The First American Army (55 page)

Of considerable help in my research were Kathy Ludwig and Greg Johnson, librarians at the David Library of the American Revolution, at Washington’s Crossing, Pennsylvania. They spent an entire summer helping me locate the enlisted men whose stories comprised the bulk of this book and then were of invaluable assistance through a long winter and spring on other research.

Librarians everywhere were of assistance. These included Marie Heagney at the Morris County Free Library, in Whippany, N.J., Kim Nusco at the Massachusetts Historical Society, in Boston, and the library staffs at New Jersey City University, Rutgers University, the New York Public Library, and the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Connecticut Historical Societies.

I owe a debt of gratitude to New Jersey City University, especially Jo Bruno and Liza Fiol-Matta, for giving me travel grants to complete the research on the book.

I had generous help in finding photos to accompany the book. I owe an enormous debt to Peter Harrington, the curator of the S.K. Brown military history collection of paintings and prints at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. He gave me access to the University’s vast collection and helped in the production of photos. I am grateful, too, to Scott Houting of the museum services office at Valley Forge National Historical Park, Andrea Ashby-Leraris at Independence National Historical Park, in Philadelphia, Johnni Rowe at the Morristown National Historical Park, and Christine Jochem and Suzanne Gulick at the Morristown- Morris Township library.

I would like to thank Hillel Black, the executive editor of Sourcebooks, who urged me to write
The First American Army
and did a superb job of editing the manuscript. Thanks also to Peter Lynch and Michelle Schoob, other editors at Sourcebooks, and Vicky Brown and Terri Rieck, the Sourcebooks publicists.

Many thanks to my literary agents, Elizabeth Winick and Henry Williams, of McIntosh & Otis, both history lovers, who were so enthusiastic about this book. Finally, thanks to my wife Marjorie, who helped with the research.

A
ll of the quotes from Dr. Lewis Beebe, Rev. Ammi Robbins, Elijah Fisher, John Greenwood, Jeremiah Greenman, Ebenezer Wild, James McMichael, and Sylvanus Seely, the central figures in the book, were from their diaries. To cite each of the hundreds of quotes from the same sources would be futile, so the single sources for each man’s quotes are listed below. The citations from the more than one hundred other people in the work are listed separately.

Beebe, Lewis. “Journal of a Physician on the Expedition Against Canada, 1776,”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
59, October, 1935, pp. 320–361.

Bray, Robert and Paul Bushnell. Eds.
Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Annotated Edition of the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman,
Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1978.

Greenwood, John.
A young patriot in the American Revolution, 1775–1783: The wartime service of John Greenwood: a record of events written during the year 1809 at such leisure moments as the arduous duties of a professional life permitted the dentist to his Excellency, George Washington
. New York: DeVinne Press, 1922, reprint, Westvaco, 1981.

Lapham, William. Ed.,
Elijah Fisher’s Journal While in the War for Independence and Continued Two Years After He Came to Maine, 1775–1784,
Augusta, Me: Press of Badger and Manley, 1880.

McMichael, James. “James McMichael’s Diary.”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 16,
1892.

Robbins, Rev. Ammi.
Journal of the Rev. Ammi Robbins, a Chaplain in the American Army in the Northern Campaign of 1776,
New Haven: B. L. Hamlen, 1850.

Wild, Ebenezer. “The Journal of Ebenezer Wild,”
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society,
1890, vol. 6, pp. 78–161.

Avery, David. Papers. Princeton Theological Seminary.

Force, Peter. Papers. David Library of the American Revolution.

Huntington, Jedediah. Connecticut Historical Society.

Valley Forge Historical Park Collection, Valley Forge.

Boston Gazette, 1781
.

Freeman’s Journal, 1777
.

Jersey Journal, 1780
.

London Chronicle, 1777
.

New Jersey Gazette, 1778
.

New York Gazette, 1775–1778
.

New York Packet, 1783
.

Pennsylvania Evening Post, 1776
.

Pennsylvania Journal, 1775–1777
.

Virginia Gazette, 1775
.

Bayley, Frye.
Colonel Frye Bayley’s Reminiscences
. Burlington, Vermont.

Beebe, Lewis. “Journal of a Physician on the Expedition Against Canada, 1776.”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
59. October, 1935.

“Colonel Thomas Johnson’s Letters and Documents.”
Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society,
1923–1925. Below Falls, Vt.: P.T. Gobie Press, 1926.

Fitch, Jabez. “Jabez Fitch Diary.”
Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings,
1894–1895. 2d series. Vol. 9.

Gerlach, Larry. “Smallpox Inoculations in Colonial New Jersey.”
The Journal of the Rutgers University Library,
1967.

Linn, John and William Hegle. Eds. Captain Joseph McClellan and Lieutenant William Feltman, “Diary of the Pennsylvania Line.”
Pennsylvania Archives
. 2d series. Vol. XI. Harrisburg, Pa.: Lane Hart State Printer, 1880.

Lobdell, Jared. Ed. “”Revolutionary War Journal of Sgt. Thomas McCarty.”
Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society
. No. 16. January, 1964.

Ludlum, David, “The Weather of Independence, Trenton and Princeton.”
Weatherwise,
August, 1975.

McKee, Charles. “Letters of a Soldier of the American Revolution.”
Connecticut Magazine,
vol. 10, 1906.

McMichael, James. “James McMichael’s Diary,”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
16. 1892.

Parker, Robert. “The Journal of Robert Parker.”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
28. 1904.

Popp, Stephen. “Journal: 1777–1781.”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
26. 1902.

Powell, William. “A Connecticut Soldier under Washington: Elisha Bostwick’s Memoirs of the First Years of the Revolution.”
William and Mary Quarterly,
series 3, vol. 6, 1949.

