"An Account of some things I carried … in my Pack.

”
The Continental Soldier's Burden in the American War for Independence

John U. Rees

Detail of part of a group of Continental soldiers from Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825) painting
of West Point and dependencies. View is from the east side of the Hudson River, at the top is the
lower part of Constitution Island. This was done after August 1782, as service chevrons, worn on
the saluting soldier’s left sleeve, were first authorized on the 7th of that month. Several soldiers in
group are wearing knapsacks, and what appears to be a rolled blanket can be seen on top of three
of the packs. (Second half of the soldier group is included in Appendix A of this monograph.
Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004678934/ 2
 Contents

1. Overview: “Our almost incessant marching – marching almost day & night.”
2. “Complement of necessaries, etc., for the soldier.”
Personal Equipage as Stipulated in British Treatises
3. “The load a soldier generally carries during a campaign …”
What British Troops Actually Carried, 1755-1783
4. “Only such articles as are necessary and useful …”: Lightening the Soldiers’ Load
5. “Spare cloathing and necessaries ..."
Personal and Other Items Carried by Continental and Militia Soldiers
a. Ezra Tilden, 1775 to 1779
b. Equipment Lost on 17 June 1775 in Col. James Reid’s New Hampshire Regiment
(including discussion of “snapsack[s]”)
c. An "Estimate of the Expences of raising a foot soldier … 1776, in Colo. Smallwood's
battalion & ye 7 independent Companies …”
d. An inventory of the possessions of the late Samuel Lamson of Colonel Fisher
Gay's Connecticut Regiment, 1776.
e. Sergeant Major John Hawkins, 2 nd Canadian Regiment, September 1777
f. Inventory of a Deceased Rhode Island Soldier’s Belongings, October 1777
g. References to Soldiers’ Belongings and Knapsacks in Regulations for the Order and
Discipline of the Troops of the United States. 1779
h. "Plan for the Cloathing of the [light] Infantry,"circa 1779
i. Massachusetts Soldier: Sgt. Andrew Kettell’s Journal, May 1780-March 1781
j. Soldier-Tailor: “Inventory of the Effects of Frederick Oblieskie,” West Point,
September 1780
6. "All the tin Camp-kettles they can procure ...": Cooking Gear and other Food-Related Items
a. Light-Weight Military Kettles, and Cast-Iron Cooking Gear, 1775-1782.
b. Continental Army and States' Militia, 1775-1780.
c. American Sheet-Iron Kettles, 1781-1782.
d. Iron Pots and Pans.
e. Makeshift Cookware.
d. Eating Utensils.
7. The Ways Soldiers Carried Food.
8. The Burden of Rations, 1762-1783.
9. Carrying Drink and Procuring Water.
10. Equipment Shortages
Appendix A.
“I hired some of my pack carried about a dozen miles …”:
Excerpts from Ezra Tilden’s diary, 1776-1777
Appendix B.
Soldiers had what and how many?
List of Related Articles by the Author

IMAGES, PART ONE

Wool and Linen Caps, Combs, Razors, Neckwear, Shirts, Drawers, Breeches, Overalls, Stockings, Shoes and
Buckles, Watches, Sewing Gear (including Housewives), and Fire Making Equipment.
https://tinyurl.com/Images-Part-One

IMAGES, PART TWO

Plates, Bowls, Eating Utensils, Clasp Knives, Pillow Cases, Blankets, Rugs, Coverlets, Slipcase Pocket Books,
common Pocket Books, Linen Wallets, Mittens, Cups, Pipes, Tobacco and Snuff Boxes, and Writing
Implements.
https://tinyurl.com/Image-Part-Two

________________________________
"According to orders our brigade marched from Prackanes on the 29th of July, and encamped at Paramus at
night, fifteen miles. The men were exceedingly affected with the heat and fatigue. We marched on the
succeeding day at two o'clock in the morning; at this early hour, the drums beat the reveille, which summons
us from our hard beds and slumbers, in haste we roll up our travelling bed furniture, strike our tents, order
them thrown into the wagons, mount our horses, and with a slow pace follow the march of our soldiers,
bending under the weight of the burden on their backs." Surgeon James Thacher, August 1780. 2
____________________

Overview
“Our almost incessant marching – marching almost day & night.”

A foot soldier's most important assets, after native intelligence and discipline, are a strong back
and healthy feet. An important factor that added to the comfort or distress of marching troops was
the load which they were expected, or chose, to carry with them. The intent of the complete
monograph will be to examine the items Revolutionary soldiers carried in their knapsacks, but this
preliminary study lays out the complement prescribed in British military treatises as well as actual
usage by Crown troops in service.
On an active campaign the load carried by soldiers could be quite heavy, especially when
increased by three or four days’ rations and forty to sixty rounds of ammunition. Ensign Thomas
Anburey, 24th Regiment of Foot serving with Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne’s army in 1777, left a
colorful account of British common soldiers’ encumbrance and attitude:

... nothing can be more repugnant to the ideas of a rapid march, than the load a soldier generally carries
during a campaign, consisting of a knapsack, a blanket, a canteen for water, a hatchet, and a proportion of
the equipage belonging to his tent [which included a camp kettle]; these articles, (and for such a march
there cannot be less than four days provision) added to his accoutrements, arms, and sixty rounds of
ammunition, make an enormous bulk, weighing about sixty pounds. As the Germans must be included in this
rapid march, let me point out the incumbrance they are loaded with, exclusive of what I have already described,
especially their grenadiers, who have, in addition, a cap with a very heavy brass front, a sword of an enormous
size, a canteen that cannot hold less than a gallon, and their coats very long skirted. Picture to yourself a man in
this situation, and how extremely well calculated he is for a rapid march.
It may be urged, that the men might be relieved from a considerable part of this burthen, and that they might
march free from knapsacks and camp equipage, being divested of which, they might have carried more
provision. Admitting this it would not remedy the evil, it being with difficulty you can prevail on a common
soldier to husband his provision, in any exigency whatever. Even in a settled camp, a young soldier has very
short fare on the fourth day after he receives his provision; and on a march, in bad weather and bad roads, when
the weary foot slips back at every step, and a curse is provoked by the enormous weight that retards him, it
must be a very patient veteran, who has experienced much scarcity and hunger, that is not tempted to throw the
whole contents of his haversack into the mire, instances of which I saw on several of our marches. When they
thought they should get fresh provision at the next encampment, and that only when they were loaded with four
days provision: soldiers reason in this manner: the load is … grievous … want but a little way off - and I have
often heard them exclaim, "Damn the provisions, we shall get more at the next encampment; the General won't
let his soldiers starve." 3

Lt. Loftus Cliffe, 46th Regiment, wrote similarly of British and German foot soldiers at the Battle
of Brandywine,

The 11th Sepr. being pretty near [the enemy] … we divided Gen. Kniphausen taking the right column,
marching towards them fell in [with them] early in the Day … we the 2d Column haven taken a circuit of 17
miles to get round them … passed the forks of the Creek 6 miles from where Kniphausen crossed … were
instantly arranged for Battle and in two hours utterly routed them … The fatigues of this Day were excessive:
some of our best men were obliged to yield, one of [the] 33[rd Regiment] droped dead, nor had we even Day
 Light, we could not make any thing of a pursuit. If you knew the weight a poor Soldier carries, the length of
time he is obliged to be on foot for a train of Artillery to move 17 miles, the Duties he goes thro’ when near an
Enemy, that the whole night of the 9th we were marching, you would say we had done our Duty on the 11[th]
to beat an Army strongly posted, numerous & unfatigued.4

Despite this testimony, almost from the war’s outset British commanders used lessons learned
during the French and Indian War to modify clothing and equipment for field conditions. Even
officers were expected to bow to the demands of hard campaigning. In September 1776 Capt.
William Leslie, 17th Regiment, wrote of the few possessions he carried into the field, “My whole
stock consists of two shirts 2 pr of shoes, 2 Handkerchiefs half of which I use, the other half I carry
in my Blanket, like a Pedlar's Pack.”5 A year later Lieutenant.Cliffe, in “Camp near Philadelphia 24
October 1777,” noted,

Our field equipage ... was reduced to two shirts & a blanket & a canteen for each Officer, this last of little
purpose for a daily allowance o' Rum given on this Service was stopped for want of carriage & indeed to the
Horrors of our Soldiery, not withstanding the fatigues of the march & inclemency of the Weather. Nights &
mornings Cold & noon extreamly Hot & some excessive Rains they never murmured at the want.6

40th Regiment order book: “Regimental Orders, 23 May 1777 The Non Commissd Offrs and Men to have
their Necessareys Constantly packd in their Wallets ready to sling in their Blanketts which they are to parade
with Every morning at troop beating to Acustom them to do it with Readiness and Dispatch.”
4th Grenadier Battalion’s order book: “26th. Augt. 76 Bn. Orders: The Commanding Officers of Compys.
will see that the Mens necessary’s are pack’d up in their Blankets immediately. It is expected in future that
the Men constantly Parade with their Packs & that they do not undo them until Night –”
British Orderly Book [40th Regiment of Foot] April 20, 1777 to August 28, 1777, George Washington Papers
(Library of Congress), series 6B, vol. 1, reel 117. "`Necessarys … to be Properley Packd: & Slung in their
Blanketts’: Selected Transcriptions 40th Regiment of Foot Order Book,”
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/40th.htm “4th Battalion of Grenadiers Orderly Book, 30 June - 15
November 1776," John Peebles (42d Regiment) diary, notebook 2, GD 21/492, 2, Scottish Record Office. Paul
Pace, ed., “4th British Grenadier Battalion Order Book, Kept by Adjutant and Lieutenant John Peebles,
Grenadier Company, 42nd or Royal Highland Regiment, August 1 to October 17, 1776,”
http://www.revwar75.com/library/pace/4th-Brit-Gren-Bn-OB-1776.pdf
40th Regiment, orders 14 May 1777: “Each Compy will immediately receive from the Qr. Mr. Serjt
26 Slings & Wallets to put the quantity of Necesareys Intendd. to be Carrid. to the field Viz 2 shirts
1 pr of shoes & soles 1 pr of stockings 1 pr of socks shoe Brushes, black ball &c Exclusive of the
Necessareys they may have on (the must be packd. in the Aranged manner & the Blankts. done
neatly round very little longer than the Wallets) to be Tyed. very close with the slings and near the
end.” British Orderly Book [40th Regiment of Foot] April 20, 1777 to August 28, 1777, George
Washington Papers (Library of Congress), series 6B, vol. 1, reel 117. "`Necessarys … to be
Properley Packd: & Slung in their Blanketts’: Selected Transcriptions 40th Regiment of Foot
Order Book,” http://revwar75.com/library/rees/40th.htm
See also,
Linen shirt worn by Col. William Ledyard when he was illed by a British officer at Fort Griswold, New
London, Connecticut, on 6 September 1781. (Connecticut Historical Society)
“18th Century Material Culture: Shirts”

And German Lt. Christian von Molitor, Bayreuth Regiment noted in “Field Camp outside
Amboy, 24 June 1777,”

We have received no pack horses and had to send all our baggage and saddles into storage at New York. Each
officer has only a few shirts and stockings and that which is most essential with him, because each company
had been given only one wagon on which the tents, blankets, and officers’ baggage must be loaded. The
officers must be satisfied walking, regardless of how long the march might be. And anyone who does not wish
to die of thirst, must carry his own canteen. No staff officer has a horse. They must walk like all the rest.
Therefore we have taken off our boots and wear long white linen breeches and shoes, with the sword on a belt
over the shoulder and the canteen on the right side. Our hair has been cut short. You would laugh and be sorry
for us were you to see us. …7

Lt. William Hale, 45th Regiment Grenadier Company, gives a good picture of campaign
conditions for officers and common soldiers alike:

I observe with great pleasure the credit given us by the General for our constancy in supporting the fatigues of
the march from the Head of the Elk River to Philadelphia; which were really great, our best habitations
wigwams, through which the heavy rains of this climate whenever they fell easily penetrated, the season
however proved so favourable as not to incommode us often in this manner. At our first landing the rain fell
 three nights successively, and we had only the cloths on our backs, the only resource was standing by a large
fire next morning till they were dried; not a very agreeable method in the heat of August [1777] … [after
several December foraging expeditions, Maj. Gen. Sir William Howe led a final foray late in the month] we
returned from our excursion to Derby the 31st of Dec. [1777] where we went into winter quarters, till which
time I constantly slept in my cloths from the first landing. I never enjoyed a greater share of health than at
present.8

By comparison, Continental troops may have suffered more from equipment shortages, but often
adhered to more conservative practices. Add to this the tendency for inexperienced soldiers to carry
unnecessary gear. In the end, Gen. George Washington’s men may have carried a somewhat lighter
load but did not always enjoy an easier lot because of it. Capt. John Chilton, 3rd Virginia Regiment,
told of what was likely a typical early-war route march:

[27 July 1777] By reason of rain the night past [we] did not move till late this morning ... [marched through]
Hackitts Town ... passed 2 Miles when we were ordered to sit down in the Sun no water near to refresh
ourselves no victuals to eat as the returns of last night was so late that nothing could be cooked. No Waggons
allowed to carry our Cooking Utensils, the soldiers were obliged to carry their Kettles, pans &c. in their hands.
Cloathes and provisions on their backs, as our March was a forced one & the Season extremely warm the
victuals became putrid by sweat & heat - the Men badly off for Shoes, many being entirely barefoot and in our
Regt. a too minute inspection was made into things relative to necessaries that the Men could not do without,
which they were obliged to throw away.9

In the later years of the war many Continental troops had become veteran campaigners, but new
enlistees and levies added a leavening of inexperienced men and southern campaign conditions
could be rigorous. In May 1781 Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne and his Pennsylvania provisional
battalions marched from York, Pennsylvania to join Maj. Gen. the Marquis de Lafayette’s
northern light battalions and composite southern forces in Virginia. Initially slated to reinforce
Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene in the Carolinas, Lt. Gen. Charles Earl Cornwallis’s activities in
Virginia detained Wayne’s troops there. Col. Richard Butler reported on their activities up to
July 8th 1781:
After a fatiguing march, prosecuted with bad weather, we joind the Marquiss, the 10th of June; about this
time Ld Cornwallis was really sporting through the country without opposition. The very name of a dragoon
had such influence on the minds of (not only) country people, but the troops of the army, that few dar d to
approach them; the consequence of which was very bad Intelligence. Charlottesville was sackd without a
shot, and every kind of depredation committed with Impunity … our junction gave a zest to business, and
things began to wear a new face. Cornwallis turn d about on hearing of our arrival, & the Exaggerated Accts
of our force aded to his anxiety in return, & he movd back with a little more Caution than he Advancd. …
The Army is generally healthy, though they undergo much fatigue; the Country here is poor and sandy, the
weather intensely hot, & the water but middling; our provisn is tolerably good, and the troops get some
apple–brandy, which I think is of service to them; these are the things I know your humanity & good
wishes for a Soldier Interests you in, I therefore take pleasure in informing you I find we shall be at a great
loss for shoes, overalls, & shirts in a little time; indeed, many of the men are now barefoot, owing to the
heat of the sand, which burns the leather, & is insupportable to the bare foot; the swet, & want of soap &
opportunity to wash, destroys the linen so that the men will be naked if they don’t get a supply soon … 10

Lt. Col. Francis Barber, an experienced officer and commander of one of Lafayette’s northern
provisional light battalions, also emphasized the campaign’s rigors,

Camp 15 miles from Williamsburgh July 3 rd 1781

My dear Girl … We have since our reinforcements afforded the enemy numerous opportunities for action;
but they have carefully declined them. We have frequently marched for that purpose from our camp another
 four or five miles of theirs in the morning & have remained until after sundown; and the only reason why
we are encamped at so great distance from them, is, there is no water for an army between this &
Williamsburgh … The campaign in this quarter has been much the most severe that I ever experienced
from the warmness of the climate & our almost incessant marching – marching almost day & night. Altho
we are perfectly healthy, yet we do not look like the same men. Our flesh & colour have gradually wast’d
away. Three of my captains are, as we say, totally knocked up; one of them John Holmes is obliged to quit
the department & return to New Jersey to be relieved by another officer. I am leaner than ever I was in my
life; but I do assure you, I am very healthy. Billy is also much reduced, but enjoys his health & spirits. 11

Two of four Continental soldiers drawn in 1781 by French Sublieutenant Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Verger,
Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment. The soldier on the left has long been thought to be from the Rhode Island
Regiment of 1781, that on the right of Hazen’s Canadian Regiment. Another version, found in French officer
Baron Ludwig von Closen’s journal, is headed “Costumer de l’Armé Américaine en 1782.” Closen’s copy
notes that the left-hand soldier belongs to a Massachusetts Continental regiment, that on the right a New
Jersey regiment. Howard C. Rice and Anne S.K. Brown, eds. and trans., The American Campaigns of
Rochambeau's Army 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, vol. I (Princeton, N.J. and Providence, R.I.,: Princeton University
Press, 1972), between pages 142-143 (description on page xxi). Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown
University. Sidney Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770-1800 (Greenwich, Ct.:
New York Graphic Society, Ltd. in Association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973), 42.
 Sgt. Roger Lamb, a veteran of Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne’s 1777 New York campaign and the
operations in Virginia and the Carolinas in 1781, wrote a wonderful description of British troops
entering camp at the end of a day’s march that, with minor amendments, would suffice for
Continental forces as well:

It is a pleasing sight to see a column arrive at its halting ground. The Camp is generally marked out, if
circumstances allow of it, on the edge of some wood, and near a river or stream. The troops are halted in
open columns and arms piled, pickets and guards paraded and posted, and in two minutes all appear at
home. Some fetch large stones to form fire places; others hurry off with canteens and kettles for water
while the wood resounds with the blows of the tomahawk. Dispersed under the more distant trees you see
the officers, some dressing, some arranging a few boughs to shelter them by night, others kindling their
own fires. How often under some spreading pine tree which afforded shade, shelter and fuel have I taken up
my lodging for the night. Sitting in the midst of my comrades, men whom I loved and esteemed partaking
of a coarse but wholesome meal, seasoned by hunger and chee[r]fulness. Wrapt up in a blanket, the head
reclining on a stone or a knapsack cove[r]d with the dews of the night or drenched perhaps by the thunder
shower sleeps many a hardy veteran. A bivouack in heavy weather does not I allow present a very
comfortable appearance. The officers sit shivering in their wet tents idle and angry. The men with their
forage caps drawn over their ears huddle together under the trees or crowed [i.e., crowd] round cheerless
smoky fires – complaining of their commissaries, the rain and the Americans. 12

Now let us look in detail at the items issued and what they took with them on campaign.

