Joseph Plumb Martin’s Memoir
Joseph Plumb Martin served in the Continental Army. His “Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier” offered a common soldier’s view of the war.
Martin was born in Massachusetts in 1760 and moved as a child to live with his grandparents in Milford, CT. He enlisted in the Continental Army at the age of 15. His six years of service included the difficult winter at Valley Forge in 1777–1778 and the American victory at Yorktown in 1781. After the war, Martin moved to Maine and became a farmer. He also wrote a memoir of his military service, which was published in 1830.
Martin was a private for most of the war, “anxious,” he wrote, “to be called a defender of my country.” Rather than focusing on famous leaders or familiar stories, he wrote about the experiences of men like himself, who “endured hardships sufficient to kill half a dozen horses” – “men,” Martin wrote, who had “ventured their lives in battle, and faced poverty, disease and death for their country, to gain and maintain that Independence and liberty.”
This first edition of Joseph Plumb Martin’s memoir is in the library of the American Antiquarian Society.
Credits
Joseph Plumb Martin’s memoir is in the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA.