Person · 1760–1850
Joseph Plumb Martin
A Connecticut soldier who served through much of the war and published a retrospective narrative in 1830.
Why this person matters
Martin’s memoir is one of the fullest enlisted soldiers’ narratives, indispensable for camp life and material hardship yet shaped by more than fifty years of memory and a pension-era public context.
Principal contributions
- Served in militia and Continental formations from 1776 through the war’s final years.
- Recorded the labor, hunger, fear, humor, and bargaining often missing from officers’ correspondence.
Role in the episode arc
Episode 3 uses Martin as a recurring enlisted voice during the New York campaign and retreat.
Editorial note
Published in 1830, the narrative is later memory: first-person testimony whose date, genre, and retrospective shaping must remain visible.