The Poor Soldier's Feast

Imagine you're a young man and you have your whole  life ahead of you, you have everything you need,   you're never hungry but you know war is  headed your way. Like so many young men   around you you feel it is your duty to take  up arms and support your country in battle.   It's not long before things look very  bleak food is scarce the men are tired   the living conditions are unfathomable  you quickly realize if you're going to   be victorious and win this war you  simply have to survive the day. Have you ever made a decision that you knew was  the right thing to do but it was going to cause   you a lot of pain? a lot of sacrifice. Joseph Plum  Martin was a soldier during the Revolutionary War   and he wrote his experiences about what it was  like to be a common soldier. So many times we   get the big repercussions and we get to hear  about generals but very rarely the story of   an individual soldier. What was life like for  someone who actually was fighting in that battle?   What he feared most was not the battles but  the deprivations. The lack of clothing the   lack of shelter the lack of water even the lack  of food. "We marched from fence and crossed the   Delaware again between Burlington and Bristol  here we procured a day's rations of Southern   salt pork three quarters of a pound and a pound  of sea bread. We marched a little distance and   stopped to refresh ourselves we kindled  some fires in the road and some broiled   their meat as for myself I ate mine raw. We did  not pitch our tents and about midnight it began   to rain very hard which soon put out all our  fires and we had to lie and weather it out." Even after suffering hunger and  freezing conditions after six   months his term of service  was over and he went home.   He enjoyed all the luxuries of home and yet  when it was time and the war was continuing   he signed back up. Knowing he was going to  suffer all those for the rest of the war.   "There were but three of our men present we had  our cooking utensils at that time the most useless   things in the army to carry in our hands they  were made of cast iron and consequently heavy.   I was so beat out before mourning with hunger  and fatigue that I could hardly move one foot   before another. I told my messmates that I could  not carry our kettle any further they said they   would not carry it any further and of what use  was it? they had nothing to cook and did not   want anything to cook with." At the beginning  of the war the soldiers were told that their   rations every day would be a pound of meat and a  pound of bread but as we dig into the narrative   we find that he very rarely gets supplied a pound  of meat and a pound of bread. In fact he complains   that even when they got a so-called pound of meat  it was usually three quarters of a pound of meat   and that was half bones. "We drew a day's ration  of beef and flour what was called to pound each   the flower perhaps was not far from its nominal  weight but the beef was as it always was in such   cases and indeed in all others in the army not  more than three quarters of a pound and that at   least half bone. And how was it cooked? Why as  it usually was when we had no cooking utensils   with us that is the flour was laid upon a flat  rock and mixed up with cold water and then daubed   onto a flat stone and scorched on one side while  the beef was broiled on a stick in the fire." So what does he do when he doesn't get that  ration? And he so often does not get that   ration. Many times he's just going hungry  for days at a time he talks about 24 hours   48 hours three days without food. And they  scrounge up whatever they can. Sometimes it   is disgusting and other times it's something  in the field turnips carrots or potatoes.   After one long march when they expected to  go into battle but nothing happened they   didn't have anything to eat he went off into  the woods and he found a few walnuts cracked   them open and ate the meats. That's all he  had but he was happy that day he did win. There were times when it got to be too much   when there was so little food that the men could  not stand it any longer and there was a mutiny   they would not obey and it took a lot of  effort by the officers to bring them back   under control they wanted to offer them food  but there was still none to offer at that time. As we go from page to page into narrative it can  be kind of a misery because every day is such   a struggle for him and yet sometimes miraculous  things happen. He was taking a boat from one shore   to another they were taking equipment across and  to their amazement this huge fish jumps into the   boat. They're taken aback things like that just  don't happen they truly had a victory that day. Today in this camp it's a good day we've got  a little bit of bony meat we've got a carrot   and we've got some ships biscuits.  We're going to make a simple stew. [Music] Joseph Plum Martin's job was not to win the war   that was George Washington's job.  Joseph's job was to survive the day.

Channel: Townsends

Views: 1,307,494

Keywords: townsends, jas townsend and son, reenacting, history, 18th century, 19th century, jon townsend, 18th century cooking

Id: eCsKCbl4Fr8

Length: 6min 51sec (411 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2023