Joining the Continental Army as a teenager, Joseph Plumb Martin spent the next eight years fighting in the Revolutionary War as an enlisted man. His memoirs tell in detail his experiences during that time. . . the bitter cold, hunger, loss of life, long marches, and fear of battle. He also includes tales of fishing, hunting, and other activities. . . including encounters with a "saucy miss". His narrative reveals much about American life at the time and is one of the fullest and best accounts of the Revolutionary War, presented from a private's point of view.
The book has been later republished under the names Private Yankee Doodle and Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier.