“Complement of necessaries, etc., for the soldier.”

Personal Equipage as Stipulated in British Treatises

The full allowance of clothing, equipment, and various small items deemed necessary to provide
British soldiers of the 1770’s and 1780’s was set out in several period military publications. First, let
us look at the soldier’s necessaries listed in Capt. George Smith’s 1779 Universal Military
Dictionary:

NECESSARIES, in a military sense, implies, for each soldier, 3 shirts, 2 white stocks, 1 black hairs stock,
one pair of brass clasps, for ditto, 3 pair of white yarn stockings, 2 pair of linen socks, dipped in oil, to be
worn on a march; 2 pair of white linen gaiters, if belonging to the [English foot] guards; 1 pair of black long
gaiters, with black leather tops for ditto; 1 pair of half spatterdashes, 1 pair of linen drawers [worn under the
breeches in cold weather], 1 pair of red skirt breeches, 1 red cap, 1 cockade, 1 knapsack, 1 haversack, 1 pair
of shoe-buckles, 1 pair of garter-buckles, black leather garters, 2 pair of shoes, 1 oil bottle, 1 brush and
picker, 1 worm, 1 turn-key, 1 hammer-cap, and 1 stopper.
See REGIMENTALS.13

Under the last-named term, “REGIMENTALS, is the uniform clothing of the army; and
consists in a hat, coat, waistcoat, breeches, shirts, stocks, shoes, stockings, spats, spatterdashes,
&c.”14 Of course some of the clothing listed under “Necessaries” would have been worn when on
duty, and only a portion of the remaining clothing and other items would have been considered
suitable for a campaigning soldier’s knapsack. Clarification of some of the smaller items on the
necessaries list is in order: a “brush and picker” was used to cleaning a fouled musket lock and
clear the touchhole; a “worm” was a sharp spiral iron implement that, when attached to a
musket’s ramrod, was used to clean and clear a dirty barrel; “turn-key” was another name for a
screwdriver; a “hammer-cap” was a leather cover for the hammer on the lock of a musket; and a
“stopper,” also known as a tompion, was used to stop up the end of a musket barrel, preventing
rain and dirt from entering.
 Thomas Simes’ 1778 work, The Military Instructor for Non-Commissioned Officers and Private
Men of the Infantry list differs only slightly.

Complement of necessaries, etc., for the soldier. 1 coat, 1 waistcoat, 1 pair of cloth breeches, and another of
ticking, 1 hat and cockade, 3 shirts, 2 white stocks and 1 black, 3 pairs of stockings, 2 pairs of shoes, 2
pairs of black linen gaiters and 1 pair of half-gaiters, 2 pair of white linen tops and one pair of black leather
tops, 1 forage cap, a ball of pipeclay, 1 stock buckle, one pair shoe-buckles and one pair garter buckles . .
.15

And the 1781 edition of Simes’ Military Guide for Young Officers contains the same basic list
as Smith’s 1779 Dictionary, plus some few additions.

In grenadier and battalion companies, each man should be provided with, and carry … 1 ammunition-box, to
contain 24 rounds of powder and ball, with 2 flints, which are not to be used but in cases of necessity … Each
man in a light company should carry 12 rounds of powder and ball, made into cartridges; 4 pounds of lead and
1 quart of gun-powder, which will make about 58 cartridges.
Besides the usual small articles, each Serjeant and Corporal must carry a mould to cast bullets, and a ladle to
melt lead in, with 3 spare powder-horns, and 12 [empty] bags for ball.16

English military neck stock with brass clasp, circa 1770. (Private collection)
“18th Century Material Culture: Neck Stocks, Rollers, & Cravats”
 English military stock clasp found at Stony Point, New York, circa 1779.
(Stony Point Battlefield) “18th Century Material Culture: Neck Stocks, Rollers, & Cravats”

Bennett Cuthbertson’s System for the Compleat Interior Management and Oeconomy of a
Battalion of Infantry (1768) provides some explanation and adds several items to the complement of
necessaries. These next relate to firelock implements:

A picker being often useful to a Soldier, for cleaning the touch-hole of his Firelock, in the firings, one of strong
wire should be fixed, by a small chain, to the edge of his Pouch-belt, under the front Buckle, and as close to the
Pouch as possible, but never to hang in view, as it may be troublesome, in raising the flaps of the Pouch, to take
out a Cartridge.15=7

On Service, leather Hammer-stalls are undoubtedly an advantage to a Battalion, when loaded, and resting on
their Arms, as accidents may be prevented by having then fixed upon the hammers of the Firelocks; but at other
times they can certainly be of little use. 18

Was every Soldier to have a painted linen case, to fit exactly upon the Lock of his Piece, and to be fastened by
two small buttons, it would be of the utmost use and consequence, upon a march, in damp and rainy weather,
and might in an instant (if occasion required it) be taken off, and carried in his Pouch. 19
Mr. Cuthbertson also gave advice regarding knapsacks and haversacks, and their contents:

… besides two pair of shoes, a Soldier should have a pair of soles and heels in his Knapsack, by which
means, he can never be distressed, should his shoes want mending on a march, as a shoe-maker of the
Company can always do them …20

Every Serjeant and Corporal should be provided with a cloaths brush and hatter’s cocking needle, for the use of
his squad, which they are always to bring to every roll calling, and inspection of men for duty: it is likewise
requisite, that every soldier should be furnished with a pair of shoe-brushes, and a blacking ball of good
ingredients, that there may be no excuse, for not having at all times their shoes and gaiters extremely clean and
highly polished.21

That the Buff [straps of the accoutrements] may at all times be perfectly clean, and free from spots, every
Soldier should be provided with a ball of white pipe-clay … another circumstance to recommend a preference
of it, is, its cleaning every part of his clothing, almost as well as fuller’s earth …22

Square knapsacks are most convenient, for packing up the Soldier’s necessaries, and should be made with a
division, to hold the shoes, black-ball and brushes, separate from the linen: a certain size must be
determined on for the whole, and it will have a pleasing effect upon a March, if care has been taken, to get
them of all white goat-skins, with leather-slings well whitened [1779 edition “coloured as the
Accoutrements”], to hang over each shoulder; which method makes the carriage of the Knapsack much
easier, than across the breast, and by no means so heating.23

On Service, a Soldier cannot conveniently get through the Duties of a Campaign, without a Haversack; of
strong coarse, grey linen (which is always issued as part of the Camp-equipage) to carry his bread and
provisions on a March; therefore need not be deemed a part of his appointments, nor provided with that
exactness, which some Regiments always practice; whenever such things are delivered to the Men, the
Name of the Owner, with the Number of the Regiment and Company he belongs to, should be marked on
them, to prevent their being mixt or lost among those of other Corps.24

Using Captain Smith’s list as a template, and adding items mentioned by Messrs. Cuthbertson
and Simes, a complete foot soldiers’ outfit would be:

1 coat, 1 waistcoat, 1 hat and cockade, 1 pair of wool breeches, 1 pair of ticking breeches, 3 shirts, 2 white
stocks, 1 black hair stock, one pair of brass stock clasps, 3 pair of white yarn stockings, 2 pair of linen
socks, dipped in oil, to be worn on a march; 1 pair of black long gaiters, with black leather tops; 1 pair of
half gaiters, 1 pair of linen underdrawers, 1 forage cap, 1 cockade, 1 knapsack, 1 haversack, 1 pair of shoe-
buckles, 2 pair of shoes, 1 pair of extra soles and heels, 1 pair of garter-buckles, black leather garters, 1 ball
of white pipeclay, 1 blacking ball, 1 pair of shoe brushes, 1 oil bottle, 1 brush and picker, 1 worm, 1 turn-
key, 1 hammer-cap, 1 hammer cover, 2 flints, and 1 stopper.

Now let us compare this list with items issued to the troops and actual campaign equipage.

“The load a soldier generally carries during a campaign …”

What British Troops Actually Carried, 1755-1783

Hard-won experience in the Seven Years War in America (French and Indian War), 1755-1763,
taught British commanders the need to balance soldiers’ campaign gear with the need for
mobility, combat effectiveness, and some modicum of comfort. Thus, with the expectation of
taking the field against Whig forces in 1776, clothing and accoutrements, as well as in addition
to tactical formations, were modified to suit American conditions. Coats were cut down or
sleeved jackets substituted, gaitered overalls largely replaced breeches, knapsacks gave way to
blanket slings, and the two-rank, open-order line was adopted.25
The earliest pertinent and comprehensive listing of equipment carried by British troops in
America is dated 1762. Titled a "Return of the Weight for the Cloathing, Arms, Accoutrements
... Necessary's &Ca of a Grenadier, upon a March," this document, made sixteen years prior to
the War for Independence, gives a good idea of the British soldier's burden at the beginning of
that conflict. Besides the clothing worn and the weapons carried (the English Short-Land musket
alone weighed ten to eleven pounds) a soldier's load contained the following items:
A Bayonet and Scabbard
A Tomahawk, and Cover
A Cartridge Pouch ...
Containing 24 Cartridges
Brush & Wire, Worm & Turnkey, Oyl Bottle & Rag
2 Flints and a Steel
A Knapsa[ck] with Strap, and Buckles
Containing 2 Shirts, 2 Stocks, 2 Pair Stockings
A Pair Summer Breeches
A Pair Shoes
A Clothes Brush, pair Shoe Brushes, & a Black Ball
A Pair ... [of] Garters, A Hankerchief
2 Combs, a Knife, & Spoon
A Haversack, with a Strap Containing Six Days Provisions
A Blanket with Strap & Garters
A Canteen with a String & Stopper, full of Water 26

The equipment listed (including clothing, musket, bayonet and hanger) was noted on the return
as weighing approximately sixty-three pounds.
By midpoint of that earlier war British commanders had begun a program of altering their
troops’ clothing and equipment to match conditions in the North American wilderness. Perhaps
the best-known was Sir Jeffrey Amherst’s 1759 directive, as reiterated by Gen. James Wolfe on
30 May 1759:

The following order for the dress of the light infantry, as approved by his excellency General Amherst:
Major-General Wolfe desires the same may be exactly conformed to by the light troops under his
command: the sleeves of the coat are put on the waistcoat and, instead of coat-sleeves, he has two wings
like the grenadiers, but fuller; and a round slope reaching about half-way down his arm; which makes his
coat of no incumbrance to him, but can be slipt off with pleasure; he has no lace, but the lapels remain:
besides the usual pockets, he has two, not quite so high as his breast, made of leather, for ball and flints;
and a flap of red cloth on the inside, which secures the ball from rolling out, if he should fall. His knapsack
is carried very high between his shoulders, and is fastened with a strap of web over his shoulder, as the
Indians carry their pack [i.e., tumpline]. His cartouch-box hangs under his arm on the left side, slung with a
leathern strap; his horn under the other arm on the right, hanging by a narrower web than that used for his
knapsack; his canteen down his back, under his knapsack and covered with cloth, he has a rough case for
his tomahawk with a button, and it hangs in a lethern sling down his side, like a hanger, between his coat
and waistcoat, no bayonet, his leggins have leathern straps under his shoes, like spatterdashes; his hat is
made into a cap with a flap and a button and with as much black cloth added as will come under his chin
and keep him warm when he lies down; it hooks in the front, and is made like the old velvet caps in
England.27

Wolfe later amended this directive: “The light infantry of this army are to have their bayonets, as
the want of ammunition may at some times be supplied by that weapon, and no man should leave
his post, under pretence that all his cartridges were fired. In most attacks of the night it must be
remembered that bayonets are preferable to fire.” While not strictly pertinent to this monograph,
it is worthwhile to keep in mind British equipment and uniform modifications adopted for French
and Indian War field service, practices foreshadowing similar actions taken in the later American
War.28
We have seen above the items British military writers thought necessary for soldiers to carry;
now let us examine several similar accounts produced at the army, brigade, or regimental level
during the War for American Independence. Capt. Walter Home, 7th Regiment, noted the
“Establishment of Necessaries in Lord Robt. Bertie’s Company” in March 1771: four shirts, two
rollers (neckwear), one black stock, two pair of shoes, four pair of stockings, one pair long gaiters,
one pair short gaiters, one buff ball, one black ball, one pair shoe brushes, one “turnkey & worm,”
one “pick & brush,” one knapsack, and one haversack. A list for the 65th Regiment, circa
1776/1777, mirrors Home’s with several minor alterations, as follows: “3 pairs of white Worsted
Stockings, not ribbed, and one pair of white thread … shoe and knee Buckles, Stock Clasps,
according to the Regimental Pattern … Knapsack with double straps to come over each
Shoulder." It must be noted one of these lists was pre-war, the other for a unit sent home from
America in 1776.29
A February 1776 list of the “Necessary Equipment of the Detachment from the Brigd. of Foot
Guards Intended for Foreign Service” shows some added items thought to be needed for
campaigning in America.30
£ s d 100
a Cloak (if Objected to, to be Dispenced With) -. 11. -
a pr. of Leggens 4. 6
2 pr. of Trowsers 5. -
a Cap -. 6
2 pr. of Mittens 1. 2
2 pr. of half Gaters 2. -
a Check Shirt 3. 9
2 pr. of Shoe Soles & Heels 2. 4
3 pr. of Socks 1. 3
Alteration of the Mens Knapsacks . 6

A revised list was posted Guards brigade orders, London, 13 March 1776:
The Necessarys of the Detachment are to be Compleated to the following Articles --
Three Shirts
Three Pair worsted Stockings
Two pair of Socks 7/ 1/4 pr. Pair
Two pair of Shoes
Three pair of Heels and Soles 1/2 d pr. pair
Two Black Stocks
Two Pair of Half Gaiters 1s/ pr. pair
One Cheque Shirt 3/9 d
A Knapsack (2/6 d Allowed by Government)
Picker, Worm & Turnscrew
A Night Cap

The deficient Articles of the Necessarys are to be carried in the Waggons to Wimbledon on Friday, and
Delivered in the manner the Captains shall Direct before the men shall be sent to their Quarters. The Soles,
Socks and half gaiters to be packed up and put on Board the Transports with the new Cloathing.
The Cheque Shirt may be Delivered at Wimbledon or remain packed up & carried in the Waggons as the
Commanding Officer of the Detachment shall Direct.31
 When British forces disembarked on Staten Island in August 1776 they carried only the bare
necessities, even leaving knapsacks behind, resorting instead to slings to carry their blankets
rolled around their personal belongings. Capt. William Leslie, 17th Regiment, described these ad
hoc packs to his parents: "Bedford Long Island Sept. 2nd 1776… My whole stock consists of
two shirts 2 pr of shoes, 2 Handkerchiefs half of which I use, the other half I carry in my
Blanket, like a Pedlar's Pack."32

Orders, 4th Battalion Grenadiers (42nd and 71st Regiments), off Staten Island, 2 August 1776: "When the
Men disembark they are to take nothing with them, but 3Shirts 2 prs of hose & their Leggings which are to
be put up neatly in their packs, leaving their knapsacks & all their other necessaries on board ship which
are carefully to be laid up by the Commanding Officers of Companys in the safest manner they can
contrive."33

Brigade of Guards, off Staten Island, "Brigade Orders August 19th [1776.] When the Brigade disembarks
two Gils of Rum to be delivered for each mans Canteen which must be filled with Water, Each Man to
disembark with a Blanket & Haversack in which he is to carry one Shirt one pair of Socks and Three Days
Provisions a careful Man to be left on board each Ship to take care of the Knapsacks. The Articles of War
to be read to the Men by an Officer of each Ship." 34

Readying for the summer 1777 campaign season the commander of the 40th Regiment stipulated
blanket slings and the necessaries to be placed inside linen wallets and carried in the rolled
blankets35.

