these sentinels and were returning, we passed the parson's house. There was a muddy plash in the road nearly opposite the house, and as it happened, the man with me passed on the side next to the house and I passed on the other. After we had got clear of the water and had come together again, he told me there were British soldiers lying in the garden and doryard. I asked him if he was sure of it. He said he was. For, said he, I was near enough to have reached them with my hand. And there been no fence between. We stopped and consulted what was best for us to do. I was foregoing back and giving them a starter, but my comrade declined. He thought it would be best to return to the guard and inform the officers what we had discovered and let them act their pleasure. We accordingly did so when the captain of the guard sent down two horsemen that attended upon the guard to serve in such circumstances and to carry on fetch intelligence, to ascertain whether it was as we had reported. The horsemen, finding it true, instead of returning and informing the officers as they were ordered to, fired their carbines, one into the house, the ball lodging in the bedpost where the parson and his wife were in bed, and the other into the garden or doryard. The British finding they were discovered walked off with themselves without even returning a single shot. We were sorry then that we had not given them a loving salute as we passed them and thus saved the horsemen the trouble. This was one among many of the sly methods the British took to surprise and take our guards. At another time, I was upon the Elizabeth town station. Being one night on my post as sentinel, I observed a stirrer among the troops composing the detachment. I inquired the cause of a passing officer who told me the British were upon Halstead's Point, which was a point of land about two miles from the main body of the detachment where we had a guard consisting of a sergeant, a corporal, and ten privates. The circumstances were as follows. The guard informed the man of the house where the guard was kept, a Mr. Halstead, the owner of the land that formed the point, that they had heard boats pass and repass at some distance below during the night. He said they were the British and that they had landed some of the refugees as that neighborhood abounded with such sort of cattle but that it would be next to impossible to detect them as they had so many friends in that quarter and many of the enemy belonging to those parts, they knew every lurking place in all the neighboring country. The only way for the guard was to be vigilant and prevent a surprise. When the guard was relieved in the morning, the new one was informed of these circumstances and cautioned to be on the lookout. Accordingly at night, they consulted Mr. Halstead who advised them to place a sentinel in a certain spot that had been neglected. Four said he, they know your situation better than you do yourselves and if they come, they will enter your precincts by the way I have pointed out to you and, continued he, they will come about the time of the setting of the moon. Agreeable to his advice, the sergeant stationed a sentinel at that place and prepared for them. Just as had been predicted about the time the moon was setting which was about 10 o'clock, they came and at the same point. The first sentinel that occupied that post had not stood out his trick before he saw them coming. He immediately hailed them with the usual question. Who comes there? They answered him that if he would not discharge his peace they would not hurt him but if he did they would kill him. The sentinel being true to his trust paid no regard to their threats but fired his peace and ran for the house to alarm the guard. In his way he had to cross a hedge fence in passing which he got entangled in the bushes as it was supposed and the enemy coming up thrust a bayonet through him. They then inflicted 12 more wounds upon him with bayonets and rushed on for the house to massacre the remainder of the guard but they had taken the alarm and left the house. The refugees for such they were entered the house but found none of the men to murder. Mr. Holstead had two young daughters in the house one of which secreted herself in a closet and remained throughout the whole transaction undiscovered. The other they caught and compelled to light a candle and attend them about the house in search of the rebels. But without finding any or offering any other abuse to the young lady which was indeed a wonder. When they could find none to wreak their vengeance upon they cut open the knapsacks of the guard and strewed the Indian meal about the floor laughing at the poverty of the Yankee soldier who had nothing but hogs fodder as they termed it to eat. After they had done all the mischief they could in the house they proceeded to the barn and drove off five or six head of Mr. Holstead's young cattle took them down upon the point and killed them and went off in their boats that had come across from the island for that purpose to their den among the British. There was another young man belonging to the guard on his post at the extremity of the point. When their refugees came down to embark they cut off this man's retreat. There being a sunken marsh on each side of the point covered with dry flags and reeds. When he challenged them they answered him the same as they did the other sentinel but he paid as little attention to their threats as the other one had done. Although apparently in a much worse situation but fired his musket and sprang into the marsh among the reeds where he sunk to his middle in the mud and there remained unperceived till they went off and thus preserved his life. Such maneuvers the British continued to exhibit the whole time we were stationed here but could never do any other damage to us than killing poor twist, the name of the young man. Unfortunate young man. I could not restrain my tears when I saw him next day with his breast like a sieve caused by the wounds. He lost his own life by endeavouring to save the lives of others, massacred by his own