Military Journal, During the American Revolutionary War from 1776 to 1783;
Describing the Events and Transactions of this Period: With Numerous
Historical Facts and Anecdotes; To Which Is Added, An Appendix, Containing
Biographical Sketches of Several General Officers, by James Thacher, M.D.

Published: Boston, Richardston & Lord, 1823

Note: Surgeon in the Massachusetts regiment

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                             MILITARY JOURNAL,

                                DURING THE

                        AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR

                            FROM 1776 TO 1783;

                                DESCRIBING

                The Events and Transactions of this Period

               WITH NUMEROUS HISTORICAL FACTS AND ANECDOTES.

                            TO WHICH IS ADDED,

                               AN APPENDIX,

                                CONTAINING

            BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SEVERAL GENERAL OFFICERS.


                          BY JAMES THACHER, M.D.
                    LATE SURGEON IN THE AMERICAN ARMY.


                                 BOSTON
                           RICHARDSTON & LORD
                                  1823


 "As Americans, we haiI with delight any attempt to rescue from oblivion 
 the words or actions of those whose names we have been taught to revere."




CONTENTS:

DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION

Part 1 - 1775

Part 2 - 1776

Part 3 - 1777

Part 4 - 1778

Part 5 - 1779

Part 6 - 1780

Part 7 - 1781

Part 8 - 1782

Part 9 - 1783 
   REVOLUTIONARY ANNALS
   SOCIETY OF CINCINNATI
   COLONEL JOHN CRANE, AND OTHERS

Part 10 - APPENDIX
   GENERAL BURGOYNE
   LADY ACKLAND
   EXTRACT FROM THE BARONESS REIDESEL'S NARRATIVE
   MR. BUSHNELL'S SQUADRON
   ABSTRACT OF NARRATIVE TAKEN FROM DR. DWIGHT
   EXTRACT FROM MAJOR LEE MEMOIRS

Part 11 - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
   MAJOR-GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM 
   MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM HEATH
   MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN LINCOLN  
   FREDERICK WILLIAM AUGUSTUS BARON DE STEUBEN 
   MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, MAJOR-GENERAL 

Part 12 - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
   MAJOR-GENERAL HORATIO GATES 
   BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN STARK 
   MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN SULLIVAN 
   MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS CONWAY 
   MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES LEE 
   MAJOR-GENERAL BENEDICT ARNOLD 
   GENERAL KNOX 




DEDICATION.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN BROOKS, ESQUIRE,
GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS.

It is with peculiar felicity that your Excellency is recognized as one 
among the few survivors of that heroic band who have been crowned with 
military honors for glorious achievements, at an era when our republic was 
in its infancy, and in peril for its existence.

This production, though aspiring not to the dignified title of history, 
may revive in your recollection scenes and events of the deepest interest, 
in which you nobly participated and may afford to the rising generation 
lessons of instruction and motives for gratitude to their progenitors, 
when we shall be at rest.

Long may those public virtues and that philanthropy which are so eminently 
your characteristics, continue to cement the love and gratitude of the 
people, and may the benedictions of Heaven be your final reward!

With sentiments of profound veneration for the patriotic warrior and 
statesman, this work is dedicated, by

Your Excellency's obedient and very humble servant

JAMES THACHER.
PLYMOUTH, January lst, 1823.



INTRODUCTION.