Quaife, M. M. “A Boy Soldier under Washington: The Memoir of Daniel Granger,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
vol. 16, 1929–1930.

Rau, Louise. Ed. “John Smith’s Diary of 1776.”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
. XX. 1933–1934.

Seely, Sylvanus.
Diary of Sylvanus Seely
. Mss. Morristown National Historic Park, Morristown, NJ.

Seller, Horace. “Charles Wilson Peale, Artist-Soldier.”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
38. 1914.

Tucker, St. George. “Journal of the Siege of Yorktown.”
William and Mary Quarterly
. 3d series. July, 1948.

White, Joseph. “The Good Soldier White” American Heritage, June, 1956.

Wild, Ebenezer. “The Journal of Ebenezer Wild,”
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society,
1890, vol. 6.

Alen, Gardner.
Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution
. Massachusetts Historical Society, 1927.

Anderson, Enoch.
Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson, an Officer of the Delaware Regiments in the Revolutionary War, with Notes by Henry Hobard Bellas, L.L.B., Captain of the U.S. Army
. Wilmington, DE: Historical Society of Delaware, 1896.

Barber, Dan.
History of My Own Times
. Washington, D.C. S.C. Ustick, 1827.

Barnes, John. Ed.
Fanning’s Narrative: Being the Memoir of Nathaniel Fanning, an Officer of the Revolutionary Navy, 1778–1783
. New York: New York Times-Arno Press, 1968.

Baxter, James. Ed. William Digby,
The British Invasion from the North
. Albany, 1887.

Binger, Carl.
Revolutionary Doctor, Benjamin Rush, 1746–1813
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.

Bingham, Hiram Jr.
Five Straws Gathered from Revolutionary Fields
. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1901.

Blumenthal, Walter.
Women Camp Followers of the American Revolution
. New York.: New York TimesArno Press, 1974.

Boatner, Mark.
The Encyclopedia of the American Revolution
. Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books, 1994.

Bodle, Wayne and Jacqueline Thibault.
The Valley Forge Historical Report
. 3 vols. Valley Forge National Historical Park, 1980.

Bolton, Charles.
The Private Soldier under Washington
. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902.

Boyle, Joseph Lee.
Writings from the Valley Forge Encampment of the Continental Army, December 19, 1777—June 19,1778
. 5 vols. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 2000–2004.

Bray, Robert and Paul Bushnell.
Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Annotated Edition of the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman
. Dekalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 1978.

Burg, David. Ed.
An Eyewitness History: The American Revolution
. New York: Facts on File, 2001.

Butterfield, L. H. Ed.
Adams Family Correspondence
. 6 vols. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1963–1993.

Chadwick, French.
The Graves Papers and Other Documents Relating to the Naval Operations of the Yorktown Campaign, July to October, 1781
. New York: DeVinne Press, 1916; reprint New York: New York Times-Arno Press, 1968.

Chase, George. Ed.
Diary of David How, a Private in Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent’s Regiment of the Massachusetts Line, in the Army of the American Revolution . . . with Illustrative Notes by Henry Dawson
. Morrisania, New York, 1865.

Chase, Philander. Ed.
The Papers of George Washington
. 45 vols. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983–2004.

Clark, William. Ed.
Naval Documents of the American Revolution
. 10 vols. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy, Naval History Division, 1976.

Claussen, W. Edmund.
Patriots of the American Revolution
. Boyerstown, PA: W. Claussen, 1975.

Codman, John. Ed.
Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec
. New York: MacMillan, 1902.

Commager, Henry Steele and Richard Morris, Eds.
The Spirit of ’seventy Six
. 2 vols. New York: BobbsMerrill Company, 1958.

Creasy, Edwin.
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World
. London, 1851.

Davis, Burke.
The Campaign that Won America: The Story of Yorktown
. New York: Dial Press, 1970.

Dodd, William.
John Branch Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College
. Richmond: Everett Weoddry Co, 1902.

Duane, William. Ed.
Extracts From the Diary of Christopher Marshall, 1774–1781
. Albany: Joel Munsell, 1877.

Dwyer, William.
The Day Is Ours
. New York: Viking Press, 1983.

Elting, John.
The Battle of Saratoga
. Monmouth Beach, NJ: Philip Freneau Press, 1977.

Ewing, George.
The Military Journal of George Ewing, 1754–1824, a Soldier at Valley Forge
. Yonkers, NY: Thomas Ewing, 1928.

Fenn, Elizabeth.
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775–1782
. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001.

Fields, Edward.
Esek Hopkins: Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy During the American Revolution, 1775–1778, Master Mariner, Politician, Brigadier General, Naval Officer, and Philanthropist
. Providence: Preston and Rounds Co., 1898.

Fields, Edward. Ed.
The Diary of Israel Angell, Commanding the Second Rhode Island Continental Regiment During the American Revolution, 1778–1781
. Providence, 1899.

Fitzpatrick, John. Ed.
The Writings of George Washington
. 38 vols. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1932.

Fleming, Thomas.
Beat the Last Drum
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1963.

Fleming, Thomas.
The Forgotten Victory: The Battle for New Jersey, 1780
. New York: Reader’s Digest Press, 1973.

Flexner, James.
George Washington in the American Revolution
. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1967.

Flexner, James.
The Traitor and the Spy: Benedict Arnold and John Andre
. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1957.

Foot, Caleb
. Reminiscences of the Prison Letters and Sea Journal of Caleb Foot
. Salem, MA: Essex Institute Collections, 1889.

Force, Peter. Ed.
American Archives
. 9 vols. Washington, D.C.: 1837–1853.