Rating: 
Summary: A Great Narrative
Review: This is the story of an ordinary soldier in an army that was trying to survive. What makes this fascinating is the source, a private in the standing army. It's mostly about marching, hunger, disease, cold, mutiny and more marching, through the description of the author's frequent foraging trips a fine picture of life in the country as it was then emerges. But in the end the book is about hardship in the revolutionary army. The narrative is fluid and at times humorous. At the end of the narrative the author bitterly complains about the treatment of soldiers after the war. Soldiers were promised 100 acres each but were for the most part were left to fend for themselves. In addition, it was also commonly argued that the militia won the war and a debate existed to wheatear the United States needed standing army at a time when most associated a standing army with tyranny. The author has a sharp rebuttal and this narrative is at the center of his rebuttal. He argues that no volunteer militia would have endured the cold, the hunger, the disease and the hardship that the standing army endured and victory was possible only because the standing army endured. It's truly a great read.
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