R[egimental]:O[rders] 14th May 1777

Each Compy. will immediately receive from the Qr. Mr. Serjt. 26 Slings & Wallets to put the quantity of
Necesareys Intendd. to be Carrid. to the field Viz 2 shirts 1 pr. of shoes & soles 1 pr. of stockings 1 pr. of
socks shoe Brushes, black ball &c Exclusive of the Necessareys they may have on (the[y] must be packd. in
the snugest manner & the Blankts. done neatly round very little longer than the Wallets) to be Tyed.
very close with the slings and near the end -- the men that are not provided. with A blankett of their own may
make use of one [of] the Cleanest Barrick Blanketts for to morrow --

M.[orning] R: O: 26th. May, 1777... After Regtl. Orders 2 Oclock Afternoon The new Trowzers to be put
on this After noon and the Non Commissd. Offrs and men keeping three good shirts, two good pr. of shoes
A pair of good stockings & 2 pr. of socks- - the Surplus of those kind of Necessaries with their Blue
Leggons, Britches to be put up with their name on them and the whole of each compy. to be put up in one
Bundle with the Capts. name on it, and to be ready for the Waggon to be taken into town this After noon
and Embarkd. for York

Mention is also made of issuing of pipeclay (regimental orders, 11 and 18 May 1777) and sixty
rounds of ammunition (army orders, 26 May 1777; brigade orders, 17 and 22 May 1777; regimental
orders, 3 and 4 May 1777).
 “… my Blanket, like a Pedlar's Pack."
Private, light company, 63d Regiment, 1777, New Jersey and Philadelphia campaigns.
Artwork by Don Troiani (Courtesy of the artist, www.historicalimagebank.com )

In August when Gen. Sir William Howe’s army lay in the Chesapeake Bay at off Head of Elk, the
men were similarly equipped.
49th Regiment, "Orders in Board the Rochford 21 August 1777 When the Regt. lands, Evry Non
Commissd. Officer and Soldier of the Regiment is to have with him 2 very good Shirts, & [?] Stocking[s] 2
pair of Shoes, their Linen drawers, Linnen Leggins, half Gaiters and their Blankets well Rold.”36

British enlisted men had other equipment to carry, as mentioned in the following directives:37

Head Qrs: N:York 2nd: June 77

Orders-
5 Waggons will be Allowed to each Battn: And 10 Waggons for each Corps of Gredrs: & Lt: Infantry
British, no more can possabley be Allowd: for the Baggage
The Regts: under Orders for Embarkation will Immediately receive the Names of the several Transports
Apropriated to them, on board of which they are as soon as possable to Embark their Camp Equipage
Except such Canteens Camp Kettles Hatchets & Haversacks, as their Respective Regts: may be in
Immediate want of …
________________________

[Middlebush, New Jersey] A[fter]:O[rders]: 11: Oclock at nig[ht]: 15th: June

A working Party Consisting of 3 Field Offrs: 12 Capts: 26 Subaltrens and 1200 men, with Non
Commissd: Offrs: in proportion to parade to morrow morning at day break … 800 of the Number to bring
with them their Camp Hatchetts for makeing Facines …
 Three order book entries from the late-war southern theater reiterate the pared-down kit
carried by British soldiers campaigning in America.

43d Regiment order book, "Apollo Transport O[f]f Brandon James River [Virginia]23rd May 1781
Orders by Major Ferguson … It is positively Ordered that no Soldier lands with more necessaries than his
Blanket, Canteen, haversack, Two pair of Trowsers, Two pair of Stockings, and Two Shirts, and Two pair
of good Shoes. The Remaining Necessaries of each Company to be carefully packed up and Orders will be
given as soon as possible for its been taken proper care of."38
____________

Lt. Gen Charles Earl Cornwallis’s army, on board ship off of Charlestown, South Carolina, 15 December
1780: General orders, "The Corps to Compt. their Men with Camp Hatchets Canteens, & Kettles ... It is
recommended to the Comdg Offrs. of Regts. to provide the Men with Night Caps before they take the Field."
Brigade orders, "The Necessaries of the Brigde. are to be Imdy. Comptd. to 2 Good pr. Shoes, 2 Shts. & 2 pr.
Worsted Stockgs. per Man ... Each Mess to be furnish'd with a Good Camp Kettle, & every Man provided with
a Canteen, & Tomahawk - & the Pioneers wth. all kind of Tools. The drumrs. are to carry a good Ax Each &
provide themselves with Slings for the Same."39

Cornwallis’s army, Ramsour's Mills, 24 January 1781: General orders, "When upon any Occasion the Troops
may be Order'd to March without their Packs; it is not intended they Should leave their Camp Kettles and
Tomahawks behind them … [Brigade orders] There being a Sufficient Quantity of Leather to Compleat the
Brigade in Shoes ... It is recommended to ... the Commandg. Officers of Companies, see their Mens Shoes
immediately Soled & Repaired, & if possible that every Man when they move from this Ground take in his
Blankett one pair of Spare Soles ..."40

Next we will look at efforts to pare down army baggage and soldiers’ gear and accounts of what
“Rebel” soldiers carried in their knapsacks.
____________________________

“Only such articles as are necessary and useful …”

Lightening the Soldiers’ Load
We will finish with a look at the belongings Whig soldiers carried, but first an overview of
related considerations, including commanders’ repeated instructions to reduce the amount of gear
officer and enlisted men took with them on campaign. To begin at the most elementary level, we
turn to Steuben's 1779 Regulations where the duties of the captain, non-commissioned officers,
and privates are detailed. Regarding soldiers' equipment and personal effects captains were to
"examine [the mens'] knapsacks, and see that they carry nothing but what is allowed, it being a
material object to prevent the soldier loading himself with unnecessary baggage." Sergeants and
corporals were to ensure that the privates "have their effects always ready, and where they can
get them immediately, even in the dark, without confusion; and on every fine day he must oblige
them to air their effects." In turn, private soldiers were instructed, "whenever he is ordered under
arms, [he] must appear well dressed, with his arms and accoutrements clean and in good order,
and his knapsack, blanket, &c. ready to throw on his back in case he should be ordered to take
them," and "when warned for guard, he must ... carry all his effects with him, and even when on
sentry must have them at his back." Above all "When ordered to march, he must not charge
himself with any unnecessary baggage ..."41
On 26 May 1777, just before the start of the campaign in northern New Jersey, Gen. George
Washington wrote Maryland brigadier William Smallwood about mobility, excess baggage and
other issues,
 See that the Officers pay great attention to the Condition of the Soldier's Arms, Ammunition, and
Accoutrements, as also to the manner of Cooking their Victuals; and as far as in your power lies, cause the
Men to appear Neat, Clean, and Soldier-like, not only for the sake of appearances, but for the Benefit of
their Health.
Improve all the leizure time your Brigade may have from other Duties, in Manoeuvring, and
teaching the Men the use of their Legs, which is infinitely more Importance than learning them the
Manual Exercise. Cause the Officers to attend regularly and perform their part of these duties with
the Men ... The Experience of last Campaign abundantly evinced the Absurdity of heavy Baggage and the
disadvantages resulting therefrom to Individuals and the Public. Prevent therefore, as much as possible, all
Incumbrances of this kind, and do not, upon a March, suffer the Soldiers to throw their Arms or Packs
into Waggons, unless they are either sick or Lame.42

July 4 1777 after orders directed how to organize units prior to and during a march, with some
mention of baggage:
When the order is given to march, and the men are paraded for that purpose, the rolls are to be called; and
the commanding officer of each corps is to see that his men are all present...
When they are told into Subdivisions, in platoons, and officers are assigned to each, such officers are to
abide constantly with them; and upon a march see that no man is suffered to quit his rank, upon any
occasion, without a non-commissioned officer with him, who is to bring him to his place again.
Whenever a halt is made, and the ranks are suffered to be broken, in order for the men to sit, or refresh
themselves, the officers commanding each division... so soon as they are orderd to Arms again, to see that
they have every man of their division in his place...
When a march is to begin, after a halt, the drummers are to beat the first division of the foot march, to be
taken from front to rear; and upon the last flam of the first division being struck, the whole are to move.
If any man falls sick, or lame, and is therefore unable to walk, the officer commanding the Sub-division
or platoon in which he is, is immediately ... [take measures to ensure that] the Waggon Master of his
brigade... provide a birth for him in some waggon under his care ...
As much irregularity in many instances was observed on the march yesterday, particularly with respect
to the guards, women and waggons; the General further orders that the following regulations be
observed - viz: [
1st. That when the baggage waggons accompany the army, and form part of the line of march, no
regiment do allot more than two men as a guard to each waggon; and that these men be under the care of a
subaltern, or non-commissioned officer, as the Colonel, or commanding officer of the regiment may
choose, and the case may require: That each brigade furnish a Captain, to superintend these; and (where the
baggage of the whole division moves together) each division a field officer.
2nd. That the two men assigned to each waggon, shall march on the sides, but as far back as the tail, of
each waggon; that if any thing falls out, they may discover, and pick it up--The Subaltern, or non-
commissioned is to be about the center of his regimental waggons; the captain about the same place of
those of the brigade, and the field officer in that of the division.
3rd. That no women shall be permitted to ride in any waggon, without leave in writing from the Brigadier
to whose brigade she belongs: And the Brigadiers are requested to be cautious in giving leave to those who
are able to walk--Any women found in a waggon contrary to this regulation, is to be immediately turned
out by the Quarter Master General, Waggon Master General, or any of their Assistants, in the division or
brigade to which the waggon appertains; as also by any of the officers who command the baggage guard of
such waggons. If any interruption is given to the execution of this order, the name and regiment of the
person giving it is to be reported to the General.
4th. None but spare arms, and such as belong to sick and lame men, shall be suffered to go in
waggons, as they are almost certain of receiving some injury. Or if any drummer presumes to put his
drum into a waggon, unless under similar circumstances - The Soldier or drummer so offending,
shall be immediately flogged by any officer commanding the baggage guard of such waggon.
5th. To prevent the enormous abuse and loss of kettles, by slinging them to waggons, from which
numbers fall, the General positively orders that each mess in turn carry their own kettles, as usual in
all armies, and can be little burthensome in this.43
 On 6 August General Washington addressed common soldiers’ excess gear in detail while,
unusually, at the same time allotting wagons to carry the knapsacks.

Whenever the army moves, it will probably be necessary, that it march with the utmost celerity - the tents
therefore ... are to be loaded in waggons by themselves, and in such manner, that they may, without
difficulty, keep up with the troops; For the same reason, the officers will take with them, only a few articles
of cloathing, such as shall be indispensably necessary, leaving the bulk of their baggage to be brought on
after them, and in order to facilitate the march, the Quarter Master General is to provide so many
waggons as shall be necessary to carry the men's packs: But these packs are not to be stuffed with
loads of useless trumpery, as from the sizes of many, there is great reason to suppose now is the case,
and the officers are to see that they are not; for which purpose, the Commander in Chief most
earnestly desires and expects, that the officers particularly inspect the packs of their men, and select
only such articles as are necessary and useful: All the rest (each mans being rolled up by itself) is to
be collected by the Quarter Masters of the regiments, and by them deposited in proper places, to be
provided by the Quarter Master General.44

With the British landing at Head of Elk in Maryland in late August, Washington’s troops were
enjoined yet again to lighten their burdens.
Head Quarters Newport 7th Sepr 1777
General Orders ... The Genl has Received A Confirmation of the Intilligence mentioned in the after orders
of last night, that the Enemy has Disencumber'd themselves of all their Baggage even tents Reserving
only their Blankets, & Such part of their Clothing as is Absolutely Necessary, this Indicates A Speedy
and Rapid movement, & points out the necessaty of following the example & Ridding ourselves for A
few days of all things we possible can dispence with as A verry Imperfect obedience has been paid to
former orders on this Subject, now once more Strictly enjoins that all baggage which can be Spared
Both officers & men, be immedietly pack'd up & sent off this day to the otherside Brandewine ... the
Officers Should only retain their Blankets & Great Coats & only three or four Shifts of under
Cloaths, & that all the men Should besides what they have on keep only a Blanket, one Shirt a piece
& Such as have great Coats, all trunks Chests & boxes either bedding or Cloaths then these
mentioned, to be Sent away till the elapsing of a few days Shall determine whether the Enemy means
to make an immediate attack or not ... The whole Army is to Draw two days provisions exclusive of
today, have it Cook'd & deposited with the Regimental QrMaster, Provided Salt provisions can be got,
otherwise one days fresh Provisions to be Cooked deposited as aforesaid & two days hard Bread if to be
had ... the QrM. Genl is to Spare no pains Immedietly to provide Waggons to carry the mens
Knapsacks, that they may be perfectly light & free for Action. 45

The injunction to lighten baggage was aimed at officers as well. For details on officers’ excess
gear see Appendix C. of “’With my pack and large blanket at my back …’: British and American
Officers’ Equipage and Campaign Gear” https://www.scribd.com/document/338154147/With-my-
pack-and-large-blanket-at-my-back-British-and-American-Officers-Equipage-and-Campaign-Gear
 American rearguard troops, Fort Ticonderoga, July 1777.
(Fort Ticonderoga, 2014)

“Spare cloathing and necessaries ..."

Personal and Other Items Carried by Continental and Militia Soldiers

From citizen-soldiers at Bunker Hill, to a soldier-tailor at West Point, the extant accounts of
Whig soldiers’ personal belongings give a wide-ranging view of what was carried, on campaign
and off. We will begin with Ezra Tilden, who served most of his time in the Massachusetts
militia, with a 1775 stint in the proto-Continental Army and another short-term Continental
enlistment in 1780.

a. Ezra Tilden, 1775 to 1779

Ezra Tilden was kind enough to record in detail his military experiences during the War for
American Independence. Better still, he also left inventories of the items he carried into military
service. On top of those good deeds, Mr. Tilden, also left a record of the items he sold, and,
being a purveyor of used knapsacks, pocket watches, and any other items that would bring in
some extra cash or serve as barter, left records of all those transactions. Below we will look at
Tilden’s lists of belongings in relation to his military service, with selected journal entries
recording items sold or acquired during his enlistments.

(Note: the 1776 and 1777 diary entries are taken from Dwight MacKerron, ed., “Exult O Americans
& Rejoice!” – The Revolutionary War Diary of Ezra Tilden (Stoughton, Ma.: Stoughton Historical
Society, 2009). See also, Ezra Tilden, pension file (W14020) (W2197) (National Archives Microfilm
Publication M804, 2,670 rolls, roll 804) Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant
Application Files, 1800–1900, Record Group 15; National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.)
 1775 and Winter-Spring 1776

From May to 31 December 1775 Ezra Tilden served in Col. Joseph Reed’s Massachusetts.(nascent
Continental) Regiment, at Roxbury and neighboring towns;

From February to April 1776 Tilden served in Capt. Jedediah Southworth’s company, Col. John
Robinson’s Militia Regiment, February to April 1776 (two months), at Dorchester Heights

1776 Fort Ticonderoga Garrison

Ezra Tilden served from 20 July 1776 to 10 December 1776 in Capt. James Endicott’s company, Col.
Ephraim Wheelock’s Militia Regiment, at Fort Ticonderoga.

Combs found at Fort Ticonderoga, 18th century. (Fort Ticonderoga)

Gregory Theberge, “18th Century Material Culture: Dressing the Hair & Wig”
https://www.scribd.com/document/282835312/Grooming-Hair-Dressing-the-Hair
p. 9
August 5, 1776
An Account of some things I carried into the Army in my Pack:
A woolen Shirt with a snuff bottle full of ground coffee in it, and one and a half of chocolate in it too,
wrapt up in a piece of brown paper and a new cotton and linen shirt and a new milk cheese wrapt up in it
which weighed five pounds, a pair of white stockings, a pair of blue stockings, a bag of plumbs, a bag
with three pounds and half of sugar in it, a pair of boots, a cap, a powder horn, four sheets of paper wrapt
up in a piece of brown paper and four quills in it, a brown paper with two pieces of soap in it, one great
pin, four small ones, one brown thread needle, and one worsted darning needle, one ball of white yarn,
one ball of blue yarn, some strings, some thread, some sealing wax, a snuff box full of snuff, a pewter
bason, a wooden plate, a spoon, a fork, a Jack-knife, a pen-knife, a pair of knee buckles, a pocket book
and case to it, a small toothed comb, a pocket looking glass, an under-jacket, a short coat, a great coat, a
pair of grey stockings, two pair shoes, a striped shirt, a pair of long trowsers, a hat, two handkerchiefs, a
pair of shoe buckles, a pair of garters, a pack to carry my things in, some bread, a pair of arm strings, a
pair of leather breeches, a pair of cloth breeches, a leather strap, a cod line, a frock, some tow.
N.B. I have here set down, not only my pack and things in it, but even my clothes and things that I
wear, besides the things in my pockets that I carry & other things.

Should anyone assume Tilden’s list of the belongings he carried into service in 1776 represented a
typical Continental soldiers’ burden, it must be remembered that he was a short-term militia
soldier serving at a fixed post. And, despite previous tours of duty (eight months in 1775, and two
months earlier in 1776) Tilden was still very much an amateur, with no campaign experience. He
also had recourse to placing excess gear, and occasionally his entire knapsack, on a cart
accompanying his unit.
With those caveats, still his roster of goods does provide examples of the type of personal
belongings Continentals likely carried on occasion. Tilden’s recounting also shows how certain
items could be wrapped for protection or to separate them from other knapsack contents.
Below are included a several excerpts from two campaigns showing how Ezra Tilden bartered
and sold some of the gear he carried into service, and his purchase and trade for new items.

