Memoirs of a Revolutionary Soldier, Part 2
Soldier Samuel Smith's account of his service in the American Revolutionary War.
From: 1778 C.E. To: 1853 C.E.
From Memoirs of Samuel Smith: A Soldier of the Revolution, 1776-1786, by Samuel Smith, 1860.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
Nothing material occurred until the next June, when the battle of Monmouth was fought. The day on which this battle was fought, was the hottest, I think, that I ever experienced. In fact, the heat was so excessive that I could not tell by which the most died, whether by the heat or the balls.
In two days after this hot battle, the brigade was ordered to march to Rhode Island. We arrived on the Island just previous to the tremendous hurricane and rain storm, We had not pitched our tents. I found, however, a large hogshead, knocked in at one end, and got into it for shelter. Soon after the storm, an action took place. In this action the Americans were obliged to retreat. It so happened that it brought the Rhode Island brigade in the rear. Boats were employed all night in carrying off baggage and troops. About sunrise it came our turn to fight, and we descended upon a party of British at the fort on Butts Hill. The British scaled the walls on one side, while the Americans entered the gate.
We drove the British completely from the fort, dismounted and spiked their cannon, and then hastened to the boats which were waiting for us, and retreated from the Island.
Soon after, the drafted men were discharged, and we marched to Warren for winter headquarters. The soldiers called for pay. They had had promises of pay for one month in the new emission money. The money was retained by our officers, and we marched to Providence to see the General and get redress, which he promised we should have, and told our commander whenever we wanted redress, to write him, and he would endeavor that we should have it, so we all again submitted, and resigned ourselves to the orders of our old officers.
In the course of the winter of 1778, many of the regiment to which I belonged were taken to go on ship board, to run down the river to attack and take the British shipping which lay there. The ship that I went on board of had two cannons Our orders were to run along side of the British shipping, board, and take them.
I believe it was a happy incident to us that our captain run the ship aground on Pawtucket Flats, for thus ended this expedition. We then returned to our barracks at Warren, where we remained until the spring of the year 1779, when we were marched to Boston Neck.
Our payment for services being unnecessarily detained, we all agreed to have a letter formed, setting forth our grievances, and sent to our General. The letter was made and handed to the Colonel to forward to the General. The Colonel refused to have the letter sent, and took the bearer of it and sent him in irons to jail. He then had him tried by a Court Martial, and sentenced to be hung in five days.
Three days after the sentence, all attended as usual at the calling of the roll. After the roll was called we were dismissed for the day. When the officers had retired, we agreed upon our plan to liberate the prisoner. Every soldier fixed his bayonet on his gun for the purpose of rescuing the brother soldier who was condemned to be hung. The drums beat the long roll as a signal. Every soldier was on parade, with his gun loaded and his bayonet affixed.
We were determined to rescue the prisoner, who was innocent of any crime on behalf of his fellow soldiers. We were determined to a man to lose our lives or rescue our brother.
There were but two officers in the regiment who would allow soldiers to converse with our head commander, for the purpose of settling questions in dispute. On we marched, agreed that fifteen only should be allowed to settle the affair. Meeting General Sullivan, he ordered us to halt, but we marched steadily on. Our old Major, whom we always and at all times authorized to speak to our Commander to settle questions and restore peace, rode in front of our ranks and wished us to halt, as Gen. Sullivan came to settle the disorder and to restore peace. We agreed to halt on condition that the officers should get in front, under the muzzles of our guns. These conditions were quickly complied with. The first request of the General was for us to lay down our arms. He said he could not converse with soldiers under arms. We positively refused to accede to his request, and we all stood with our guns to our shoulders, loaded and bayonets affixed.
The above took place in the road on a low piece of land. A small island was opposite the place where we halted. The General wanted us to march on the island. We complied with his request. When we had marched on the island, he wanted we should stack our arms. Our leader told the General that our arms would remain in each man's hands until the treaty which we demanded was agreed upon. The General said he could not agree with soldiers upon anything while they were under arms. Then our leader told him he should march for the condemned man. The General told him that he had one black regiment in the fort, which we had to pass, who would cut us to pieces. The answer from our leader was: "We do not fear you, with all your black boys! The prisoner we will have, at the risk of our lives!"
The General then agreed that if we would march back, under order to our former officers, he would send the prisoner to the camp. This our leader refused to do, telling the General that he had marched his men there on conditions, and that he would march them back again if he would immediately deliver up the prisoner, and pledge his honor that there should be no one confined or tried in Court Martial for the same offence. It was apparently hard for the General to agree to it, but at last he complied with the terms and sent an officer for the prisoner, who was soon brought and delivered to us. We then marched to our old encampment with our comrade in the centre, and colors flying in his hands, and resigned ourselves to our old officers.
We remained in our encampment until the British evacuated Rhode Island, when we took possession of it. We remained here until we had orders to march southward.
The first march we made was to Hartford. Conn., where we staid but a day or two, when we marched to Philadelphia, Penn., where we encamped a week or more, waiting for further orders and for the baggage to come up. We then marched to the head of Elk River, and took boats and went down the river to Little York. Then came on a squall, and being in flat bottom beats, all landed on an island nearly opposite Little York, in the centre of the British forces. The enemy might have taken with ease the whole of the American troops which were there quartered, and all our baggage, had they dared to have attacked us. One British boat landed about a mile from our encampment, and sent out spies who fled before we could come up with them. It being a pleasant day we took to our boats and sailed by them.
