The Memoirs of a Revolutionary Soldier. Joseph Plumb Martin
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they had the prayers of the church on that day. We lay very quiet in our ditch, waiting their motions, till the sun was an hour or two high; we heard a cannonade at the city, but our attention was drawn toward our own guests. But they being a little dilatory in their operations, I stepped into an old warehouse which stood close by me, with the door open, inviting me in, and sat down upon a stool; the floor was strewed with papers which had in some former period been used in the concerns of the house, but were then lying in "woful confusion." I was very demurely perusing these papers, when, all of a sudden, there came such a peal of thunder from the British shipping that I thought my head would go with the sound. I made a frog's leap for the ditch, and lay as still as I possibly could, and began to consider which part of my carcass was to go first. The British played their parts well; indeed, they had nothing to hinder them. We kept the lines till they were almost levelled upon us, when our officers, seeing we could make no resistance, and no orders coming from any superior officer, and that we must soon be entirely exposed to the rake of their guns, gave the order to leave the lines. In retreating, we had to cross a level clear spot of ground, forty or fifty rods wide, exposed to the whole of the enemy's fire; and they gave it to us in prime order; the grape shot and langrage flew merrily, which served to quicken our motions. When I had gotten a little out of the reach of their combustibles, I found myself in company with one who was a neighbour of mine when at home, and one other man belonging to our regiment; where the rest of them were I knew not. We went into a house by the highway, in which were two women and some small children, all crying most bitterly; we asked the women if they had any spirits in the house; they placed a case bottle of rum upon the table, and bid us help ourselves. We each of us drank a glass, and bidding them good bye, betook ourselves to the highway again. We had not gone far before we saw a party of men, apparently hurrying on in the same direction with ourselves; we endeavoured hard to overtake them, but on approaching them we found that they were not of our way of thinking; they were Hessians. We immediately altered our course, and took the main road leading to King's bridge. We had not long been on this road before we saw another party, just ahead of us, whom we knew to be Americans; just as we overtook these, they were fired upon by a party of British from a cornfield, and all was immediately in confusion again. I believe the enemies' party was small; but our people were all militia, and the demons of fear and disorder seemed to take full possession of all and every thing on that day. When I came to the spot where the militia were fired upon, the ground was literally covered with arms, knapsacks, staves, coats, hats and old oil flasks, perhaps some of those from the Madeira wine cellar, in New-York; all I picked up of the plunder, was a blocktin syringe, which afterwards helped to procure me a thanksgiving dinner. Myself and the man whom I mentioned as belonging to our company, were all who were in company at this time, the other man having gone on with those who were fired upon; they did not tarry to let the grass grow much under their feet. We had to advance slowly, for my comrade having been sometime unwell, was now so overcome by heat, hunger and fatigue that he became suddenly and violently sick. I took his musket and endeavoured to encourage him on. He was, as I before observed, a nigh neighbour of mine when at home, and I was loath to leave him behind, although I was anxious to find the main part of the regiment, if possible, before night—for I thought that that part of it which was not in the lines was in a body somewhere. We soon came in sight of a large party of Americans, ahead of us, who appeared to have come into this road by some other rout; we were within sight of them when they were fired upon by another party of the enemy; they returned but a very few shots and then scampered off as fast as their legs would carry them. When we came to the ground they had occupied, the same display of lumber presented itself as at the other place. We here found a wounded man and some of his comrades endeavouring to get him off. I stopped to assist them in constructing a sort of litter to lay him upon, when my sick companion growing impatient, moved on, and as soon as we had placed the wounded man upon the litter I followed him. While I was here one or two of our regiment came up and we went on together;—we had proceeded but a short distance, however, before we found our retreat cut off by a party of the enemy, stretched across the Island. I immediately quitted the road and went into the fields, where there happened to be a small spot of boggy land, covered with low bushes and weeds; into these I ran, and squatting down, concealed myself from their sight. Several of the British came so near to me that I could see the buttons on their clothes. They, however, soon withdrew and left the coast clear for me again. I then came out of my covert and went on; but what had become of my sick comrade, or the rest of my companions, I knew not. I still kept the sick man's musket; I was unwilling to leave it, for it was his own property, and I knew he valued it highly, and I had a great esteem for him. I had, indeed, enough to do to take care of my own concerns; it was exceeding hot weather, and I was faint, having slept but very little the preceding night, nor had I eaten a mouthful of victuals for more than twenty-four hours. I waddled on as well and as fast as I could, and soon came up with a number of men at a small brook, where they had stopped to drink and rest themselves a few moments. Just as I arrived, a man had lain down to drink at the brook, and as he did not rise very soon, one of the company observed, that he would kill himself with drinking; upon which, another, touching him without his appearing to notice it, said he had already killed himself, which was the case. Leaving them, I went on again, and directly came to a foul place in the road, where the soldiers had taken down the fence to pass into the fields. I passed across the corner of one field and through a gap in a cross fence into another; here I found a number of men resting under the trees and bushes in the fences. Almost the first I saw, after passing the gap in the fence, was my sick friend. I was exceeding glad to find him, for I had but little hope of ever seeing him again; he was sitting near the fence with his head between his knees. I tapped him upon the shoulder and asked him to get up and go on with me; no, said he, (at the same time regarding me with a most pitiful look,) I must die here. I endeavoured to argue the case with him, but all to no purpose,—he insisted upon dying there. I told him he should not die there nor any where else that day, if I could help it; and at length, with more persuasion and some force, I succeeded in getting him upon his feet again, and to moving on. There happened just at this instant a considerable shower of rain, which wet us all to the skin, being very thinly clad; we, however, continued to move forward, although but slowly. After proceeding about half a mile we came to a place where our people had begun to make a stand. A number, say two or three hundred, had collected here, having been stopped by the artillery officers; they had two or three fieldpieces fixed and fitted for action, in case the British came on, which was momentarily expected. I and my comrades (for I had found another of our company when I found my sick man,) were stopped here, a sentinel being placed in the road to prevent our going any further. I felt very much chagrined to be thus hindered from proceeding, as I felt confident that our regiment, or some considerable part of it, was not far ahead, unless they had been more unlucky than I had. I remonstrated with the officer who detained us. I told him that our regiment was just ahead; he asked me how I knew that—I could not tell him—but I told him I had a sick man with me who was wet and would die if exposed all night to the damp cold air, hoping by this to move his compassion; but it would not do, he was inexorable. I shall not soon forget the answer he gave me when I made the last mentioned observation respecting the sick man,—"Well," said he, "if he dies the country will be rid of one who can do it no good." Pretty fellow! thought I, a very compassionate gentleman! When a man has got his bane in his country's cause, let him die like an old horse or dog, because he can do no more!—The only wish I would wish such men, would be, to let them have exactly the same treatment which they would give to others.—I saw but little chance of escaping from this very humane gentleman by fair means, so I told my two comrades to stick by me and keep together, and we would get from them by some means or other during the evening. It was now almost sundown and the air quite chilly after the shower, and we were as wet as water could make us. I was really afraid my sick man would die in earnest. I had not staid there long, after this entertaining dialogue with my obliging friend, the officer, waiting for an opportunity to escape, before one offered. There came to the sentinel, I suppose, an old acquaintance of his, with a canteen containing some sort of spirits; after drinking himself, he gave it to the sentinel, who took a large pull upon it;—they then fell into conversation together, but soon taking a hare from the same hound, it put them into quite "a talkative mood;" I kept my eyes upon them, and when I thought I saw a chance of getting from them, I gave my companions a wink, and we passed by the sentinel without his noticing us at all. A walk of a very few rods concealed us from his view, by a turn in the road and some bushes, and