(Note: Some of the entries not given here deal with a series of purchases and sales of pocket watches
and Ezra Tilden’s repeated swopping of knapsacks with other soldiers The entire series of excerpts
may be see in the Appendix of this monograph.)
 American steel knee buckle, 18th century (Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Gregory Theberge, “18th Century Material Culture: Breeches & Overalls”
https://www.scribd.com/document/159514758/Male-Dress-Breeches-Overalls

p. 10
“An account of the towns through which we came from Stoughton to Ticonderoga … Aug. 6 1776 we
came from Stoughton, Aug. 23 we arrived at Ticonderoga.”

p. 11
“Thurs. Aug. 15, 1776. We came to the town of No. 4 in Charlestown [New Hampshire] … that day I
sent home by Mr. Spear a great coat a woolen shirt and an under jacket … that we drawed
ammunition, powder, balls and flints and provisions.”

p. 12
“tues. Aug. 20 … that A.M. I hired some of my pack carried about a dozen miles I believe which cost
me six coppers and that P.M. I joined with the mess in buying a short handled pan to fry in which cost
me for my part of it six coppers …”

p. 12
“Wed. Aug. 21 … I laid out 3 Dollars for a pair of shoes in Brookfield …”

p. 13
“Fri. Aug. 23 … obliged to have my pack carried some as well as at two other different times I had
to hire all or part of my pack carried a little way.” Tilden next refers to feeling unwell, so it is not
known if he had his pack carted due to sickness, its weight, or both.
“Fri. Sept. 20 … I sold my calfskin pumps to Solomon Jordan for 10s L.M.”

p. 33
“Thurs. Oct. 24, 1776 … I swopt my best purse away to Elijah Hawes for his old one and he gave me
7d. L.M. to boot … I swopt away my cotton handkerchief with Nath’l Tilden Jr. for his checkered
one, and I had 26s 6d o[ld].t[enor]. to boot.”
p. 33
“Fri. Oct. 25, 1776 … I Sold my white stockings to one of the Jersey blues for five s. 6 d. … I sold
them buckles to a man, I know not who, for a dollar in the p.m. of that same day, and that day in the p.m.
I sold my leather breeches to a man I know not who for a dollar.”

p. 38
“Tues. a.m. Nov 26, 1776 … I swopt combs with Elisha Hawes & I gave him 3 cop. To boot. We did
start out from Ticonderoga for Stoughton … home.”
_______________

“A Sticker-up of Bills on Tower Hill at the Rendezvous at the King's Arms,” by Lt. Gabriel Bray,
1774 (National Maritime Museum)
“18th Century Material Culture: Handkerchiefs, Neckerchiefs, & Fichus”
Birdseye resist dyed handkerchief worn in America (possibly English import), circa 1750–1820.
(Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
“18th Century Material Culture: Handkerchiefs, Neckerchiefs, & Fichus”

American linen handkerchief, 18th century. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

“18th Century Material Culture: Handkerchiefs, Neckerchiefs, & Fichus”
 1777
Ezra Tilden served two months with Capt. Theophalus Lyon’s company, Col. Samuel Pierce’s Militia
Regiment, in the early spring of 1777, at Fort Independence on Castle Island, Boston Harbor.

1777 Campaign to Saratoga

Tilden served from 27 August 1777 to mid-December 1777 in Capt. Aaron Smith’s company, Col. Gill’s
Militia Regiment, in northern New York, present at but not participating in the Saratoga battlers, and
witnessed the surrender of Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne’s army.
p. 39
“Sab. Night Aug. 31 I bought a new pair of cow hide pumps of one Mr. Gilbert of Brookfield for which
I gave him 18s L.M. three dollars.”
p. 40
“Sat. Sept 6, 1777 … at the house of one Mr. Barber … I sold my pocket looking glass to one mr.
Garner of … Worthington. I sold it to him for a dollar.”
p. 40
“Wed. Sept. 10, 1777 … Our teamsters … who brought up the baggage for Cap. Smiths’ company
did set out from Bennington for home for they did not go no farther than Bennington head quarters
with the pack[s], and then we had to take our packs and carry them ourselves. Some things we were
ordered to leave at Bennington and I left the following things there viz: A blue jacket, a pair of
gloves, a pair of muffetts, a pair of new shoes, six sheets of papers wrapped up in a piece of paper, a
pair of boots, some rags, needles, thread and yarn.” (Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Edition,
two vols. (Glasgow, New York, and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1971), vol. 1, 1871. Muffetee:
a muffler worn around the neck; refs. 1706, 1772)
p. 41
“Mon Sept. 15 A.M. In Powlet I sold my black hamdkerchief that I had up there to a man I know not
who for 15s L.M. …”
p. 47
“Fri. Oct. 3 I think I have made since I came from home 9£, 2S, 4d L.M. a trading in watches, in a
handkerchief, going on guard and upon fatigue for people besides doing my own duty upon guard
and fatigue, and dong some writing and selling my allowance of rum … besides I have made
something perhaps in selling my black handkerchief and pocket looking glass and in swopping
packs … I made 3s L.M. a buying apples and selling them out again etc.”
p. 48
“Mon. … Oct 6, 1777 … I bought a pair of almost new stockings of Enoch Talbot for which I gave
him two dollars.”
p. 50
“Wed. Oct 8, 1777. I laid out half a dollar for a book … of a man, I know not who, a book he took
out of the regulars’ camps that morning after the regulars went and left their lines … The title of
the book was ‘An Account of the European Settlement in America.”
Edmund Burke: “What is considered a joint work of Burke and his cousin, William Bourke,
appeared in 1757 -- An Account of the European Settlement in America -- and shows how carefully at
this date he had studied the condition of the colonies.”
http://www.nndb.com/people/019/000084764/
p. 52
“Thurs Oct. 23, 1777 … At Clinconsborough I gave a negro 18d L.M. for a pipe. I bought a checkr’d
shirt of 1 of the Continental soldiers. I have him 5 dollars … I bought a cartouche box of Sam
Hayward … I gave him 3£”

p. 54
“Wed. p.m. Oct. 29th … At Clinconsborough I sold Wm. Davis my checkered shirt that I bought a few
days ago for which he gave me 39s L.M. …”

p. 57
“Fri. Nov. 7, 1777 … [paid] 9d L.M. for a book entitled An Oration Delivered when Gen.
Montgomery and other brave officers and soldiers fell at Quebec, I bought of a woman in
Peekskill.”
An Oration in Memory of General MONTGOMERY, and of the Officers and Soldiers who fell with
him, DECEMBER 31, 1775, before QUEBECK; drawn up (and delivered FEBRUARY 19, 1776,) at
the desire of the Honourable Continental Congress, by WILLIAM SMITH, D˙ D˙, Provost of the
College and Academy of PHILADELPHIA. American Archives: Documents of the American
Revolutionary Period, 1774-1776
http://amarch.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A94194

p. 60-61
“Fri. Nov. 28, 1777 A.M. I was on picquet guard again at Scarsdale … At Scarsdale I sold a woman my
pint porringer and spoon, plate and fork for 5s 1d L.M. … I sold Timothy Moore my book that I
bought … entitled `An Account of the European Settlements in America.’ I sold it to him … for two
dollars so in selling the book I gained 9s L.M. …frid. P.M. I swopt packs with Sergt. William Everett.
I let him have my calfskin one that I had of John McIlivain, I let him have it for his cloth one and
he gave me 22s. L.M. to boot so that now in swopping packs I have made 4s. L.M. besides having a
better pack than I let McIlvain have.”

p. 61
“Sat. Nov. 29, 1777 … I spent 41/2d L.M. for apples … I gave Thaddeus Fuller six apples … for a
sugar box. I bought a little tin kettle of Spear for which I gave him 1s. 18d. l.m. and that night I lost
an old striped shirt of mine by turning up a copper with Davis, to see which should have both shirts
his and mine …”

p. 61
“Sab. Day, Nov. 30, 1777 … I sent a pack that weighed eleven and one half pounds … by Mr. John
Spear in his cart home to Stoughton which comes to 8s 6d. L.M. at 9d L.M. a pound for carrying and
there was in the pack an ax wrapped up in an old piece of shirt and a blanket and leggings and a
blue jacket and a pair stockings and an old pair of trousers.”

P. 62
“Tues. Dec. 2, 1777. P.M. At New Haven I gave one Mr. Isaac Doolittle a dollar for cleaning my
watch and putting a new hook to the chain to wind it up.”

1778

Ezra Tilden served during the Rhode Island campaign, from July to autumn 1778.
 1779

Our hero served from August 1779 to 1 April 1780 at, mostly at West Point, in Capt. John Ellis’s
company, Col Thomas Poor’s Militia Regiment, 9 months. This was likely a nine-month levy regiment,
created by a state draft to form a regiment to augment the Continental army. For details see:
“`The pleasure of their number’: 1778, Crisis, Conscription, and Revolutionary Soldiers’ Recollections”
Part I. “’Filling the Regiments by drafts from the Militia.’: The 1778 Recruiting Acts”
Part II. "’Fine, likely, tractable men.’: Levy Statistics and New Jersey Service Narratives”
Part III. "He asked me if we had been discharged …”: New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and North
Carolina Levy Narratives”
ALHFAM Bulletin, vol. XXXIII, no. 3 (Fall 2003), 23-34; no. 4 (Winter 2004), 23-34; vol. XXXIV, no. 1 (Spring
2004), 19-28.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/126069484/First-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-pleasure-of-their-
number%E2%80%9D-1778-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-
Preliminary-Study-Part-I-%E2%80%9CFil

http://www.scribd.com/doc/126069114/Second-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-pleasure-of-their-
number%E2%80%9D-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-
Preliminary-Study-Part-II-Fine-l

http://www.scribd.com/doc/126068332/Third-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-pleasure-of-their-
number%E2%80%9D-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-
Preliminary-Study-Part-III-He-aske
____________

A second manuscript diary, covering the period 1779-1780, along with a typescript copy of the first
diary, can be found in the collections of the Stoughton Historical Society. For both years he again listed in
his diary all of the personal articles he carried in his knapsack, along with his military equipment:

p.20 An acct of things, carryd up, wth me, To Claverick, in ye year 1779 & c.(viz)

“ £ s. d.
107 8 0 in cash; L.M. - Left at home
4 4 0 in cash; L.M. (besides 6£ L.M due me from Mr. Haws) & 79 dolrs or more , due to me from ye
Select men of Stoughton for things: a gun, Cartridge Box, powder horn, a pipe, some tobacco, wrapt up in
a handkerchief, some tow, a spoon, 2 knives, some chalk, a canteen, a pack, a pocket Book, wth another
book in it, 3 Large Loose papers, & 7 Small ones, Loose in sd Book, a dish, a pr of garters, a pr of
overhalls, a pr of Leather Breeches, a pr of mittens, a pr of muffittees, 2 pr of Stockings, a pr of shoes &
taps, a Coat, a Jacket, some yarn, thread, a needle, 4 pins, a string, an inkhorn, wth 3 pens, 1 Quill, & a
thing to pick my teeth wth in it, 1 hand kerchiefs, a snuff-box wth Snuff in it, some flag-root, some
Liquorish, a pr of knee buckles, wth Leathr Straps to ym[i.e., them], a horn cup, som sugr & tea, Some
bread, & cheese, 2 shirts a Comb, a Blanket, a Surtout, a hat, 6d York in Cash, a sugr Box, 2 shirts, a case
to my pocket book & c.

This list shows that by 1779, although still a militia soldier, Tilden had learned to make do with
less during his nine month military sojourn.

(Note: Ezra Tilden’s 1779 list of belongings carried into military service courtesy of Dwight
MacKerron and Henry Cooke.)
 1780

Ezra Tilden served at West Point from July 1780 to January 1781 as a six month levy in Capt. Lunt’s
company, Col. Benjamin Tupper’s 11th Mass. (Continental) Regiment.

Note: There is no record of Tilden serving in 1781, thus the following list is likely misdated.

“An Account of things yt I Carryd up, wth me, to west-point, in ye year 1781 [sic, actually 1780], viz. a
gun, a cartridge Box, a Blanket, a spoon, 2 knives, a Pocket book, wth paper in it, & Cased to it, 3 pens in
ink horn, also an almanack, 3 Lose pieces of paper, & a Paper Buk, Loose in my Pocket Book, also 16
Silver dollars wanting 10 sh. O.T., in silver, 2 red, & 2 white, & 2 black handkerchiefs, silk ditto, a Snuff
Box & some Snuff it it, a cap, 2 pipes, a line & some chalk a piece of chalk & some tow, a hat, a canteen,
2 horns, a horn comb; a tin cup; some tea, sugar & chocolate, 1 coat, 1 Jacket, 2 shirts, 1 pair of 'trowsers,
1 pair of Buck Breeches, 2 pair of Stockings, 2 checker'd handkerchiefs, 2 pair of shoes, 1 pair of shoe
Buckles, 1 pair of knee Buckles; 10 pins, a pair of sleeve buttons, a pair of gloves; a thing to pick my
teeth; a Book Baxter's Call &c, a nother Book Memorable accidents &c… brown thread, needle, some
thread, & a pair of garters & c…a razor, a girt to a saddle, & also a Book, Concerning Barnett Davenport,
&c…”

1780 was Ezra Tilden’s second term of service in a Continental regiment, though, admittedly, his
1775 enlistment was in a still nascent Continental unit.

The four books he writes of carrying were as follows:

1. Almanacs were very popular and often given as presents in varying forms to suit every pocket. One
example is the London Almanack for the Year of Christ 1781 (London: Printed for The Company of
Stationers, 1780). “Spectacular miniature Almanac from the year 1781 providing all sorts of useful
information such as: common notes for 1781; a 12-month calendar; a table of Kings and Queens' reigns; a
table of Lord Mayors and Sheriffs from the year 1760 to the year 1781; a list of holidays; and a table of
the current coins.” https://www.abaa.org/book/873389787
2. Richard Baxter, Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live; “A slim devotional work published in
1658.”
3. T. Léonard, Memorable Accidents and unheard-of Transactions, containing an account of several
strange events, as the deposing of tyrants, lamentable shipwrecks, dismal misfortunes, strategems of war,
perilous adventures, happy deliverances, with other remarkable occurrences and select historical events
which have happend in several Countries in this last age. Translated from the French, printed at Brussels
in 1691, and dedicated to his present Majesty William King of England, etc. (Published in English by R.
B. London, 1733).
or
A chronology of some memorable accidents, from the creation of the world, to the year, 1742 (Dublin:
printed by James Carson, 1743.)
or
A Chronology Of Some Memorable Accidents, from the Creation of the World, to the Year, 1754
(Dublin: printed by James Carson, 1754) and (James Carson, at the Bagnio-Slip, Temple-Bar, 1755 )
4. A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE AND CONFESSION OF BARNETT DAVENPORT. Under
Sentence of Death, for a Series of the most horrid Murders, ever perpetrated in this Country, or perhaps
any other, on the Evening following the 3d of February, 1780. Is to be executed at Litchfield, on the 8th of
May. (Printed in the Year, M.DCC.LXXI).
http://www.accessible-archives.com/2011/02/the-crime-of-the-eighteenth-century/
The Crime of the (Eighteenth) Century
Blog entry posted on February 3, 2011 by JD Thomas
“Today, February 3rd, marks the anniversary of the first mass murder in the post-revolutionary United
States. Two hundred and thirty-one years ago today, Barnett Davenport [a Continental Army deserter], a
young man living in Litchfield County, Connecticut murdered his landlord, Mr. Caleb Mallory, and
Mallory’s wife and granddaughter. He then stole anything of value and set fire to the Mallory house
which resulted in the death of two more sleepers in the house.
Davenport’s vicious actions resulted in multiple books and his life and crime became a ‘teaching
moment’ for the young nation. Prior to this incident, crime was most often seen, and reported in the
press, as resulting from common sinners losing their way. Davenport’s crime and its portrayal by the
press and fledgling publishing industry changed all that. American’s began to perceive criminals as evil
and alien to the rest of society and that view continues to a large degree into the present.”
(See also, http://gizmodo.com/in-1780-americas-first-mass-murder-was-a-crime-of-unc-1706814529)

Shaving set with brush, razor and soap dish, owned by Solomon Moon
(Fort Ticonderoga)
Gregory Theberge, “18th Century Material Culture: Dressing the Face” (i.e., shaving)
 1775
Following the Lexington and Concord fights and related actions on 19 April 1775
Massachusetts set about forming an army of New England troops. Not yet called a Continental
army, Rhode Island designated their forces an “Army of Observation”; later when the Rhode
Island troops were sent to Boston, their commander Brig. Gen Nathanael Greene was directed to
join the “combined American army” there.A
At the Bunker Hill action, two months after Lexington and Concord, six men of Reuben
Dow’s Hollis, New Hampshire company, serving with Col. William Prescott’s Massachusetts
regiment, were killed. Their captain tallied their lost equipment:
Cambridge, Dec. 22, 1775.
Nathan Blood, Isaac Hobart, Jacob Boynton, Thomas Wheat, Peter Poor, Phineas Nevins.
The men whose names are above written belonged to Capt. [Reuben] Dow's company, and Col.
William Prescott's regiment and were all killed in the battle of Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June
last, and were furnished each of them with a good gun, judged to be worth Eight Dollars apiece
— also were furnished with other materials, viz. Cartridge Boxes, Knapsacks and Tump-lines —
and were well clothed for soldiers — Also had each of them a good blanket. Nathan Blood had a
good Hanger.B