countrymen who ought to have been fighting in the common cause of the country instead of murdering him. I have been more particular in relating this circumstance that the reader may be informed what people there were in the times of the revolution. Mr. Holstead told me that almost the whole of his neighborhood had joined the enemy and that his next door neighbor was in this very party. There was a large number in this place in its vicinity by the name of Hetfield who were notorious rascals. A certain captain of militia, residents in these parts, who upon some occasion had business to transact within the reach of these miscreants, they caught and hanged him up without ceremony, judge or jury. General Washington demanded the perpetrators of this infernal deed of the British authorities in New York but they declined complying with his demand. He therefore selected a British captain, a prisoner, a son and I believe an only son of an opulent English lady and put him in close confinement, threatening to execute him unless the murderers were given up to justice. But his distressed mother by her strong maternal intercession with the king and court of France prevailed on them and their remonstrances to General Washington joined with his own benevolent feelings so far wrought upon him that he set the captain at liberty and thus these murderous villains escaped the punishment due to their infernal deeds. We returned on this tedious duty, getting nothing to eat but our old fare, Indian meal and not over much of that till the middle of May when we were relieved but we remained at our quarters eight or 10 days after that. Our duty was not quite so hard now as it had been but that faithful companion, hunger, stuck as close to us as ever. He was a faithful associate, I will not say friend for indeed poverty is no friend nor has he any admirers though he has an extensive acquaintance. The soldiers were well acquainted with him during the whole period of the Revolutionary War. We were here at the time the dark day happened, 19th of May. It has been said that the darkness was not so great in New Jersey as in New England. How great it was there I do not know but I know that it was very dark where I was then in New Jersey. So much so that the fowls went to their roosts, the cocks crew and the whipper-wills sung their usual serenade. The people had to light candles in their houses to enable them to see to carry on their usual business. The night was as uncommonly dark as the day was. We left Westfield about the 25th of May and went to Baskinridge to our old winter cantonments. We did not re-occupy the huts which we built but some others that the troops had left upon what account I have forgotten. Here the monster hunger still attended us. He was not to be shaken off by any efforts we could use for here was the old story of starving as rift as ever. We had entertained some hopes that when we left the lines and joined the main army we should fare a little better but we found that there was no betterment in the case. For several days after we rejoined the army we got a little musty bread and a little beef about every other day but this lasted only a short time and then we got nothing at all. The men were now exasperated beyond endurance. They could not stand it any longer. They saw no other alternative but to starve to death or break up the army, give all up and go home. This was a hard matter for the soldiers to think upon. They were truly patriotic. They loved their country and they had already suffered everything short of death in this cause and now after such extreme hardships to give up all was too much but to starve to death was too much also. What was to be done? Here was the army starved and naked and there their country sitting still and expecting the army to do notable things while fainting from sheer starvation. All things considered the army was not to be blamed. Reader suffer what we did and you will say so too. We had born as long as human nature could endure and to bear longer we considered folly. Accordingly one pleasant day the men spent the most of their time upon the parade growling like sore headed dogs. At evening roll call they began to show their dissatisfaction by snapping at the officers and acting contrary to their orders. After their dismissal from parade the officers went as usual to their quarters except the adjutant who happened to remain giving details for the next day's duty to the orderly sergeants or some other business. When the men, none of whom had left the parade began to make him sensible that they had something in train. He said something that did not altogether accord with the soldiers' ideas of propriety. One of the men retorted the adjutant called him a muteness rascal or some other epithet and then left the parade. This man then stamping the butt of his musket upon the ground as much as to say I am in a passion called out who will parade with me. The whole regiment immediately fell in informed. We had made no plans for our future operations but while we were consulting how to proceed the fourth regiment which lay on our left formed and came and paraded with us. We now concluded to go in a body to the other two regiments that belong to our brigade and induce them to join with us. These regiments lay 40 or 50 rods in front of us with a brook and bushes between. We did not wish to have anyone in particular to command least he might be singled out for a court marshal to exercise its clemency upon. We therefore gave directions to the drummers to give certain signals on the drums. At the first signal we shouldered our arms. At the second we faced. At the third we began our march to join with the other two regiments and went off with music playing. By this time our officers had obtained knowledge of our military maneuvering and some of them had run across the brook by a nearer way than we had taken. It being now quite dark and informed the officers of those regiments of our approach and supposed intentions. These officers ordered their men to parade as quick as possible without arms. When that was done they stationed a camp guard. That happened to be near at hand between the men and their huts which prevented them from entering and taking their arms which they were very anxious to do. Colonel Miggs of the 6th Regiment exerted himself to prevent his men from attaining their arms until he received a severe wound in his side by a bayonet in the scuffle which cooled his courage at the time. He said he had always considered himself the soldier's friend and thought the soldiers regarded him as such but had reason now to conclude he might be mistaken. Colonel Miggs was truly an excellent man and a brave officer. The man whoever he was that wounded him doubtless had no particular grudge against him. It was dark and the wound was given it is probable altogether unintentionally. Colonel Miggs was afterwards Governor of Ohio and Postmaster General. When we found the officers had been too crafty for us we returned with grumbling instead of music. The officers following in the rear growling in concert. One of the men in the rear calling out halt in front. The officers seized upon him like wolves on a sheep and dragged him out of the ranks intending to make an example of him for being a mutinous rascal but the bayonets of the men pointing at their breasts as thick as hatchet teeth compelled them quickly to relinquish their hold of him. We marched back to our own parade and then formed again the officers now began to coax us to disperse to our quarters but that had no more effect upon us than their threats. One of them slipped away into the bushes and after a short time returned counterfeiting to have come directly from headquarters said he there is good news for you boys there has just arrived a large drove of cattle for the army but this piece of finesse would not avail all the answer he received for his labor was go and butcher them or some other slight expression. The lieutenant colonel of the fourth regiment now came on to the parade. He could persuade his men he said to go peaceably to their quarters. After a good deal of paliver he ordered them to shoulder their arms but the men taking no notice of him or his order he fell into a violent passion threatening them with the bitterest punishment if they did not immediately obey his orders. After spending a whole quiver of the arrows of his rhetoric he again ordered them to shoulder their arms but he met with the same success that he did at the first trial. He therefore gave up the contest as hopeless and left us and walked off to his quarters chewing the end of resentment all the way and how much longer I neither knew nor cared. The rest of the officers after they found that they were likely to meet with no better success than the colonel walked off likewise to their huts. While we were under arms the Pennsylvania troops who lay not far from us were ordered under arms and marched off their parades upon as we were told a secret expedition. They had surrounded us unknown to either us or themselves except the officers. At length getting an item of what was going forward they inquired of some of the stragglers what was going on among the Yankees. Being informed that they had mutinied on account of the scarcity of provisions let us join them said they let us join the Yankees they are good fellows and have no notion of lying here like fools and starving. Their officers needed no further hinting the troops were quickly ordered back to their quarters from fear that they would join in the same song with the Yankees. We knew nothing of all this for some time afterwards. After our officers had left us to our own option we dispersed to our huts and laid by our arms of our own accord but the worm of hunger knowing so keen kept us from being entirely quiet. We therefore still kept upon the parade in groups venting our spleen at our country and government then at our officers and then at ourselves for our imbecility and staying there and starving in detail for an ungrateful people who did not care what became of us so they could enjoy themselves while we were keeping a cruel enemy from them. While we were thus venting our gall against we knew not who Colonel Stewart of the Pennsylvania line with two or three other officers of that line came to us and questioned us respecting our unsolderly conduct as he termed it. We told him he needed not to be informed of the cause of our present conduct but that we had borne till we considered further forbearance pusulinimity that the times instead of mending were growing worse and finally that we were determined not to bear or forbear much longer. We were unwilling to desert the cause of our country when in distress that we knew her cause involved our own but what signified our perishing in the act of saving her when that very act would inevitably destroy us and she must finally perish with us. Why do you not go to your officers? said he and complain in a regular manner. We told him we had repeatedly complained to them but they would not hear us. Your officers said he, our gentlemen, they will attend to you, I know them, they cannot refuse to hear you but said he, your officers suffer as much as you do. We all suffer, the officers have no money to purchase supplies with any more than the private men have and if there is nothing in the public store we must fare as hard as you. I have no other resources than you have to depend upon. I had not a six pence to purchase a partridge that was offered me the other day. Besides, said he, you know not how much you injure your characters by such conduct. You Connecticut troops have one immortal honor to yourselves the winter past by your perseverance, patience and bravery and now you are shaking it off at your heels but I will go and see your officers and talk with them myself. He went but what the result was I never knew. This Colonel Stuart was an excellent officer much beloved and respected by the troops of the line he belonged to. He possessed great personal beauty. The Philadelphia lady styled him the Irish beauty. Our stir did us some good in the end for we had provisions directly after so we had no great cause for complaint for some