Intro to Chapter III of A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier

Joseph Plumb Martin

Joseph Plumb Martin's claim to fame was his some 7 years spent serving in the American Revolutionary War starting at the age of 15 and his story, "A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents That Occurred Within His Own Observation," (as he originally titled and published it in 1830, AKA Private Yankee Doodle). Though his notoriety is mostly posthumous, as this work went largely undiscovered until the 1950's, historians since have marveled it as a compelling memoir on war's hardships (though it includes some embellishments, as it is known Martin could not have been aware or privy to certain other wartime developments) and its vivid account of a Continental soldier's life during that conflict. Martin settled in Maine after the war and served as a town clerk and justice of the peace. more…

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