A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier
In the book A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, Joseph Plumb Martin attempts to narrate some of the adventures, threats and experiences while he was serving in the revolutionary army campaigns. The revolutionary war was between the Great Britain and the various colonies of the North America in order to gain independence. Martin narrates his experiences during the revolutionary campaigns while I the army. He was a regular soldier who rose to the rank of a sergeant. Martin wrote the book from the perspective of a regular soldier and his narration is limited to his own experiences and observations on a first hand account.
According to martin Plumb narrations, the most definitive character of the soldiers who fought during the revolutionary war was endurance and determination. This is widely evident through Martins observations and narrations in his book. This is first revealed through his own passion for being a soldier; he long wished to be one ever since he was a child but had to wait due to restrictions of his grandfather. He describes the incident when he was first enlisted as a soldier in 1776, as having obtained his hearts desire. This portrays his passion and particularly his endurance for all those years he waited to be enlisted as a soldier. He viewed as his opportunity to prove his ability in his profession. His subsequent re-enlistments into the continental army in the following years for the sake of his friends symbolize an element of endurance and determination. This is also evident through his first assignment to New York, where the British army had placed about 15000 soldiers. Martin asserts that the presence of 15000 men did not alter his mind; he further says that he did not mind even if they were fifteen times fifteen thousand people. To him numbers had no place in alteration of his determination[1].
Endurance and determination is also evident due to martin and his comrade’s willingness to serve in the continentals while there was far much easier work at the militia. Why would he want to serve in a private army that was filled with problems yet there was the militia whose military lives was full of gratification? Martin does not give an account towards this. This was possibly due to the enduring nature of both Martin and his comrades. Martin’s reasons for such long endurance of war periods were due to his loyalty to his comrades and the same loyalty back to him. Martin offers no explanation as to why he chose to remain at the continentals with his comrades yet the onset of winter presented harsh weather conditions for serving at the continental’s army. This ultimately symbolizes the enduring nature of Martin and his soldiers accompanied with lack of supplies from the American government. The soldiers froze almost to death but still had their cause in mind. There were not deterred to deviate from their cause.
Cases of endurance and determination are also seen when the continentals’ soldiers continued with their cause despite the hardships such as little wages that they were being paid. The unit was determined not to disintegrate despite the severe hardships. The regular soldiers in the army never received adequate food, shelter and their monthly wages. There was difficulty in moving supplies during the winter season. Martin further blames the solders severe suffering at the expense of their commanders who sat back to enjoy themselves while the regular soldiers were under harsh conditions trying to work for them trying to keep off the enemy[2]. It raises concern why they were made to suffer yet their cause was for good reasons. The soldiers had voluntarily agreed to serve the nation; this reveals the enduring and determination that the soldiers had. The outcome of these sufferings and intimidation after eight years is that they turned out to be conquerors.
From the narrations of Martin we learn that the continental’s contribution towards the victory went unappreciated during the war times and even after the wars. This is supported by martin assertions that the continental’s army was not viewed as sufficient for the victory which resulted to independence of the Americans[3]. Martin believes that the ultimate factors that led to the victory of revolutionary war were the contribution of the continentals because he fought for them and fought by them. It was the discipline of the continentals that led to their unity and disintegration of the unit throughout the eight years of revolutionary campaigns.
A number of conditions emerge from the narrations of Martin in his book, one such condition is oppression of the continentals’ regular soldiers who voluntarily offered to fight for the nation’s independence which was a just cause for the nation. Their efforts went unappreciated during the cause of the war and after war. The oppression of the regular soldiers during the revolutionary war was evident when the regular soldiers went to the battlefields with little or no supplies of food, no shelter, and clothing and the environmental hardships during the winter season that led to the deaths of almost 11000 regular soldiers. Martin further recalls that the soldiers were not paid their monthly salaries despite the hard battles they fought during the war times. Martin also asserts that oppression against the soldiers was fuelled by the superior officers who placed personal interests before them. From the realizations we realize that the soldier’s pension was not paid. Their revolutionary efforts were not appreciated during the times of the war and after.
During the narrations of Martin, we note that discipline was a vital virtue for the regular soldiers and Martin himself. Martin summarizes his narrations with the view that discipline was vital for the continental’s victory and ensuring that the unit did not disintegrate during the eight years of war period. Right from his first enlistment into the continental army, he was assigned to defend New York. The assignment was for six months and his group consisted of inexperienced soldiers. Prior to the Great Britain invasion, his group received little training. Although they lost the war, they were given further assignments which they consistently lost and after a series of losses, his group began to gain some experience and together with additional discipline led to their realization of their success. Martin blames this humiliation as a result of lack of proper leadership among the superior army officers.
With regard to the narrations of Martin, his division was not deterred from achieving their objectives of their cause despite the various oppressions, bad weather conditions accompanied by lack of shelter, inadequate food supplies and failure by the government to pay their salaries. Martin infers that the cause and his team were one and should his division disintegrate, the cause could have been of significance importance to the nation. Despite the various rebellion cases by Martin’s division, through effective leadership and discipline, Martin eventually managed to maintain his division back on track. With the lack of concern from the nation and their superior officers, the group still managed to hold onto to their cause which resulted to their victory at the end. Another reason for the success of Martin’s division was patriotism and loyalty towards the nation despite the oppressions from the superiors and ungrateful nation towards their efforts that resulted to revolution and attainment of independence by the nation. They were patriotic and did anything at their cost such as death and humiliation of the extreme conditions. At one point, they were willing to desert the cause of their country, but they realized that the cause was not their own, but their country’s. This greatly influenced their success.
Reference
Joseph Plumb Martin.2001. A narrative of a Revolutionary soldier: some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. London: Penguin.
[1] Joseph Plumb Martin.2001. A narrative of a Revolutionary soldier: some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. London: Penguin. P 16.
[2] Joseph Plumb Martin.2001. A narrative of a Revolutionary soldier: some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. London: Penguin. Pp 125-130.
[3] Joseph Plumb Martin.2001. A narrative of a Revolutionary soldier: some of the adventures, dangers, and sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. London: Penguin. Pp 63-85.
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