Cara’s Blog

If there is one thing that the reading makes clear it is the blatant social division and finical troubles that occurred after the Revolutionary War. Men like George Washington and Henry Knox tried to honor veterans. Copious amounts of land were suggested in the Ohio territory for them. Little to my surprise congress denied this proposal claiming that Americans would care less about the financial solidity of the country. I don’t’ think that Americans were necessarily indifferent to the finances of the newly formed United States since it determined whether or not a lot of them were ever going to see any money for their efforts in battle. Never the less, in an effort to honor some of the veterans Henry Knox started the Society of Cincinnati.

Some men, however, weren’t concerned with the swords they received through this society. Veterans who had gone back to their farms were facing larger problems. It seems to me that Congress was almost embarrassed by the Cincinnati men into recognizing their soldiers. However, to fund such an endeavor they would need to collect taxes. This makes perfect sense except for the fact that most of these farmers had no money in which to pay them. Their land was being taken away from them because of this. I was reminded of the novel The Grapes of Wrath. The Joads’ circumstances were based on a drought but the outcome was similar. They lost their land because they could not pay their outstanding loans. When the family went to find work they found that there was none to be found. Surely farmers of the post Revolutionary War era felt the same hopelessness. How could they re pay their debts when they were being thrown in jail? They couldn’t find another occupation because this was all they knew. Society outcast people like the Joads similar to how society was split between farmers like Shay and men of higher social class. Both met angry opposition when all these people were trying to do was live with the dignity and honor they deserved.

Wages of War is in concurrence to the hardships that Private Joseph Martin described. Martin complained only getting barely enough food to survive and having to wear insufficient clothing in the dead of winter. While I believed Private Martin, I could not grasp the extent of the army’s deficiencies. Severo and Millford stated that in the winter of 1778 the men at Valley Forge devoured 2,225,000 pounds of beef, and 2,297,000 of flour. Most of these men were not properly clothed. Unfortunetly, for the 11,000 men who complained of hunger and cold, only 8,500 lived till spring. Such a horrible treatment of the soldiers could have cost us the war. It’s remarkable to me that Americans were still able to pull off a victory against Great Britain.

The pay or lack of pay to the continental soldiers did not come as a huge surprise to me. With a new born country already in debt, how could the government expect to pay their loyal men? What did surprise me is that congress passed the halfpay agreement even though they knew they didn’t even have the money for it. I thought we were fighting against this kind of treatment from the government. One writer from the “Boston Gazette” asked :” How are our worthy patriots treated? Men who risked their lives and property, in the cause of freedom..?” I would ask a similar question.

The excerpts from the Diary of Private Joseph Plumb Martin were both fascinating and beneficial to read. What stuck me first about Joseph Martin’s story was the lack of care that was given to the soldiers. One of the first passages I read stated that “In the cold month of November, [they were] without provisions, without clothing, [and without] a scrap of either shoes or stockings.” I can not imagine being expected to fight for someone who didn’t even provide me with basic necessities. Even more inexcusable, in my opinion, was that the army promised the men that they would have “one pound of good and wholesome fresh or salt beef… a pound of good flour, soft or hard bread, a gill of rum, brandy, or whiskey per day, some little soap, candies” and more. Martin said that they were lucky to get Vinegar on Thanksgiving. This reminded me of a movie I watched in European history about World War 1 called “All Quiet on the Western Front.” ( information on the movie)When the men in this movie joined the army they were promised at least two meals a day and not a week into their combat the men were forced to eat wood shavings for nutrition.
Another passage that struck me was how divided the men were amongst each other. Private Martin’s regiment were made of up men from New England and Pennsylvania. He described his experiences with them saying “I’d rather be fighting with a tribe of Indians than with those Southerners… [they] can’t hardly speak English… They call me that ‘damn Yankee.’ That’s about the nicest thing they [said].” I could tell how much he disliked his fellow soldiers by the way his style of writing changed. All the other passages seemed more formally written, even when he was writing about the fears he faced on a daily basis. If I didn’t know better I would have thought that it were a different man who wrote the passage about the colonists.

Hey everybody! My name’s Cara and I’m looking forward to taking this class because I’ve always had an interest in the social effects of war on societies. For several years I worked at a seaport museum in my home town in Connecticut. There I learned a lot about the 1860’s. Some of the more interesting parts of my job invovled developing acturate 19th century characters based on my research of primary sources and local events. After we created our individual, our job was to present them to the public. We had to be able to answer any question they might ask with historical and characteristic acruacy. Many questions we’d be asked had to do with the civil war and its effect on the town.
Also, for a senoir project, I chose to create a documentary on the Vietnam era and how it effects locals in a small town. I had the opportunity to interview many interesting people such as freedom riders, anti-war protesters and vietnam war veterans. Again, I’m looking forward to taking this course and learning more about our country’s history.