Captain Dow then listed lost items for twenty-eight men who survived. Of those, twenty-five lost
knapsacks, and twenty-three lost tumplines; both items were valued at one shilling, six pence each.
All of Dow’s men were using tumplines in conjunction with knapsacks, leading to the assumption
that the former were used to carry blankets, the latter extra clothing and small necessary items.
There seems to be no other explanation; the only thing that quashes this notion is that there were no
blankets included in the roster of lost goods. Perhaps they were not considered valuable enough to
include or were not personal property.C Besides Dow’s men, ten companies in Col. James Reid’s
New Hampshire regiment tallied equipment lost that day: Note in the synopsis below the further use
of tumplines in conjunction with packs, and several alternate spellings of knapsack.
b. Reid’s New Hampshire Regiment, Equipment Lost on 17 June 1775 D
Capt. Hezekiah Hutchins’ Company Capt. Jacob Hind’s Company
10 knapsacks 20 knapsacks (spelled “napsack”)
5 packs 1 tumpline
19 blankets 11 blankets

Capt. Levi Spalding’s Company Capt. Ezra Town’s Company

2 (or 20?) knapsacks (spelled “snapsack”) 6 knapsacks (spelled “napsack”)
26 blankets 2 tumplines
3 blankets

Capt. Jonathan Whitcomb’s Company Capt. William Walker’s Company

2 knapsacks (spelled “snapsack”) 13 knapsacks (spelled “snapsack”)
4 blankets 7 knapsacks (spelled “gnapsack”)
1 bed rug 13 blankets

Capt. Philip Thomas’s Company Capt. Benjamin Mann’s Company

1 pack 11 knapsacks (spelled “snapsack”)
5 haversacks 5 tumplines
8 blankets
 Capt. Josiah Crosby’s Company Capt. John Marcy’s Company
5 knapsacks (spelled “gnapsack”) 1 knapsack (spelled “snapsack”)
3 blankets 14 tumplines
1 coverlet 18 blankets
14 pillow cases *

*Ens. James Taggart lost “2 good shurts, 3 pr stockings, 1 pr sadelbags, 1 pr Shous, 1 tumpline, 1 pillar case”
[Note: See below for discussion of the term “snapsack.”]

Of those listed for Captain Marcy’s company, one ensign and thirteen enlisted men lost pillow
cases (out of a total of three officers and twenty-eight enlisted men), the only company to list that
item. Possibly the pillow cases were used as a wallet to store extra clothing and personal items
carried in knapsacks or rolled inside the slung blankets. Complete lists of the equipment lost in
Reid’s Regiment are given below.
_________________

Snapsacks: Several of the above returns listing clothing and equipment lost at Bunker Hill contain
alternate spellings of the word knapsack; the variations are “napsack,” “gnapsack,” and “snapsack.” The
list for a single company, Capt. William Walker’s, uses two of those variations, “gnapsack” and
“snapsack,” leaving one to think the writer was describing two different items. Possibly the list may have
been written by two different people, each with their own spelling preference. Unfortunately, without
examining the handwriting on the original document we have no way of knowing.
In recent years, the term “snapsack” has been linked to a simple single-strap crude knapsack, formed
like a bag and closed by a drawstring at one end. The examples pictured in period images of British
soldiers were made of skin, but many reproductions have been made of linen. Previously this author
broadcast requests for others to provide research confirming that such receptacles were named snapsacks
in 18th century America or Britain, and, failing that, have also been unable to do so myself. Pending solid
information on the matter, I am left to conclude that the term “snapsack” is an alternate spelling of
knapsack, and a generic term referring to no specific design. For now, let us close with the definition
provided by the Oxford English Dictionary, “Snapsack … A knapsack. Common from c 1650 to 1700.”
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1971), 2889.
Finally, at this time there is no evidence at all that the single-sling drawstring bag/knapsack was used
during the American Revolution by anyone, even American militia.
 Linen drawstring knapsack, modern reproduction made of linen.
http://blueboxsutlery.com/photos4.html
See also, http://www.18cnewenglandlife.org/18cnel/wallets.htm

Detail from David Morier, “Grenadiers, 16th and 17th Regiments of Foot, and
Grenadier and Drummer, 18th Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, 1751”
 Detail from David Morier, “Grenadiers, 46th, 47th and 48th Regiments of Foot, 1751”
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection-search/david%2520morier

Detail from Edward Penny, R.A. (1714-1791), “An Officer Giving Alms to a Sick Soldier” (circa
1765, oil on canvas). The painting depicts an officer of the 3rd Irish Horse (now the Scots Dragoons
Guards) extending charity to an infantryman and his family. A variant of the Marquis of Granby
relieving a sick soldier, which was exhibited by Penny at the Society of Artists in 1765 and which
was presented to the Bodleian by the artist in 1787. The 3rd Irish Horse fought under Granby at
the battle of Warburg in 1760 during the Seven Years War, and it is probable that this painting
may have been commissioned from the artist at the same date.
 Here is a letter possibly describing the use of knapsacks (not snapsacks) in the form of a bag
with a drawstring closure used by Connecticut Provincial troops:
Norwich Connecticut, 6 September 1755
“Capt [John] Terry [Maj. Gen. Phineas Lyman’s 1st Connecticut Provincial Regiment]
Sir....I send you by the Bearor … 33 knapsacks with cord and straps and twine to whip the end of the
cords which your men may do and put them in; I sent 50 knapsacks to Lieut. [Prince] Tracy but had not
their straps made and if he has supply'd that matter please to send back the 50 now sent by the bearor.
Your humble servt
Hez. Huntington [Col. Hezekiah Huntington, commissary to the Connecticut Provincial troops]”
Connecticut Historical Society, Miscellaneous Manuscripts. (Courtesy of Gary Zaboly, via Rob Frasier)
See also, Al Saguto, “The Seventeenth Century Snapsack” (January 1989)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/212328948/Al-Saguto-The-Seventeenth-Century-Snapsack-January-
1989

Sources for “Reid’s New Hampshire Regiment, Equipment Lost”

A. Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army (Washington: GPO, 1984), 16, 17.
B. Samuel T. Worcester, History of the Town of Hollis, New Hampshire, from its First Settlement to the Year
1879 (Press of O. C. Moore, 1879), 155-156.
C. Ibid., 155.
Return of equipment lost at Bunker Hill in Capt. Reuben Dow’s New Hampshire company,
Prescott’s Massachusetts Regiment, 1775.
“Cambridge, December ye 22d, 1775.
This may certify that we the Subscribers in Capt Reuben Dow's Company in Col. Wm. Prescott's Reg1 in the
Continental Army, that we lost the following Articles in the late engagement on Bunker's Hill at Charlestown
on ye 17th of June last.
James McConnor, 1 gun, 1 napsack, l hat, 1 Jaccat, 1 tumpline.
Wm. Nevins, 1 knapsack, 1 jacket, 1 tumpline.
Minott Farmer, 1 knapsack, 1 sword, 1 tumpline.
Sam1 Hill, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Ephraim Blood, 1 gun, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
James Macintosh, 1 knapsack, 1 jacket, 1 tumpline.
Libbeus Wheeler, 1 knapsack, 1 hat, 1 tumpline.
David Farnsworth, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Noah Worcester, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Elias Boynton, 1 gun.
Francis Blood, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Abel Brown, 1 gun, 1 cartridge box, 1 tumpline.
Nahum Powers, 1 knapsack, l hat, 1 jacket, 1 bayonet, 1 tumpline.
Isaac Stearns, 1 gun, 1 knapsack.
Israel Kenney, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Titos Pratt, 1 gun, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Nath1 Patten, 1 knapsack, 1 jacket, 1 tumpline.
David Ames, 1 knapsack, 1 cartridge box, 1 tumpline.
Sam1 Jewett, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Wm. Wood, 1 gun, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Benjn Cumings, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Francis Powers, 1 gun, 1 bayonet.
Wm. Adams, 1 knapsack.
Josiah Fisk, 1 knapsack, 1 cartridge box, 1 tumpline.
Wilder Chamberlin, 1 knapsack.
Nehemiah Pierce, 1 knapsack, 1 hat, 1 tumpline.
Abel Conant, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.
Uriah Wright, 1 knapsack, 1 tumpline.”
[Note: The estimated value of the above said articles, was (on an average) for a gun, £2: 4.11; a knapsack, 0:
1:6; a jacket, 0: 16: 0; a cartridge box, 0: 4: 8; a tumpline, 0: 1:6.]
“It appears that the eight Hollis men in Capt. Spalding's company, in the New Hampshire regiment of Col.
Reed, were all present in the battle, and that each of them lost portions of his clothing or equipments, as is
shown from the returns of losses made after the battle, now to be found in the New Hampshire Provincial
Papers (Volume 6, page 592). These losses with their appraised value were as follows:
Andrew Bailey, 1 coat, 1 shirt, trousers, stockings,
Job Bailey, 1 cartridge box, knapsack, and shirt,
Phineas Hardy, 1 blanket, coat, shirt, breeches,
Thomas Hardy, 1 blanket, coat, jacket, stockings,
Ephraim [?] 1 gun, breeches and shirt,
Samuel Leeman, 3 coats and 1 blanket,
Ephraim Rolfe, 1 gun, blanket, shirt, stockings,
Ephraim Smith, 1 knapsack, shirt, stockings”
D. Nathaniel Bouton, ed., Provincial Papers: Documents and Records Relating to the Province of
New-Hampshire, from 1764 to 1776, vol. VII (Nashua: Orren C. Moore, State Printer, 1873), 586-
597, 603.
__________________________

Some Brief Observations on Soldiers’ Belongings in Reid’s New Hampshire Regiment.

The men in the ten companies whose lost possessions are listed below most commonly
included coats, shirts, breeches, trousers, stockings, blankets, knapsacks, firearms, and cartridge
pouches, Shoes appeared less often, but still fairly regularly. Here are a number of objects lost by
the soldiers that were not often mentioned or stand out in some way:
“a shag great coat”
“one shagge greatcoat”
“one shag great coat”
“1 gr't coat”
“1 great coat”
“1 surtoot “
“1 st[raight] Bod'd” coat
“1 new Blue serge coat lin'd”
“1 tow shirt”
“bed-tiking shurt”
“1 cotton shirt”
“1 cotton shirt”
“one woolen shirt”
“1 pr. Mooskin-breeches”
“2 pr. Leather-breeches”
“1 pr. Deerskin-breeches”
“1 pr. sheepskin-breeches”
“1 pr. Leather-briches”
“1 pr. Lether briches”
“1 pair of Leather-Breeches”
“1 pr of Deer-skin Breeches”
“2 good capes” (caps?)
“caps”
“1 pair of calfskin pumps”
“handkerchief”
“silke handkerchief”
“a silk handkerchief”
“2 silk handkerchief”
“a Rasor”
“razor”
“1 Pocket book”
“1 Book”
“1 Malitia Book”
“1 Book”
“1 Psalm book”
“1 Bible”
“one Bible”
“1 sett of shoe-makers Tools”
“Ink-pot”
“1 pr. spectacles”
“1 coverlid” (coverlet)
“tobacco”
“3 Fills [phials?] of Firr Balsome” “Health Benefits of Fir Needle Essential Oil [modern claims] Some of
the health benefits of fir needle essential oil include its ability to reduce pain, prevent infections, improve
respiratory function, increase the metabolism, detoxify the body, and reduce body odor.”
https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils/fir-needle-essential-oil.html

“one Bottle”
“1 good Rasher”
“1 Rasher” “Rasher … a piece ‘rashly or hastily roasted’ … A thin slice of bacon or ham, cooked (or
intended to be cooked) by broiling or frying.” Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Edition, two vols.
(Glasgow, New York, and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1971), vol. 1, 1871.

“sack & sundry articles”

“sack”
“1 pillar case”
“1 good piller case“
“one haversack”
“havsak” (haversack)
“1 lb rope”
“1-2 lb rope”
“1 Tin Quart” (canteen?)
“1 Tin point” (canteen?)
“1 Fife”
“Drum sticks & sling”
“1 drum”
“1 good Drum”
“iron strike sword”
“1 bayonet”
“one byanot”
“cartridge box shot to pieces”
“1 Pistol”
“1 Powder horn”
“one Bullet Mold”

Capt. David Brown’s Minute company, Concord, Massachusetts.

April 2014.
______________________

(page 590)
A Return of the packs & Bagag lost by the Solders to Capt. Hezekiah Hutching Company, lost in the Battle of
the 17th Day of June, 1775.
Sargent James Goss 1 great coat ;
Sargent John Lane 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 2 shirts, 1 pr Trousers, 2 prs stockens, 1 lb rope, napsack and catterage
Box ;
Corp'l John Tuck 1 Blankett, 1 coat, 1 shirt, 2 pr stockens, 1 pr Trousers, 1 jacket, 1 knapsack, with sundry
articles.
Wil'm Harraman 1 coat, 1 Tin Quart [canteen?].
Benj'n Couch, 1 Blanket, 1 coat, 1 shirt, 2 pr. Stockens, 1 pr. Trousers, 1 Tin poynt, 1 knapsack with rope.
Levi Hildreth 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 1 pr stockens, 1 pr Trousers, 1 pr Breeches, 1 shirt. 1 pack, 1-2 lb rope.
John Clifford 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 1 shirte. 1 pr. Trousers, 1 pr. stockens, 1 pack.
Sam'l Heath 1 pr Breeches, 1 shirte, 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 1 pr Stockens.
Moses Webster 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 1 shirte, 1 pr Trousers, 1 pr Stockens. 1 Tin poynt.
Thomas Wilson 1 coat, 1 pr Breeches, 1 Blanket, 1 shirt, 1 pr stockens. 1 pr shoes, 1-2 lb rope, 1 Tin poynt, 1
knapsack.
Gilbert Bond 1 Blanket, 1 pr Breeches. 1 shirt, 1 jacket, 1 pr stockens, 1 coat, 1 knapsack.
Simon Norton 1 coat, 1 jacket, 1 shirt, 1 pr stockens, 1 blanket, 1 pr shoes, 1 knapsack with sundrys.
John Lane 3d 1 coat, 1 shirt, 1 pr stockens, 1 pr Breeches.
Thomas Waddly 1 shirt, 1 pr stockens, 1 knapsack, 1-2 lb rope.
Amos Knowls 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 1 shirt, 1 pr stockens, 1 knapsack.
Ebenezer Wells 1 pr shoes.
Sam'l Healy 1 coat & jacket, 1 pr Breeches, 2 pr stockens, 2 shirts, 1 Blanket, 1 pack, 1 pr Trousers.
Simon Merrill 1 gun, 1-2 lb rope, 1 Tin poynt.
Wm. Severance 1 pr shoes, 1 pr stockens, 3-4 [pounds?] rope.
Peter Severance, Josiah Morss 1 blanket.
Moses Kimball 1 coat, 1 pr Breeches, 2 shirts, 1 pr Trousers, 1 pr stockens, 1 Blanket, 1 knapsack.
Wm. Gross 1 Blanket, 1 shirte, 1 pr stockens.
Sam'l Morrill 1 blanket, 2 jackets, 1 shirte, 2 pr trousers, 1 pr stockens, 1 pack, 1 gun.
Thomas Wadley 1 shirt, 1 pr trousers, 1 pr stockens, knapsack, 1 lb rope.
Nath'l Levite 1 gun, 1 knapsack, 1 shirt, 1 blanket, 1 coat, 1 pr Breeches, 1 pr stockens.
John Varnum 1 blanket, gun, shirt, coat, pack.
Moses Quimby 1 gun, 1 blanket, 1 shirt, coat, pack.
Stephen Peabody 1 blanket, 1 shirt.

