Joseph Plumb Martin was born on November 1760 in western Massachusetts. He wrote a book in which he described the life of an ordinary soldier during the American Revolution.”A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier” not only informed about the poor conditions in which the troops lived but also is one of the few soldier's accounts of the Revolution in general. Martin grow up in his Connecticut grandparent's house. He noted since 1774 that a war with Great Britain was coming,so he promise himself to have nothing to do with it. A military representative were taking everyone they could. They were taking even boys under sixteen which were the easiest to train and without any family responsibilities. Some of the new soldiers stayed at
Some of them would even take their hair powder and put it in their soup to make it thicker. The soldiers would also eat hair lice,bugs and worms which usually they fonded on the ground or on them. A big problem for the American's troops during the revolution was that they had no navy and that they had no men skilled enough to form and control a navy. Martin informed that during the war they built many battleships and most of them in very short time. While Americans were building their ships ,the British just sent their ships and simply destroy american's. Even the number of cannons that British had on some of their ships was much bigger than the Americans had in their entire navy. In the “A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldiers” Marin gave us a clear picture of the problems which American's soldier were facing-short provision of food,guns,butters,gunpowder and clothes during the cold winter,the difference between well skilled British army and the “bond of brotherhood” of the Americans. Reading this book was very helpful for me because it showed me the life of an ordinary soldier from closer view and helped me to understand the American revolution much