time. About this time there were about 3000 men ordered out for a particular field day for the Prussian general, barren, to exercise his maneuvering functions upon. We marched off our regimental parades at dawn of day and went three or four miles to Morristown to a fine plain where we performed a variety of military evolutions. We were furnished with a plenty of blank cartridges, had eight or 10 field pieces and made a great noise if nothing more. About one or two o'clock we ceased and were supplied with a gill of rum each. Having had nothing to eat since the night before, the liquor took violent hold and there were divers queer tricks exhibited both by officers and men. I saw a Pennsylvania soldier daggers off with three espantunes on his shoulder that he had gleaned up after some of his officers. This day was nearly equal to the whiskey scrape at the Shulkeel in 1777. In the month of June, 5000 British and Hessian troops advanced into New Jersey, burnt several houses in Elizabethtown and the Presbyterian Meeting House and most of the village of Springfield. They also barbarously murdered by shooting Mrs. Caldwell, the wife of the minister of that place. What their further intentions were could not be ascertained by our commanders. Sometimes it was conjectured that they were aiming at a quantity of public stores deposited in Morristown. Sometimes that it was for a diversion in favor of their main army by endeavoring to amuse us till their forces could push up the North River and attack West Point. Our army was accordingly kept in a situation to relieve either in case of an attack. While we remained in this situation, our army was infested by spies from the British. I saw three of those vermin one day hanging on one gallows. The enemy soon after recoiled into their shell again at New York. During these operations, we were encamped at a place called Short Hills. While lying here, I came near taking another final discharge from the army in consequence of my indiscretion and levity. I was one day upon a camp guard. We kept our guard in the fields and to defend us from the night dew, we laid down under some trees which stood upon the brink of a very deep gully. The sides and tops of the banks of this gully were covered with walnut and hickory saplings, three, four or five inches diameter at their butts and many of them were 50 or 60 feet in height. In the morning before the guard was relieved, some of the men and I among the rest to be sure, I was never far away when such kind of business was going forward, took it into our heads to divert ourselves by climbing these trees as high as they would bear us. And then swinging off our feet, the weight would bring us by a gentle flight to the ground when the tree would resume its former position. After exercising ourselves some time at this diversion, I thought I would have one capital swing. Accordingly, I climbed one of the tallest trees that stood directly on the verge of the gully and swung off over the gully. When the tree had bent to about an horizontal position, it snapped off as short as a pipe stem. I suppose I was nearly or quite 40 feet from the ground, from which distance I came feet foremost to the ground at quick time. The ground was soft, being loamy and entirely free from stones, so that it did me but little hurt, but I held the part of the tree I had broken off firmly in my grasp, and when I struck the ground with my feet, I brought it with all the force of my weight and its own directly upon the top of my unthinking skull, which knocked me as stiff as a ring bolt. It was several minutes before I recovered recollection enough to know or remember what I had been about, but I weathered the point, although it gave me a severe headache for several days afterwards, as a momento to keep upon the ground and not attempt to act the part of a flying squirrel. Another affair happened soon after this, which did not set very well on my stomach at the time. I had been on a detached party for four or five days and had had nothing to eat for at least eight and 40 hours of the latter part of the time. When I came to camp, there was nothing there. I strolled off to where some butchers were killing cattle, as I supposed, for the general officers, for they must have victuals, let the poor men fare as they would. And by some means procured an ox's liver. I then went home and soon had a quantity of it in my kettle. The more I seized it, the harder it grew, but I soon filled my stomach with it and at being night, I turned in. I had not slept long before I awoke, feeling much like Jonathan when he had the dry bellyache for want of some forth-proofed Jamaica spirits. That is, I felt dreadfully. I worried it out till morning when, as soon as I thought I could call upon the doctors without too much disturbing their honors, I applied to one for relief. He gave me a large dose of tartar emetic, the usual remedy in the army for all disorders, even sore eyes, though he could not have given me a better one for my then-present malady. He gave me ample directions how to proceed, a part of which was to take one half or two-thirds of the potion and wait a given time, and if that did not operate, then to swallow the remainder. It did not work till I had the hole in my crop, nor then neither. I waited some time for it, but growing impatient, I wandered off into the fields and bushes to see what effect exercise would have. I had not strolled a half or three-fourths of a mile from camp when it took full hold of my gizzard. I then sat down upon a log or stone or something else and discharged the hard chunks of liver like grape-shot from a field-piece. I had no water or any other thing to ease my retchings. Oh, I thought I must die in good earnest. The liver still kept coming, and I looked at every heave for my own liver to come next, but that happened to be too well fastened to part from its mournings. Perhaps the reader will think this a trifling matter, happening in the ordinary course of things, but I think it a suffering and not a small one neither of a revolutionary soldier. End of chapter six, part one.