IT is through your earnest solicitations, my dear friends, that I commit 
to public inspection the crude fragments recorded in my Military Journal, 
kept during the American Revolutionary War. The subordinate station which 
I sustained did not permit access to the great source from which all 
important events derived their origin; nor was I made acquainted with the 
views and motives of action. The transactions and occurrences which I 
shall relate, though of minor import, and penned for temporary amusement, 
are nevertheless of a nature too deeply interesting to be consigned to 
oblivion. No circumstance pertaining to our country's emancipation, but 
should be embalmed in the memory of our children, and transmitted to the 
latest posterity, as among the most interesting transactions recorded in 
the annals of man. When we contemplate the vastly-extended consequences of 
our revolution, it will be conceded that every incident respecting its 
rise and progress, and the renowned patriots and heroes by whom it was 
achieved, is well worthy of perpetual remembrance. With these are 
associated the primary principles of the rights of man, which so 
successfully prevailed at the period of our country's infancy. Those 
PRINCIPLES, which are the great spring of action in the bosom of the 
honest patriot, spurn the power and paralyze the hearts of tyrants. The 
contents of these sheets refer more to details of military manoeuvres and 
the internal police of camps, than to projects and events which decide the 
fate of nations: they may, however, afford amusement to the inquisitive 
mind, and, to the rising generation, precepts not altogether destitute of 
importance and useful instruction. They will disclose some interesting 
particulars, not generally known, and may serve to augment the stock of 
information developing the fatal policy of the British government, as 
displayed on the theatre of her American colonies. This production may, 
moreover, subserve the purpose of an epitome of the history of the 
revolutionary contest, and abridge in some measure the labor of the 
youthful mind in the study of the more elaborate and technical histories 
of that ever-memorable epoch. With this view, I have prefixed a short 
sketch of interesting transactions prior to the actual commencement of 
hostilities. "History," says a late elegant writer, "presents no struggle 
for liberty which has in it more of the moral sublime than that of the 
American revolution. It has been of late years too much forgotten in the 
sharp contentions of party; and he who endeavors to withdraw the public 
mind from these debasing conflicts, and to fix it on the grandeur of that 
epoch, which, magnificent in itself, begins now to wear the solemn livery 
of antiquity, as it is viewed through the deepening twilight of almost 
half a century, certainly performs a meritorious service, and can scarcely 
need a justification."(*)

It may be deemed reproachful to our country that nearly half a century has 
elapsed since the American colonies were emancipated from British 
thraldom, and that we are yet unfurnished with proper biographical memoirs 
of the renowned patriots and heroes whose unparalleled efforts, under 
Providence, achieved the inestimable blessings of liberty and freedom. No 
characters, assuredly, are more worthy to excite the curiosity and 
gratitude of posterity than those who contributed so largely to the 
establishment of our invaluable civil and religious privileges under a 
republican constitution. The immortal chieftain, indeed, and his 
illustrious compeer, General Greene, can receive no additional memorials 
from any labors in my power to bestow. I might incur the imputation of 
arrogance were I to imagine myself competent to the duty of portraying in 
a just light the characters of those whose revered names are introduced 
into the appendix of this work. I can only claim the merit of having 
exerted my best efforts to procure documents and assistance, and to 
illustrate their qualities under the guidance of the legitimate principles 
of impartiality and justice. Should posterity inquire why their ancestors, 
destitute of military education or experience, abandoned their peaceful 
abodes to encounter the perils of uncertain warfare, let them be told it 
was not to execute the mandates of a tyrant in subjugating their fellow-
men, but it was in defence of our most precious rights and privileges; it 
was a display of that genuine patriotism and true glory which it is ever 
most honorable to venerate and cherish., While their own hearts glow with 
patriotic fervor, let them reflect that true glory consists in the love of 
peace and the culture of benevolence and good-will to men. Let their souls 
hold in detestation every species of warfare, save that which may secure 
and defend the invaluable heritage which their fathers have bequeathed 
them, and for which their memories should be embalmed with the incense of 
gratitude.

N. B. Should the reader conceive that in detailing the ravages and 
aggressions of the British army, I have indulged in language of asperity, 
inconsistent with that urbanity and good-fellowship which it is desirable 
should be cultivated between the two nations at the present day, it may be 
observed that this is but a feeble specimen of the belligerent language 
employed by writers at that period when the wrathful passions were 
reciprocally excited and continually aggravated.

(* Silliman's Tour from Hartford to Quebec, 1820.)