Revolutionary War Memories

by

Joel Shepard, Pvt.

Note:  All spelling and punctuation are left as in the original.  See the notes at the end for an explanation of some of the words used.

	Soon after this wee were oredred back to fort Herkimer.  Then we fared rather hard for a while.  The inhabitants had got their work mostley out of the way and done so the soldiers could git no small jobs to doo.  Therefore we had to rub rather hard.  Cold Weather was coming on and wee poorly off for clothing.  I told a soldier by the name of Richardson that I could make something of a basket if wee could git some basket stuff and know of a black ash swamp not far off.  He and I goes to our captain to git a pass.  The Captain he was a very good Oficer but very rough in his conversation.  He swore at every word.  Wee went and asked him for a pass.  He swore the Indians would have our scalps Before wee got back.  He and I went.  We found a stick that would doo.  Richardson cut down the stadle and I Equinortered round back.  But there was no Indian apeared.  Richardson cut the stick and shouldered it and steared for the fort.  We made of the stuff a two bushel basket, Richardson goes and sells the basket for its full of potoes and we drove the business of basket making.  We bought a half a bushel of corn and we ground it out in a duch hand mill.  We bought milk and wee could have Samp and milk.  Wee could git most kinds of provisions for our baskets.  We bought half a barel of Cider that wee put in a duchmans celler, and when the inhabitants come to kill their Stock of beef Wee could git beef for baskets.  Their was a widow woman said she wanted some baskets but she had no way to pay for them for shee and her little girl had a hard tome if it to rais their own food.  I told the widow that I would contrive for her.  She said, you yankeys understand how to contrive.  I asked the widow if her husband did not leave no old woolin clothes.  She said he did.  Then I said, go to work and make Richardson and I each a pare of full cloth mitens that would answer to stand Centuary thes cold nights, and she did, and she mended up and packed some considerable old clothes which made Richardson and myself comfortable, and he paid her off honorably.  She would mend up our clothes and find paches.  We would cut up her wood at the door and doo any small job she wanted to have done.

	The Captain would generally come into the Baraks once a week and lok around and see how we fared.  He was a good oficer but very rough in his Conversation.  He swore more or less in all his conversation.  Captain New Come in one morning.  Richardson was a gitting our brakfast and he was a frying some pork and I was to work on a basket.  At last he turned to me with an oath and said, It seems that you have been steeling pork by the looks of your breakfast.  Then I said, there is two things to B concidered.  One thing is to know a thing, the other is to bee sure of it after you think you doo know it.  He laughed and swore some more.  I told the captain the Richardson and I lived as well as I would wish to live.  That was not all.  When wee see a soldier look pale and feeble with hunger wee had often asked him to take a cut with us.  The captain smiled and said with an Oath that wee lived better than the oficers did.  I told him that might bee and not live very well either.  I told him if he had not been to breakfast to set down and take a cut with us, it would not impoverish us any for wee had enough and to spare.  He said he would.  With an Oath he picked up a stick and whittled him a fork, I shoved him a shingle and went to work.  We had beef and pork, fried plenty of potatoes, a plate of butter and some duch cheese.  I told Richardson that i thought we had better by a little cyder.  Cyder among the rest, said the Captain.  I told him that wee did not pretend to live without the comforts of life.  Richardson stepped into a duchmans seller and got a canteen of cyder which held three pints, but a little before wee had done Breakfast the Captain said, come now, bee honest about the mater, and tell me how you came by this good living.  Then I said, you have asked me a civil question, I will give you a Civil answer.  Perhaps you remember that Richardson and myself came to you to git a pass to go into the woods to git a stick of basket timber.  I think I doo, said the captain.  And wee went and got the stick and I have made baskets ever since.  I told how I came to know how to make baskets.  The Captain stoped his discours for a small space then said, a man that has got Econemy must bee born with it or he canot have it, and you have it because you were born with it.  When you went into the Army you took your Econemy along with you.

from The New England Quarterly; rpt. in American Memory, ed. Henry Beston, (New York:  Farrar and Rinehart, 1937), p. 212-214.

Notes:

Staddle or steddle, from Old English stathol, "tree-trunk", is a young tree left standing when all of the others nearby have been cut down; it may also be the stump of a felled tree.  Stadel, which is from the same root, is a stall or barn in modern German.

Samp, from the Algonquian nasamp, coarsley-ground corn meal; also a kind of porridge made of this meal.

The cheese mentioned is apparently what we call cottage cheese, which is a soft white cheese made of strained and seasoned curds of skim milk.  Other names are pot cheese, also called regionally Dutch cheese, or smearcase.