On a June night in 1776, when the American Revolution was a year old, a Connecticut farmboy of fifteen, named Joseph Martin, enlisted in a regiment being raised in his hometown. By the end of the year he was a seasoned veteran of the battles of Long Island, Kip's Bay, Harlem Heights, and White Plains. For seven years he served with General Washington's ragged, faithful Continentals. He saw action in dozens of deadly little skirmishes and in many of the major campaigns.

When Joseph Martin's army days were done, he wrote a forthright, colorful, and often highly humorous account of his experiences. This edition, prepared especially for young readers, is entirely in his own words. It has about it the ring of authenticity and reality. It ranges in events and moods from the clash of battle and the agony of marches up and down the country in the heat of summer and the cold of winter without rest or sleep to the boyish pranks of off-duty soldiers, the comradeship of men fighting together in a common cause, and the satisfaction of freedom hard won.

There is no other book quite like this one.

So far as historians now know, no other private solider wrote in so much valuable detail, with such robust good humor, and at so much length about his life and adventures in the American Revolution.

The editor has provided brief chapter openings to identify events and places Martin mentions and has added an illustrated glossary of eighteenth-century military terms. The spirited illustrations and fine maps of artist Victor Mays have borne the professional scrutiny of experts of The Company of Military Historians. Working with The Company, the editor and artist have achieved high degree of accuracy and authenticity in the glossary, the maps, and the illustrations.

From the dust jacket