I try to read on a regular basis, and sometimes I even finish the book! OK, most of the time I finish the book. Some are books I find, while others are on recommendation. The most recent completion is "Private Yankee Doodle" by J.R. Martin, a recommendation from my mom. Mr. Martin was a member of the Army during the Revolutionary War and, years after the war, he wrote down instances he remembered. I think Mom bought the book at Yorktown when we were on our way to the Outer Banks (I'm name dropping, I know).
Anyway, it's good for me to read books that make me think differently about a period of history. For example, "Schindler's List" (on which Stephen Spielberg based the movie) and "The Rape of Europa" (about what happened to the art in Europe during the war) made me rethink what I knew about World War II, specifically in Europe. "Private Yankee Doodle" did that for the Revolutionary War.
We've all learned about the Revolutionary War, how it was a war for independence and how America was fighting to throw off the yoke of the tyrant England. We learned about George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and Sam Adams and Paul Revere. We learned about Benedict Arnold, though maybe not about John André. We may have learned about the horrible winter the soldiers spent at Valley Forge. But what was life like for those soldiers? And who were they?
Martin provides an answer to the first question. Life was hard. And when I saw hard, I mean miserable. According to him, food was scarce. So were clothing and everything else the soldiers needed. Clad only in threadbare clothing and sometimes less, they had to survive harsh winters in the New England area. Martin doesn't really complain, at least not in tone. He simply sets down what he remembered. He remembered seeing Benedict Arnold, although he didn't know at the time that's who he saw. He remembered seeing George Washington and described the battle at Yorktown. That part was cool since I'd been there and saw how the land was set up.
So now I have to decide what I'm reading next. I have several options - I just need to choose one.
Or two.