The next march we made was to Yorktown, where we encamped within half cannon shot of the British, and commenced a fortification by digging a trench, or rather by each man digging a hole deep enough to drop into. When this was accomplished, we stationed a man to watch the enemy's guns, at which every man dropped into his hole. But we soon left this ground, and in the night stormed two of their fortifications, and dug a trench all round the British encampment, completely yarding them in.
Two nights after the storming of the fortifications, the British undertook to retake them, and mustering out a small party calling themselves Americans, came up in the rear of us. They entered the fort with but little difficulty, as there were but few of us in it, and very quickly those who were not instantly killed or taken, were driven out of it.
Four days from that time Lord Cornwallis surrendered, and in three days from the time Cornwallis surrendered, the British marched out on the plains, and stacked their arms and resigned and surrendered themselves prisoners of war, and each marched into town again. The Americans followed them. In three weeks from the time the British surrendered, we took their shipping.
Forty of the prisoners we took from their ships had a disorder with which our doctor was not acquainted. Its appearance was sudden. Some would fall down on the deck and froth like a mad dog; others would begin to draw their heads down till their heels and head would touch together. An American of my acquaintance, who, to my certain knowledge, had been exposed repeatedly to the small pox for six years, caught it on board the British shipping and died.
From York Town we marched to Saratoga, a long and tedious march, where we made our headquarters until the spring of 1783.
In the winter, after the lakes had frozen up, we went to storm a fort on the frontier. Our army was conveyed in stages. In crossing Niagara River on the ice, just above the Falls, one stage containing six men and the driver, slipped sideways into the river, and was carried over the Falls and lost.
We passed over across the Lake to a piece of swampy land, where the stages left us and returned home. We staid here two nights and a part of two days, when we learned by our spies, that the British had re-enforced their fort with double the number of men they had before, and it becoming more than five degrees colder than when we started from Saratoga to cross the Lakes — a number of men having frozen to death, and a great part of the regiment being more or less frozen — but little regard was paid to the command of the officers, as every man did the best he could to protect himself from the cold. Sleighs were procured and furnished by the in- habitants, to carry the troops back to Saratoga. We remained at Saratoga until the latter part of the month of May, 1783, when the greater part of the regiment was disbanded by companies. Some of the companies were marched to Providence before their discharge was given them.
I was selected to drive the Colonel's baggage to Providence, under command of a lieutenant and a small guard, and then discharged without money or clothes.
I went to a place to board, but having no money to pay, the person with whom I boarded set me to driving trucks. The business he was in was small, and he entered into company with Samuel Bagley. I was finally hired to drive a baggage wagon from Providence to Boston. They agreed to give me one-third of the profits for driving, I to find myself. Bagley was agent, and about six months after I commenced driving, he sold what little property he had and ran away with the money. In consequence of this, I lost the whole of my earnings.
I then shipped on board a brig, which was bound to the coast of Brazil, on a whaling voyage. We were gone nine months and seventeen days. We killed only five whales, which made sixty barrels each. I lost my time, and was in debt for fitting out.
In four days after my arrival home, I shipped for the West Indies, in a brig commanded by Capt. Seth Wheaton. Here I began a wickedness beyond everything I had done before. In those days sailors were addicted to drinking and swearing. I contracted the habit of swearing, but not that of drinking, and did not follow all the sailors' practices, being careful of the company I kept.
The voyage was long and tedious, as the captain chartered his brig to a merchant in New York to go to Turks Island and load with salt. After we had arrived at Mooner Passage, we attempted to go through a narrow place, and the wind being ahead we had a very narrow escape.…
.…Having discharged the cargo, I called for my pay, which was six dollars a month, and the captain offered me a kind of paper currency which the State had issued as a cheat. I refused this currency. He declared I should take that or nothing. I lost my wages.
Next day I visited a brother, five miles in the country, whom I found ploughing, it being a very warm time in the spring of 1786. which is recounted in the foregoing pages, and from which place this little work is submitted.
Having touched in these few pages, on some of the incidents of my younger years, I most humbly beg to arrest your attention one moment longer.
Fellow Countrymen: I need not tell you that I have seen the British guns fired in anger, or that these lungs which now but feebly respire the vital air of heaven, have been suffocated with the smoke of British powder. I need not tell you that those dim eyes have guided, or that those now palsied limbs have directed the American ordnance, when your country groaned, and American; bled by the cruel oppression of Britain. I need not tell you that these ears have been stunned by the thunder of the cannon, the clashing of steel, and rattle of musketry, or even that I have lived, not only in the days but with our beloved Washington, the father of his country! No! it is not to impose upon you self-praise, or to arouse your passions by a recital of any exertions of my own, in behalf of the American Revolution, or even again to revert to those times which tried men's souls, but merely to say, gentlemen, I am an old man — a very old man — more than four-score years and ten, and stand nigh the borders of the grave! I can speak to you but a short time longer. Hear me for my cause!
Should our country, in your time, be invaded by a foreign foe, and you be called to act the part of men — American born men— may you enter the field, and should it be ordered and ordained that your bones should bleach in the soil of your country, like those who fell in the American Revolution — may you say — "Let justice be done, though the heavens should fall."
Smith, Samuel. Memoirs of Samuel Smith: A Soldier of the Revolution, 1776-1786. Privately printed, 1860.
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