Valley Forge
Washington in prayer at Valley Forge (1866 engraving)
For more information on the origins of this folklore story, see this post from Yale University Press
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- More than one-fourth of the 11,000 Continentals at Valley Forge died during winter of 1777-78
- Martin was on foraging duty over that winter
- Christmas Day with vengeful neighbors
- Smallpox itch “attack” (against lice probably)
- Yankees, Pennsylvanians and “one-eyed” Southerners
- One reference to the Continental “crucible” at Valley Forge:
“After I had joined my regiment I was kept constantly, when off other duty, engaged in learning the Baron de Steuben’s new Prussian exercise; it was a continual drill.” –Pvt. Joseph Plumb Martin, Chapter 4
Battle of Monmouth (1778)
We had not retreated far before we came to a defile, a muddy, sloughy brook. While the artillery were passing this place, we sat down by the roadside. In a few minutes the Commander in Chief and suite crossed the road just where we were sitting. I heard him ask our officers “by whose order the troops were retreating,” and being answered “by General Lee’s,” he said something, but as he was moving forward all this time this was passing, he was too far off for me to hear it distinctly; those that were nearer to him said that his words were –“damn him.” Whether he did thus express himself or not I do not know. It was certainly very unlike him, but he seemed at the instant to be in a great passion, his looks if not his words seemed to indicate as much. –Pvt. Joseph Plumb Martin, Chapter 4
Gen. Charles Lee
Molly Pitcher
“she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation.” –Pvt. Joseph Plumb Martin, Chapter 4
Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley of Carlisle- Martin claims to have seen a British cannon ball pass between her legs while she was helping with her husband’s artillery unit
Fighting Butlers
Martin joined a light infantry regiment shortly after the Battle of Monmouth led by Col. Richard Butler of Carlisle- Butler was from a family of military men, the so-called “Fighting Butlers” whose family gun shop still stands behind the One13 Social restaurant