(page 591)
An acount of the things that was lost in Capt. Jacob Hinds company in Col James Read's Ridgment lost in the
Field of Batel on the 17th Dav of June at Charlestown 1775.
Capt. Jacob Hinds, blanket, 3 shirts, trouses, stockings;
Serg't Richard Cochlan shirt, shoes, gun;
Serg't Ezekiel Davis 1 blanket;
Serj. William Farwell l blanket, 2 shirts, 1 pr trouses, 3 pr stockings;
Corp. Samuel White, blanket, shurts, trouses, stockings, shooes.
Corp. Nath'l Petingel, blanket, shurts, trouses, stockings, shooes.
Job Britun. Buckels, shoes, handkerchief.
Luther Windslow, blanket, 1 shurt, 1 pr trouses
Silas Farnsworth, blanket, shirt, pr. trouses, 2 pr stockings, shooes.
Ira Evans 1 pr stockings.
Israel Thomas, shurt, trouses, shooes.
John White 1 shurt, 1 pr shooes.
Jonathan Wright, stockings.
David Darby, 1 blanket, 3 shirts, 1 pr stockings, shoes.
Lemuel Wintworth, shirt, 1 gun? —
John McMitchell 1 Pocket book.
David Robens, shirts, trousers, 2 pr stockings, caps.
Samuel Robens, shirts, trousers, stockings.
Elezer Robens 1 handkerchief.
Elijah Elmer blanket, shirt, trousers, stockings, handkerchief.
Elijah Taylor, shirt, trousers, stockings.
Nahum Goodenow, 1 drum.
James Symonds 1 shirt, trousers.
Oliver Johnson 1 shirt, one pr. stockings.
Ebenezer Chamberlin, blanket, stockings, shoes, razor;
Jonathan Barret, coat, shirt, blanket, 2 pr shoes, sack, tumplines, stockings, trousers;
Elisha Balding, coat, shurt, shoes, sack & sundry articles;
Daniel Carlile, shoes, stockings;
Lewis Acres, 1 gun, 1 pr shoes, 1 pr stockings ;
Ephraim Stone, 1 fine shirt, 1 blanket, 1 pr shoes, 1 tow shirt, 1 pr stockings ;
Ruben Tarble, shirt, shoes.
(pages 591-592)
A Return of clothing and other things lost in the fight of the 17th of June, 1775, Belonging to Capt. Spaldings
company.
Capt. Spalding, one shurt, 2 pair stockings, 1 Briches:
Lieut. Bradford, 1 Blanket, 1 Shurt;
Ens. Butte, 2 shurts, 1 jackett, 2 pr stockings;
Serjant Lee, 1 Blanket. 1 coat, 1 jacett, stoking & shoes;
Serj.Hutchins, 1 blankett, &c. ;
Serj. Merril, 1 coat, 1 blanket, bed-tiking shurt;
Serj. Bayley, Catridge Box, 1 shurt, a snapsack;
Corporal Pike, 1 Blanket, 1shurt, 2 pair stokins, 1 pr shoes;
Do. Hutchinson, 1 blanket, 1 coat, 1 jacett, 2 shurts, &c.;
Do. Walker, 1 blankett;
Do. Campbell, 1 blanket, 1 coat, 2 shurts, 1 pair stokons;
Joshua Chace, 1 blanket, 1 shurt, 1 pr Briches, stokens;
John Johnson, 1 shurt. 1 pair stokens, 1 pail Briches;
Edward Bevins. 1 blanket. 1 shurt, 1 pair stokens;
John Osgood, 1 Gun. 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 2 pr stokens, 2 shurts;
Andrew Thompson, l coat, 1 Blankett, 1 Hankercheff;
David Glover, 1 Blanket, 1 coat, 1 pr Briches, 1 shurt, 1 pair stokins;
Robert Glover 1 blanket, 2 shurts, 2 pr stokens, pr. Briches;
Samuel Currier, 1 gun, 1 blankett, 1 coat & jacket & Briches;
Thomas Harday, 1 blanket, coat, jacket, stocking &c;
Benja. Starnes, 1 jacket, 2 shirts, 1 pr. Briches;
Jona. Starnes. 1 gun, 1 coat, 2 shurts, 1 pr. Briches, 1 pr Trowsers;
Natha'l Bacheldor, 1 blanket, 1 coat, 3 shirts, 1 pr Briches;
James Campbell, 2 shirts, briches, stockens, hand kerchief;
Timothy Mclntire, 1 Blanket, 1 shirt, catreg [box?];
David Carlton. 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 1 stokens, 2 shirts;
Phineas Hardy, 1 coat, 1 Blanket, 1 shurt, Briches;
Joseph Elingwood, 1 coat, 2 Blankets, 1 shurt, &c.;
Samuel Lowel, 2 shurts. 1 jacket, Catridge Box;
Samuel Leeman, 2 coats, 1 Blankett;
Isaac Carkin, 2shurts, 1 Briches, 1 pair Trowsers;
Ezra Button, 1 coat, 1 shurt, Briches, stokens, &c;
Eaphraim Rolf, 1 gun. 1 Blankett, 1 shurt, stockens;
Ephraim Smith, 1 shurt, 1 snapsack, stockings;
Samuel Stils, 1 shurt, 1 Trowsers, Catridge Box;
Richard Hughes, 1 pair Briches, 1 coat, stokens;
William Brown, 2 coats, 1 Briches, 2 shurts, stokens;
William Duck. 2 coats, 1 shurt, 2 pair stokens;
Andrew Baley, 1 coat, 1 shurt, 1 Trousers, stokens;
Isaac Cowen, 1 Blankett, 1 coat, Trowsers;
Robert Wilkins, 1 Blankett, 1 shurt, Briches. stokens. shoos;
Jacob Wellman, 1 coat, 1 jacot, 1 shurt;
Ephraim How, 1 gun Briches and shurt.
(page 592)
A Return of the things lost in Capt. Ezra Towne's Company, in Col. Reed's Regiment on the seventeenth of
June, 1775, in the fight at Charleston.
The names of those that lost things:
Lieut Josiah Brown, 1 hat, 1 sword, 1 Malitia Book, one Bottle;
Ensign John Harkness, 1 gr't coat, 1 st[raight] Bod'd do., 1 sword, 1 Ink-pot;
Benja. Williams, 1 cutlass. 1 Razor. 1 Bottle, tobacco;
Farrow Miller, 1 st. Bod'd coat, 1 shirt, 1 pair hose, 1 Napsack;
Isaac Stanhope, 1 Blanket;
Timo. Avery, 1 Cartridge Box;
Sam'l Soper, 1 gun;
Eben'r Pratt, 1 st. Bod'd coat, 1 blankett, 1 Napsack;
Josiah Stone, 1 coat, 2 shirts, 2 pair of hose, 1 pr. shoes. 1 hankerchief, 1 razor, Napsack; 1 pair Breeches, 1
pair of Trowsers;
Levi Adams, 1 pr. of Trowsers;
Daniel Severance, 1 g't coat, 1 st. Bod'd Do, 1 pr. of Breeches, 1 pr. trowsers, 1 bayonet, 1 pr. hose; 1 shirt, 1
Napsack. 1 Tumpline, 1 hankerchief, 1 waistcoat. 1 shirt, 1 Psalm book, 1 pr. spectacles, 1 gun lock;
Daniel White, 1 Blanket, 1 coat, 1 shirt, 1 pr. hose, 1 Napsack, 1 hankerc'f ;
Jonathan Stevens, 1 st. Bod'd coat, 1 g't coat, 1 pr. Breeches, 1 pr. hose, hat; 1 razor, 1 pr. of shoes, 1
Napsack, 1 Tumpline;
Nath'l Carlton, 1 pr of shoes, 1 pr. of Buckles, 1 razor, 1 Book;
Thos. Pattison, 1 Blanket, 1 shirt, 1 gun, 1 pr. Trowsers, 1 coat;
Arch'l White, 1 hankerchief, 3 Fills [phials?] of Firr Balsome;
Stephen Adams, 1 bayonet, 1 razor;
David Eliot, 1 gun;
Sam'l Hutchins, 1 st. bod'd coat, three shirts;
Jeremy Pichard, 1 st. Bod'd coat, 1 bayonet ;
David Avery, 1 cartridge box.

(page 593)
An account of the things that was lost in Capt. Whitcomb's company In Colo. Reed's Regiment on the 17th
day of June, 1775, by the fight that was between the Continental troops, and General Gage's troops on
Bunker Hill, at Charlestown.
Capt. Jonathan Whitcomb, Great coat, St. Bod'd coat, handkerchief, sundries;
Ens. Stephen Carter, shirt, hat;
Sarg't William Heaton. shoes;
Sarg't Amos Boynton, great coat, stockens;
Sarg't Josiah Hastings, St. Bod'd coat. stockens, shirts. pocket book;
Sarg't Silvenus Reed, St. Bod'd coat, jacket, shoes, stockens, trousers, handkerchief, short breeches, shirt;
Corp'l Luther Trowbridge, stockens, short breeches;
Elisha Walton, stockens;
Samuel Follet, shoes, trousers, shirt;
Stephen Brigum. Sr. Bod'dcoat;
Jo. Harrendon, St. Bod'd coat, stockens, trousers, shirt, hat ;
Moses Tucker, Bt. Bod'd coat, trousers, handerkerchief;
Asa Gale, st. Bod. coat, stockens, shirt;
John Merrill, st. Bod. coat, shoes, stockens, short breeches, shirts, sundries;
Edward Arnold, great coat, jacket, cartridge box, &c;
Joshua Farr, st. Bod'd coat, hat, &c;
Holowel Merril, great coat, stockens, short breeches, shirt;
Eleazur Gurdin, stockens, trousers, short breeches;
Jonathan Farr, hat, &C ; Charles Millens, st. Bod'd coat, stockens;
Josiah Burton, cartridge box shot to pieces;
Charles Jonston, great coat, shoes, stockens, short breeches, shirt;
Luther Trobridge, stockens, short breeches;
Jesse Cheney, great coat, st. Bod'd coat, shoes, stockens, tronsers, short breeches, shirt;
Joshua Ellis, wounded, st. Bod'd coat. stockens, shirt, gun, &c.;
Ebenezer Parsons, jacket, shoes;
Benjamin Toleman, shoes, stockens. trousers shirt:
Joseph Fassett, great coat, shoes, stockens, trousers, shirt. &c;
Andrew Butler, great ooat, stockens, trousers, shirt, &c.;
William Toleman, stockens. trousers short breeches;
John Whitney, shoes, stockens;
Enoch Cummins, sundries;
Amasa Parker, stockens, short breeches, shirt;
Pearson Newell, sundries;
Abija Whitcomb, st. Bod'd coat, shoes, stockens, trousers, shirt.

(page 594)
A Return of what was Lost in Capt. Wm. Walker's company on the 17th of June, 1775.
Lieut. James Brown, 1 surtoot, coat;
Francis Putnam, 1 blanket, 1 surtoot, 1 shirt, 1 gun ;
Jona. Emerson, 1 gun;
Israel How, 1 snapsack, 1 great coat, 1 shirt, 1 pare Trowsers, 1 pr Hoes;
Wm. Harris, jun 1 pr. Mooskin-breeches, 1 snapsack, 1 shirt, 3 woolen shirts, 1 pr. hoes;
Abel Danforth, 1 snapsack. 1 shirt. 1 pr. hoes, 1 great coat;
Jona. Danforth, 2 shirts. 1 tow-shirt, 1 pair breeches, 1 blanket, 1 catteridge box. 2 pr. hoes;
Phineas Whitnev. 1 shirt, 2 pr Trowsers. 1 pr. hoes, 1 pr. shoes, 1 blanket, 1 snapsack;
Paul Clogston, 1 snapsack. 1 pr. mooskin breeches, 2 shirts, 1 pr. trowsers, 1 blanket, 2 pr. hoes;
Henry Lovewell. 1 snapsack, 1 coat, 1 shirt. 1 pair Hoes;
Medad Combs, 1 snapsack, 1 shirt, l pr. Hoes;
Ichabod Lovewell, 1 Blanket, 1 shirt, 1 pr. Hoes, 1 coat. 1 Pistol, 1 Fife;
Phillip A. Roby, 1 snapsack, 1 blanket, 1 shirt, 1 pr. trousers, 1 pr. Hoes;
John Snow, snapsack, 1 blanket. 1 shirt, 1 pr. trowsers, 1 pr. Hoes;
Eleazer Blanchard, 1 new Blue serge coat lin'd;
Nehemiah Winn, 1 shurt ;
Wm. Butterfield, 1 snapsack, 1 shirt, 1 pr. Hoes;
Joseph Greele, 1 snapsack, 2 shirts, 2 pr. Leather-breeches, Cartridge-box;
Jacob Blodgett, 1 pr. hoes:
Jona. Harris, 2 shirts, 1 pr. Trousers, 1 Blanket, 1 gun, 1 Catteridge Box ;
Nehemiah Lovewell, 1 shirt, 1 gnapsack;
Adrian Hawkins, 1 pr. shoes. 1 pr. Hoes;
Mansfield Toplin. 1 shirt, 1 pr. Hoes, 1 gnapsack;
Silas Chamberlain, 1 coat, 1 jacket, 2 shirts, 1 gnapsack;
John Lovewell, 1 gnapsack, 2 shirts. 1 pr. Hoes;
Henry Lovejoy, 1 gnapsack, 1 Blanket, 1 shirt. 1 great coat, 1 pr. Deerskin-breeches. 1 pr. sheepskin-
breeches, 2 Hoes;
Jona. Gray, 1 gnapsack. 1 Blanket, 1 great coat, 1 shirt, 2 pr. Hoes, 1 pr. trowzers;
Wm. Harris. Drum sticks & sling;
Isaac Brown, 1 gnapsack, 1 pr. Hoes, 1 pr. shoes, 1 shirt, 1 pr. breeches, 1 surtoot, 1 jacket, 1 pr. trowsers;
James Harwood, 1 coat, 1 pr. Breeches. 1 shirt, 1 pr. Hoes;
Benja. Whitney, 1 snapsack, 1 shirt, 1 pr. trowsers, 1 blanket, 1 pr. shoes. 1 Bible;
Timothv Darlin, 1 coat, l snapsack;
Benj. Bayley. 1 Powder horn, 1 cattridge-box ;
Capt. Wm. Walker, 2 pair shoes, 1 3-4 yds. fine cloth att 3-4 per yd.;
Asa Cram, 1 gun and bayonet.
The above Account is the true account of what my company Lost on Bunker Hill, Charlestown. the 17th of June,
1775, and justly prized according to the best of my knowledge. Winter Hill, July 15th, 1775. William Walker, Capt.

(page 595)
A List of Losses, sustained in the Batal and Retreat on bunker hill the 17th of June, 1775, of Capt. Thomas's
Company in the New Hampshire Reserves.
Lieut. [John Harper,] one hat;
Ens'n [Ezekiel Rand] coat two shirts, one gun, iron strike sword, pr hose;
Sarg't. Benjamin Davis, a blanket, surtout. one byanot;
Ezekiel Larned, one gone [gun] one byanot & belt, one powder horn;
Sarg't Simon Dans, one coat;
Sarg't Jacob Pierce, a coat, a shag great coat & pack;
Corporal John Demary, one blanket, one byanot. one haversack;
Corp'l Semion Inglas, one Cartridge Box, one gun, & byanot, one powder horn, one blanket:
Corp'l. Benjamin Lovring, Cadous Box & silke handkerchief ;
Drums & Fifers — Daniel Lake, one pair of suse [shoes] one blanket;
Lemi Page, one shagge greatcoat;
Richard Alexander, caduse Box & a coat;
Thomas Hutchinson, a pare of trowsors;
David Daves, a fine shirt, & a pair of yarn hose;
Jonathan Lovejoy, a surtoot, four shirts, one coat, two waistcoats, one gun. three pare of hose, one pouch,
neckcloth, one pr. of trousers, one coat— box, Baynot;
Thomas Henderson. 2 shirts. 2 pr. hose, coat & waistcoat, & a pare of Lether breeches;
James Cochran, blanket, pr. Briches, a pr. of hose, a Rasor, havsak [haversack];
Dudley Griffin, a coat & shirt;
Benjamin Beales, a shirt, two pr. of hose;
Ezekiel Demary, one pr. of hose;
Reuben Paige, a great cote, & one shirt. 1 pr. of hose, l powder horn, one cartridge Box, one wastcoat;
Obadiah Marsh, one shirt. 1 pr. of hose, one Havisack;
Joell Russell, 1 coat, 1 pr. Leather-briches, 1 pr. hose, two shirts, one hat, 1 powder horn, haversack;
Jacob Hobbs, one blanket;
Timothy Rogers, one shirt :
Godfary Richison, one pare of suse [shoes] :
Henry Davis, one pare or trousers;
Hugh Gregg, one shag great coat, 1shirt. 1 powder horn. Bulet-pouch. Philip Thomas. Capt.
(pages 595-596)
A True account of what was lost in the Battle on Bunkers Hill in Capt. Benjamin Mann's Company in June
ye 17th 1775.
Samuel Campbell, a coat, a pare of Trousers, shirt, Snapsac, Tumpline, Blanket, a pr. Of Breches, a pare
Stockens; ;
John Adams, a pare of Shoes;
John Buxton, a gun;
John Thomas, a coat, a pr. of shoes,,a Snapsack, a Tumpline;
Robert Wolsey, a pare of Stockens;
John Slone, a coat, shirt, a Snapsack & Blankett;
Zacheus Hodgman, a Blankett;
William Parker, a shirt, a pare of Trousers, snapsack, a pr. of stockens, hat;
Amos Coburn, a coat, a pr. of trousers, a snapsack, a Blankett, pr. Stockens;
Joseph Hodgman, a Blankett;
Thomas Tarbell. a coat;
Isaac Barrett, a Blankett;
Samuel Scripture, 2 shirts, a gun, a snapsack ;
Elijah Avery, a pair of Stockens, a gun ;
Benjamin Mann, a gun ;
James Brewer, a pare of shoes;
Jeremiah Holt, Snapsack;
Samuel Right, a coat, 2 shirts, 1 gun, a snapsack, a Tumpline, a Blankett, a pr. of breeches, a pr. of Stockens;
Isaac Flagg, 2 coats, a shurt, a pr of shoes, a Snapsack & tumpline, a Blankett, a pare of Breeches, a pr.
of stockens;
Samuel Abbott, a gun & Bayonet;
John Fish, a jacot, a pare of trousers, 2 shurts, a pr. of shoes, a Snapsack & Tumpline, a pair of breeches;
Daniel Collins, a pr. of Breeches;
Simeon Hildreth, a coat, a shurt, a snapsack, a Blankett;
Ebenezer Carlton, a silk handkerchief;
Geo. Willson, a coat and handkerchief.
Benjamin Mann, Capt.

(page 596)
An account of things that was lost at the Battle on Bunkers hill, on the 17th of June, 1775, belonging to Capt.
Crosby's Company, viz.
Capt. Crosby's things are 1 pistel & 1 pair of worsted stockings;
Lieut. Daniel Wilkins 1 cotton shirt;
Ens'n Thomson Maxwell, 1 fine shirt & one powder horn ;
Adg't Stephen Peabody one blanket & one shirt;
Quarter Master Frye one coat & one Hatt ;
Serg't William Bradford one shirt;
Serg't Lemuel Winchester one pair of shoes;
Eli Wilkins 1 Blanket& one Bullet Mold;
Alexander Brown 1 cotton shirt, one pair of stockings & one gnapsack;
Thaddeus Fitch 1 shirt, 1 pair of calfskin pumps, 1 pr. trowzers & Gnapsack;
Samuel Starnes 1 pair of shoes;
Stephen Crosby, 1 great coat & 1 shirt;
Jona. Wilkins 1 shirt;
Thomas Giles one gun, 1 cartooch Box & one jacket;
Thomas Perry one woolen shirt, one powder horn & one gnapsack;
Joseph Boutel, one pair of stockings, 1 pair of Leather-Breeches;
Nathaniel Barrett 1 gnapsack, one pair of shoes & buckles & 1 handkerchief;
Sam'l Williams 1 shirt & one handkerchief & one gun;
James Gilman, 1 Blanket & one Handkerchief;
Joseph Wakeiield, 1 pr of Deer-skin Breeches, 1 Cartooch Box;
Eben'r Wakeiield, 1 sett of shoe-makers Tools, 1 shirt 2 pr of stockings & 1 pr of shoes;
Dan'l Kenney, 1 great coat & one gun;
Joseph Wallis 1 pair of shoes;
Andrew Leavitt, 1 coverlid, one pr. of stockings, 1 gnapsack & Handkerchief:
Josiah Sawyer one gun, one coat, one Powder horn & one Bible;
Joshua Abbot 1 gnapsack & pair of stockings.
Josiah Crosby. Capt.

(page 597)
Charleston, June ye 21. This is the acompt of the Packs that was lost in the fite the 18[sic] of the same month
Belonging to Capt. John Marcy.
Capt. Marcy 1 good coat, 2 good fine shurts, 1 pr. stockings, 1 blanket, 1 pr Boots:
Lt. Farwell, 1 sword, 1 good coat, 4 good shurts, 4 pr. of stockings, 1 pr of Boots, 1 pr. Sadelbags, 1 pr of
spurs, 1 pr. Lether briches, 2 silk handkerchief, 1 Blanket;
Ens. James Tagard, 2 good shurts, 3 pr stockings. 1 pr sadelbags. 1 pr shous, 1 Tumpline, 1 pillar case:
Isaac Johnson. 1 good Blanket. 1 good piller case. 3 good shurts. 3 good pr. of stockings. 1 good pr. trouses, 1
good frock. 1 good razor and sum other things Besides;
Ebenezer Kingsbury 1 good shurt, 1 pr. stockings. 1 pr trouses, 1 pr. shoos, 1 tumpline, 1 Blanket;
Jonathan Eastman, 1 good Blanket, 1 good shurt, 1 pr trouses, 2 good capes. 1 good Rasher, 1 new pair of
shoues;
Jonathan Eastman jun'r. 1 good piller-case. 1 good Blanket. 1 shurt. 1 pair trouses;
Heskier Clark. 1 Blanket, 1 shurt, 1 pr. trouses. 1 pr stockings;
Daniel Adams, 1 Blanket, 1 coat, 1 shurt, 1 pr velvet briches;
Elisha Gustin 1 Blanket. 1 shurt, 2 pr stockings. 1 piller case, 1 tumpline;
Stephen Gilman. 1 shurt, 1 pr stockings, 1 piller case. 1 pair shous, 1 pr buckels;
Joseph Parke, 1 velvet jacat. 1 shurt, 2 pr stockings, 1 tumpline;
Amos Flud, 1 shurt, 1 pr trouses. 1 piller case, 1 shurt;
Alexander Dihbel, l Blanket, l pr cloath Briches. 1 pr stockings;
Caleb Airl, 1 pr stockings. 1 tumpline;
John Downs. 1 blanket, 1 tumpline, 1 pr stockings, 1 shurt, 1piller case;
Gilbert Castwell, 1 blanket. 1 coat. 1 fir stockings. 1 shurt. 1 piller case;
David Cross. 1 blanket. 1 shurt. 1 coat. 1 jacut, 1 pr trouses. 1 pr stockings. 1 tumpline:
Cornelius Warren, 1 blanket, 1 piller-case, 1 shurt. 1 pr trouses. 1 Rasher;
Samuel Marcy, 1 blanket, 1 pr stockings,
Samuel Bur, 1 blanket, 1 pr of Lether Briches. 1 gun. 1 tumpline, 1 pr stockings, 1 piller case;
Isac Read, 1 gun. 1 coat, 1 Blanket. 1 shurt. 1 pr stockings, 1 piller case, l tumpline. l pr Briches;
Jesse Knot, 1 Blanket;
John Cross. 1 shurt. 1 snapsack, 1tumplin, 2 pr stockings;
Joseph Powars, 1 pr trouses, 1 pr stockings, 1 piller case. 1 tumpline;
John Pulsepher, 1 piller case, 1 blanket. 2 shurts. 1 good pr. briches. 1 pr trouses,
Timothy Clark, 1 grate coat, 1 tite coat, 1 good shirt, 1 good Drum. 1 tumpline;
John Barrett, 2 pr stockings, 2 shurts, 1 pr lether Briches, 1 pr shous, l pr white briches, 1 white shurt;
Phillip Huntoon. 1 grate coat. 1 Blanket. 2 shurts. 2 pr stockings. 1 piller [case], 1 tumpline. 1 pr shous:
Edward Kies. 2 good shirts. 1 pr shous, 1 grate coat, 1 pr stockings,
John Calkins. 1 shurt. 1 tumpline.
 1776
c. An "Estimate of the Expences of raising a foot soldier in the Year 1776, say in Colo. Smallwood's
battalion & ye 7 independent Companies" included one blanket, 1/6 part of a tent, 1/6 part of a camp
kettle; a knapsack and haversack; a razor; a comb; a knife; a musket with bayonet and scabbard, gun
sling, and bayonet belt; a cartridge box and belt; and a canteen with sling.
Peter Copeland and Marko Zlatich, "4th Maryland Independent Company, 1776," Military Collector &
Historian, 53, no. 2 (Summer 2001), 83 (Military Uniforms in America, plate no. 788); (Original source
cited: William H. Browne, ed., Archives of Maryland (Baltimore: Maryland Hist. Society, 1892), 11, 223,
Council of Safety, 9 March 1776.)
_____________________

d. An inventory of the possessions of the late Samuel Lamson of Colonel Fisher Gay's Connecticut
Regiment.
"New York Sept 2 1776
Gamamiel Dardy dr
To 1 Pr of Plated Shoebuckels belonging to []
To 1 hatchet______________[Do?] 1 = 0
To 1 Wompum Belt____________0 = 0 = 9
To 1 B[illegible] Case______0 = 0 = 6
To Cash_____________________1 = 4 = 0
To 1 Silver Broach__________0 = 1 = 6
To 1 Caster Hat_____________1 = 5 = 0
To 1 Hankerchief Silk_______0 = 1 = 4
To 1 Old Pocket Book________0 = 1 = 0
To 1 Powderhorn & belt______0 = 3 = 0
_______________________________________
____________________________2 [6? 6?]???"
[These appear to be clothes of Lamson's that Dardy had already taken on account and owed money
for.]
"Corpl Gershom Dormon Dr
To a pr of old Shoes of Lamsons @ [illegible]
To a Read Jacket Ditto [illegible]
[These appear to be clothes of Lamson's that Dorman had already taken on account and owed
money for.]
[Page 2]
Inventory Brot forward
Cash 24/_________________£. 1 = 4 = 0
1 Handkerchief______________0 = 4 = 0
1 Garters___________________
1 Knapsack__________________0 = 2 = 0
1 Pr silver Kneebuckels_____0 = 6 = 0
1 Silver Broach_____________0 = 1 = 6
1 Old Pocket Book___________0 = 1 = 0
New York Septr 2nd 1776
We the Subscribers being calld to apprize the above Articles belonging to Saml Lamson late a
Soldier in Capt Rogers Company & Col Gays Regt Deceasd we did apprise his apparil &
Accoutrements &c according to the foregoing list
[Illegible]
Jabez Wright
Robert Rood"
Old Heritage Auctions / 2006 October Grand Format Autographs #629 / 1776 Battle of Long Island
Document Re: Rogers
25977 1776 Battle of Long Island Document Re: Rogers
http://www.icollector.com/1776-Battle-of-Long-Island-Document-Re-Rogers_i6010533
_____________________

1777
e. Sergeant Major John Hawkins, 2nd Canadian Regiment, noted the contents of his knapsack lost at
the Brandywine battle, “viz; 1 uniform Coat – brown faced with white; 1 shirt; 1 pair stockings; 1
Sergeants sash; 1 pair knee buckles; ½ lb. soap; 1 Orderly Book; 1 Memorandum Book, of Journal
and State of my company; 1 quire paper; 2 vials ink; 1 brass ink horn; 40 Morning returns, printed
blanks; 1 tin gill cup; A letter and a book entitled Rutherford’s Letters.” *
Stephen R. Gilbert, "Original Documents: The Diary of Sergeant-Major Hawkins," The Brigade Dispatch,
vol. XXI, no. 2 (Summer 1990),

Regarding ink, soldiers sometime had to make do, as in this passage from a private soldier’s
letter (Henry Johnson, Spencer’s Regiment), is interesting: Morristown, April 1780, “But
Remember Me to all Enquiering friends / You must ExCuse my Bad writing / you must Read it
as well as you Can my ink Was Bad Nothing to make it [out] of But gun powder” (Collection
429, Henry Johnson letters, 1778-1780, Library and Archives, Monmouth County Historical
Society, Freehold, N.J..Transcribed by James L. Kochan, May 1990, transcription verified and
revised by John U. Rees, January 2002.)

* NOTE: Samuel Rutherford, 1600–1661, Scottish clergyman. His Exercitationes apologeticae pro divina
gratia (1636), urging a Calvinist view of grace against Arminianism (see Arminius, Jacobus), caused his
suspension from his living at Anwoth on the charge of nonconformity to the Acts of Episcopacy.
Banished to Aberdeen until the National Covenant was drawn up in 1638, he then was made professor of
divinity at St. Mary’s College, St. Andrews, and rector of the university in 1651. In 1643 he was chosen a
commissioner from Scotland to the Westminster Assembly, and was attacked by name in John Milton’s
sonnet “On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament.” His Lex Rex (1644) brought him
wide attention as a political theorist; it was burned by the public hangman after the Restoration, and
Rutherford was removed from his official positions and summoned (1661) by Parliament on a charge of
treason. He died before he could be tried. Rutherford’s letters, first published as Joshua Redivivus (1664),
edited by A. A. Bonar with a life (2 vol., 1863), have passed through a number of editions.
_____________________
 f. Inventory of a Deceased Rhode Island Soldier’s Belongings
(Courtesy of Kirsten Hammerstrom)
An inventory of Searjeant George Babcock’s
Wearing Apparil who was Killed at fort Mercer
Octor 22d 1777 Belonging to Capt Thos Arnold’s Comp’y in Colo Green’s Regemt
Two Check Linen Shirts
one Pair of Striped Linen overalls
one Striped Cotton & linen Jacket without Sleeves
one flannel Jacket without Sleeves
one home spun Woolen Jacket without sleeves
one Linen & Worsted cotee
one Kersey outside Jacket Lined with flannel
one beaver Hat & one Pair of shoes
one Pair of blue worsted stockings
one pair of thread ditto
one pair of blue yarn Stockings
one Linnen Handkerchief
one knapsack
Clothing inventory, Capt Thos. Arnold, Col. Christopher Greene, Rhode Island Regiment
Rhode Island Historical Society, MSS 673 SG 2, S1, SSA Box 1 Folder 13.

1779
g. Frederick Wilhelm de Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United
States. Part I. (Philadelphia, Pa. 1779)

"Instructions for the Captain."

"If the company make any stay in a place, he must, previous to their marching, inspect into their
condition, examine their knapsacks, and see that they carry nothing but what is allowed, it being a
material object to prevent the soldier loading himself with unnecessary baggage." p. 141.
"Each serjeant and corporal will be in a particular manner answerable for the squad committed to his
care. He must pay particular attention to their conduct in every respect; that they keep themselves and
their arms always clean; that they have their effects always ready, and where they can get them
immediately, even in the dark, without confusion; and on every fine day he must oblige them to air
their effects.
When a man of his squad is warned for duty, he must examine him before he carries him to the
parade, obliging him to take all his effects with him, unless when specially ordered to the contrary."
pp. 148-149.
"Instruction for the private Soldier."
"... whenever he is ordered under arms, [he] must appear well dressed, with his arms and
accoutrements clean and in good order, and his knapsack, blanket, &c. ready to throw on his back in
case he should be ordered to take them.
When warned for guard, he must appear as neat as possible, carry all his effects with him, and even
when on sentry must have them at his back." pp. 152-153.
"Instruction for the private Soldier."
"When ordered to march, he must not charge himself with any unnecessary baggage ... When arrived
at camp or quarters, he must clean his arms, prepare his bed, and go for necessaries, taking nothing
without leave, nor committing any kind of excess." p. 154.
 __________________

General Orders, 12 May 1779: “Instructions for the Inspector General, included the stipulation that a
return be made of "the men's cloathing and necessaries ... At 7 o'Clock on friday morning the 1st.
regiment will parade with their Arms, Accoutrements, Blankets and Knapsacks containing their spare
cloathing and necessaries ..."
John C. Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, vol. 15 (Washington: Government Printing Office,
1936), 48.
_________________________
h. A "Plan for the Cloathing of the [light] Infantry" (circa 1779), George Washington Papers,
Presidential Papers Microfilm, (Washington, DC, 1961), series 4, reel 63.
Plan for the Cloathing of the Infantry
Whatever Cloathing the Foot Soldiers receive from the States, may be reduced to the three following
Heads.
I. The Necessaries
II. The Uniform
III. The Small Mounting
The Necessaries of a Soldier Should consist of:
1. An Haversack of Calf Skin
2. A Knapsack of Grey Linen
3. A Blanket
4. A Pair of Shoe Buckles
5. A Pair of Knee Do
6. A Stock Do
7. A Cloaths Brush
8. A pair of Shoe Brushes
9. A large Comb ---------- |
10. A Small Do | The Whole Enclosed
11. Six needles | in a Leather case
12. Two Oz. Blue Thread |
13. Two Oz. White Do ----- -|
14. A Pocket Knife
15. A Tin Spoon
The Uniform Should Consist of:
1. A Hat 5. A Pair Woolen Overalls
2. A Coat 6. A Leather Stock
3. A Waistcoat ------ | Woolen 7. A Pair of Garters wth Buckles
4. A P. of Breeches -| 8. A pair Woollen Gloves
The Small Mounting Should Consist of:
1. Two Shirts -------------- | one of each Article Every
2. Two Pairs Wool. stockgs. | four months
3. A pair of Shoes --------- |
4. A Queue Ribband { to be renewed every six months
5. A Hunting shirt ------- | P[er]
6. a Pair Linen Overalls--| Year
 1780
i. Sgt. Andrew Kettell, Jackson’s Additional Regiment/16th Massachusetts Regiment
Journal, May 1780-March 1781

7 June 1780, "... at 9 AM. we Recd orders for marching / paraded about 1/2 after ten with
Knapsacks arms & 40 Rounds / proceeded to Chatham arrived about 3 in the Afternoon heard that
6000 of the british was within 4 Miles of us at Spirngfield and had set several Houses on fire / we halted
about 1 1/2 hours and Drew 1/4 Gill Rum / Proceeded for Springfield with about 3000 men and a
number of paces of Artillery. we marched in Sight of the enemy and halted for the night. it Rained and
thundered all night / we Laid out upon the Ground."
Thursday, 8 June, "... we still remain at the heights 3 Miles from Springfield / it was current this
morng that the british was intrenching hear Connecticutt farms / this morng 1 hessian deserted who
Informed that the number I have aserted is out - besides Staten Island Militia. we now proceeded on
our march to the farms about 11 OClock AM met 22 British Prisoners / Arrived at the farms at 4
OClok / We slept all night in an Orchard near Mr. Churk's on the farms"
Friday, 9 June, "... had [3 or 5] Men Killed for the Brigade / we had not time to get breakef[ast]
when there was Orders to Retreat back to the heights from whence we Came / we Draw 3 Days
Rations of Bread and 3 D[ays] of fresh Beef..."
Sunday, 11 June, "... the Brigade had Canteens Issued to them"
Friday, 16 June, "... the Enemy is very still in there Works at Elizabethtown -"
Thursday, 22 June, "... I whent up to the Hutts at Morristown to Git some of my Cloathes which
I Left there / I Returned in the Afternoon & I was taken sick at night I Lay sick all night on the
Ground"
Friday, 23 June, "it was very hot / 3 alarm guns was fired the Brg[ade] Paraded and march on
to - Springfield. I was sent to Chatham about [1 or 2] Miles and staid at Mr. Ward were I was taken
Great Care of / the Enemy march[ed] for Springfield about 10.000 of them they were Opposed by Colo
Angells Regt and the Jersey Brig[ade] on there Coming over a Bridge where was a Large Creek that
hindered there passing otherways the Engagement Continued about 2 hours a very Constant hot fire
of Cannon and Musquetry our troops Retreat[ed] to the Heights. the Enemy took the town and set the
most part [of] it on fire. When they Retreated to Elizabethtown from whence they Came our Army
followed after them to the farms where they halted [and] Marched Bak to old Encampment"
June 24, 1780 "... I was very sick but Better then I was before / it began to Rain Very hard Thunderd
and Lightned untill night / I heard that the Brigade was to march in the morning."
June 25 "... I was so well that I went to the Regt. / the Brigade Marched at 9 OClock I kept in the
Rear. I was very unwell But I endeavoured to Cheer up my hart untill Meridian Sun [when] the
Brigade halted I was Obliege to Lay on the Ground by the water side wereby I took Could and was
worst again than I was before"
June 26 "[it] was thick & heavy and Like to rain. I Proceeded with the Brigade till Night and then
Halted at Ramapo in the Woods. I laid Down On the Ground the Rain Came on [and] I was obliged to
lay in it as I Could not Git to any house -"
June 27 "it was Pleasant... I remained in a poor Condision our Docr. was behind I had nothing Don
for me this Day"
Wednesday, June 28 "... the Doctr. Came to see Me he Give me [a] Puke which I took / it help me
Greatly But Left me Weake..."
June 29 "... I was some Better than I was the Day before"
June 30 "... this Day Receivd orders to march to morrow morning. the Sick was to be sent to the
Flying Hospital. I had no mind to Go as I never had been at one. But the Docr. told me I had Better Go
or I was in a poor weake Condision -"
July 1, 1780 "... the Army marched this morning at 3 OCok I whent to the Hospital-"
 July 2 "it was very hot the Doctr Came in to the Barn to see me / he Gave me some Bark to take he
took a great Deal of Care of me I wanted for nothing -"
July 3 "... I found I Got Better fast"
July 5 "... I found I Got Stronger every Day -"
July 9 "it was pleasant... I was so well as I went to Camp to Deliver some soldiers who was well I
staid in Camp this Night / our Brigade pitch tents this morning -"
Monday, July 10 "it was Very Hot light breezes at S. I Return to the Hospital this Afternoon at the
request of the Docr. to stay a few days with him"
July 18 "... I left the hospital for good and Joind the Regt. and Drew 3 lb of [?] and 1/4 of Tea -"
July 20 "... Drew Shirte Blankett and Shoes -"
Saturday, July 22 "... we had the news of the french Fleet arrival -"
July 23 "... this Eving we had the Acct of the Engagement of the Day before between the Brave Genl
Wayne and a number of Negroes & Refugees to the amt of 3000 belonging to British in possession of a
block house on a point of land - Convenent to the North River - Genl. Wayne Endeavoured to beseige
it by Storme and Sustained some loss"
July 28 "it was p[l]easant / there was a party of Militia arrived in Camp this Day with Mr Kent / we
had orders for marching and all [pre]parations making this Eving / at Eving parade it was read that
we should Decamp at 3 OC AM / it rained hard this night"
July 29 "it was pleasant / Struck tents at Day break and proceeded on our march to toataway [New
Jersey] where we arrived about 8 OC AM near a pleasant River / after Refreshment proceeded to
pearamus 8 Miles / the Day was Vary hot. I never Endured so much fatigue in my life / arrived at
Pearamaus at 4 OC Aftn and halted for the Night. it thunderd lightned and Rained Very hard about 3
hours then Seased Raining. I Slept in a Barn this night as our Tents did not Come up -"
July 30 "was Coole & Cloudy the wind at SE / the genl. beat at 3 OClock we struck tents and
proceeded to Keikeate Meeting house which was 12 Miles, arrived at Noon and halted Refreshed our
Selves and proceeded 6 Miles - farther to harverstraw where we Encamped and remained for the
night. at Sun down we had orders for marching at 1 OClock AM"
July 31 "it was pleasant / we Struck tents at 1 OClock proceeded to the King ferry arrived before
Sun Rise Crossed about 8 OC AM / we Marched a Mile from the ferry towards peaks Kill and halted /
at Eveng. Role Call we had Orders to have half our baggage & half our tents sent to West point."
Tuesday, August 1 "it was Very hot... were making all [preparations] to proceed for Kings Bridge to
beseige N. York / this Even.g heard that the British had returned to York"
August 2 "it was Very hot we had hard Rain with Thinder and Lighting / at Even.g Role Call we
had Orders for Marching to Recross the River again which was disagreable news to me for I did not
expect to Cross into the Jerseys again..."
August 3 "... I whent to see John Baker and took a Drink of Grog wt him"
August 4 "it was pleasant / we had orders to hold our Selves in Readiness to march at moments
warning..."
August 5 "it was pleasant Very hot / we had orders to Strick tents at Sun down and to march to the
ferry / we were Crossing the River all night"
August 5 "It was pleasant but Very hot we marched on to Haverstraw about 6 Miles and then
Halted for the night / pitch our tents about 3 OClok in the Afternoon Came on a heavy Rain with
Thunder and lightng / at Eveng parade had orders for Marching at 2. OC -"
August 7 "It was foggy the Wind at E. the Genl. beat agreable to orders we Marched towards the
River and passed over a great mountain / Marched [through?] the East end of Kakeack and to green
bush before we halted which was a 11 Miles. we Encamped there and Remained the night / at Even.g
Role Call we had orders to march at 3 OC. in the Morng"
August 8, 1780 "it was pleasant / we proceeded on our march to the Junction of two Roads where we
met the Right wing of the Army thay then marched in front of the Left, when the whole proceeded to
tappan, where the Right Wing halted & Encamped / the Left marched two Miles farther to Orang
town. halted & Encamped. we Encamped in a bad place for Water"
 August 13 "... I when to sea [?] in the forenoon I took a Drink of Grog with him"
August 22 "It was pleasant / at 12 OClock Read orders for Marching the next morning and all
[pre]parations making this Even.g for the march"
August 23 "it was pleasent the wind at S. at 7 OClock we struck tents and March at 9 OC from
Orange town to Teneyck about 12 Miles and within 2 Miles of fort Lee. the March was very fatigueing
as the Day was Sultry hot. we arrived on the Ground at 2 OC at which time there Came on a heavy
shower of Rain with thunder / we Remained on the Ground till the 3 of September -"
September 3, 1780 "it Rained Very hard all Day with hign Winds at NE the Storms put me in mind
of the Storm on Rhoad Island as it was as bad for two hours as ever I new. at Even.g Role Call we had
orders for Marchg the next morning."
September 4 "It was Clear and pleasant we struck tents at 7 OC and at 10 OC the Army began the
March / we Marched to Steenropia [Stonearabia?] 8 Miles, over New Bridge, and Encamped upon the
Heights / It was a bad Place for water..."
September 9 "... the Brave Genl Poor Died this Morning"
September 10 "... Genl Poor was interred this Afternoon at Hackensack Church"
September 11 & 12 "... I was this Day to sea the Execution of David Hall who was executed this Day
at 4 OC for Plundering... an Inhabitant of money and Plate..."
September 16 "Clear and Pleasant to Day / Colo Spencers Regt is to march to morrow morng to
Join Colo Livingstons at Stony Point..."
September 17 "... the Commander in Cheif this Day set off for Rhoade Island and Major Genl.
Green took the Commd / Cuffe and Barrett Deserted to York last night from our Regt"
September 18 "Clear and pleasent / at Even.g Role Call had Orders for the whole Army to be
Readiness to march at the Shortest Notice / Colo Meiges Regt. has ordeers to march to morrow Morng.
for West Point"
September 19 "it was Clear and Pleasent / at Role Call had orders for to march in the morn.g at 7
OClock -"
September 20 "this Morn.g Cloudy and Coole / we struck tents at 7 OC and the Grand Army began
the march at 10 OC / the army march[ed] in the following order
Genl. McDougalls Division
Genl. Howes Do. left Wing
Genl Steubens Do.
Parke of Artillery
Connecticut Do.
Lord Stirlings Do. Right
St, Clairs Do. wing

the army Marched to the old Encampment at Orange town / we arrived on the Ground at 3 OC we
pitch our tents. this Even.g had a pleasent Shower"
September 21 "... I had the Unwelcome News at the Death of [White or W. Lite] which was as
Greate a Shock as I ever met with in my life as was [an] agreable Mess Mate and a obliging
Companion it is loving him with too selfish an Affection to be sorrow that he has left us in order to
enjoy in the other world a Repose which he could not enjoy In this world of Sin and Sorrow"
September 25 "Clear and Cool the Army was this Day Review By the Inspector Genl and the
Officers of the Grand Army"
September 26 "Clear and pleasent. the whole army was ordered to turn out last Night at 12 OC to
Draw Provision and Cook 2 Days of it in order to march. the Cause of this movement was that the
Enemy was a Going to take West Point that Arnold had Sold to them which was happely Discovered.
the Enemy Came up the River as far as they were permitted it pleased God in the last moment to
Confound the Plot which was laid fore our Distruckion. Arnold made his Escape to York and Andrew
[their?] Ajt Genl is now our Prisoner he was taken the Planes of the fort in order to Bring his army to
the fort. at Even.g parade we had the orders read Givein the account of Arnold going to the enemy /
the Commander in Cheif arrivd at West Point Yesterday from Hartford -"
September 28 "Rain & Cold / at sun down we Drew 1 Jill of Rum"
Sunday, October 1, 1780 "this morn.g foggey about 9 OC Clear away pleasent... this Day Majr.
Andree was tried and sentence to Suffer Death. he was to be Executed at 5 OC this Afternoon but was
reprived till the next Day -"
October 2 "Clear and Pleasent this forenoon past Muster after Mustering I whent to Sea Major
Andree who was Executed for coming out from the enemy as Spy to [negotiate] the Business with Genl
Arnold -"
October 3 "this morn.g Came on a hean Storm of Rain... after Roll Call we Drew a Jill of Rum"
October 5 "this Morn.g Col and Stormey... this Afternoon Drew A Jill of Rum..."
October 6 "at Even.g Parade had Orders for Marching in the morning. this Even.g all prepartions
makeing for the March."
October 7 "Cold and Cloudy at 7 OClock Struck tents at 9 OClock March from Orang town and
Arrived at Harverstraw at 4 OClock and pitch tents / Rainey & Stormey at 12 OClock Clear away -"
October 8 "Clear and Pleasent [s]truck tents at 7 OClock and March for West Point over the
Mountains at night halted two miles from the point and lay out this night. A fatigueing March Inding
file for 14 Miles"
October 9 "this Morn.g foggy at 8 OClock Clears away Pleasent / We Pitch tents"
October 10 "... this Morng the three months Men were Dischard"
October 11 "... this Afternoon Drew a Jill of Rum [and] Bread for two Days"
October 12 "... Drew 1 Days flour"
October 15 "this Morn.g hazeay and Warm the Wind at W. ... Colo Ganowarts Regt had orders to
prepare for Embarkation for Albany and the other Regts of the York Brigade to be ready to march
when ordered"
October 17 "... this Day Major Genl Heath Appointed to Command this Post"
October 18 "Clear and Cold the wind at NW last night so Cold as the Ise made [illegible] at Even.g
Parade had orders Read for the Brigade to move into Barracks which was verry agreable / this Even.g
was keep in Remembrance [of] the 17 of October -"
Saturday, October 28 "... this Even.g had the agreable newes of the Defeat of Colo Fergusons Corps
in its March to Charlestown. Our Party Come up with them at a place called Kings Mountain
advantageous posted And gave them a total Defeat in which Colo Fergasons with 150 of his men were
Killed 800 made Prisoners and 1500 Stands of Armes taken. on our part the Loss was
inconsiderable - at Role Call Drew a Jill of Rum -"
October 29 "Cloudy this Morn.g the Rigdment took Possesion of the Barrack / at 11 OClock Cleare
away Pleas[ant] / Drew 2 pound of Shugar and 1 pound of Coffee a man -"
Wednesday, November 1, 1780 "a heavey Storm of Snow and Rain... till night at 12 OClock Cleard
away - Drew a Jill of Rum"
November 2 "Cleare and Cold. the mountains Coved with Snow -"
November 3 "this M.g Cloudy and Cold / this forenoon I attended the Execution of George Baker a
Matross of Colo Harrisons Regt. for being Concerned in a Conspiracy with a number of others to
spike the Cannon at Fort Schyler and intending to Desert to the Enemy and Induceing others to Desert
with him -"
November 14 "... I was on fatigue takeing up the Chaine..."
November 21 "Clear and Pleasent. this Morn.g the Troops at this Post under the Command of Genl
Starke Crosed the river and March on Expidition toward the enemy - at 12 OClock 13 Cannon was
Dischared on the Arrivel of the French Genll from Rhoad Island -"
November 22 "a heavey Storm of Rain with high wind / this Morn.g 13 Cannon was Dischard, the
French Genll sit of for Head Quarters -"
November 27 "Clear & Pleasent / this Day the Troops Arrived from there expidition from the
Planes -"
 November 28 "this Morn.g Warm and Pleasent / at Roll Call had Orders Read for the Jersey
Brigade to March to Morrow Morning"
November 30 "Cloudy and Cold / this day two Brigades of Bay Troops Arrived at this Post"
Friday, December 1 "Clear and Cold / this Mor.g the other two Brigades of Bay Troops
Arrived - Colo Webbs Regt March to the Hutts the other side of the River and Colo Angells Regiment
Crossed the River and March for Roberson Mills to Build Hutts..."
December 2 "Cloudy and extreme Cold / this Morn.g the 2 Regiments of the 4 Briga Joind with us"
December 7 "Cloudy / this Day being a Day of Thanksgiving throughout the United States But a
Day of Fasting with us -"
December 8 "... No Bread to Day"
December 9 "... the third Day and no Bread -"
December 10 "... Drew a Jill of Rum and a Jill of Flour - a Man"
December 11 "... this Day Arrived at this Post 300 Barrells of flour which gave great Joy to the
Troops"
Monday, January 1, 1781 "this Day the pleasentist New Years Day as ever I new -"
January 2 "Warm Rain this Morng. / the Arrangementt took place / our Regt left the Barracks and
March to the Hutts in the woods about 3 Miles from the Point"
January 5 "... no Bread to Day"
January 6 "... no Bread to Day" January 8 "... no Bread to Day"
February 1 "... Drew a Jill of Rum this Afternoon for New Years agreeable to General Order -"
February 11 "... this forenoon Drew one Jill of Rum -"
February 17 "... Drew a Jill of Rum"
February 19 "Cloudy and cold some snow last night / this Morng the light Infantry march for Peeks
Kills"
February 21 "... this day I Rec 9 hard Dollars from the State wich was the first Money I had Recd
for 10 Months -"
March 10 "... Drew a Jill of Rum"
Wednesday, March 14, 1781 "... Drew a Jill of Rum"
On March 24, 1781 Sergeant Kettell received a furlough to visit his home, an account of which
journey concludes his journal.
Andrew Kettell, pension file (W2197), National Archives Microfilm Publication M804, 2,670 rolls, roll 2395,
Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, 1800–1900, Record Group 15; National
Archives Building, Washington, DC.
____________________________

j. “Inventory of the Effects of Frederick Oblieskie”

(Courtesy of Henry Cooke)
Frederick Oblieskie was a private in Captain Elias Parkman’s company, Colonel Ebenezer
Thayer’s Regiment of Massachusetts militia, three months service in 1780. Oblieskie died 27 August
1780.
“West Point, September 19th, 1780”
“Inventory of the Effects of Frederick Oblieskie, Viz
1 gun, /Bayonet & Carteredge Box
1 pr. Of thread stockings, 3 stocks
3 checkd handkerchiefs, 1 Coat, Jacoat & Britches
1 whit[e] shirt, 1 pr. New Shoes, 1 pr. half worn
1 phelt Hatt, 1 pr. wool stockings
money &c.
162 2/3 paper Dollars, 5 3/8 Silver Ditto
1 pistareen [Spanish silver coin], 1 pr. shoe, 1 pr. knee 1 stock Silver Buckles
1 pr. Shoe, 1 stock puter Buckels

Tailors Tools
1 pr. Large Shears, 1 pr. Sizers [scissors], 1 Thimble, Bobken
& Dividers, 1 penknife, 1 comb, 1 Bowl,
1 pencel, Book, 1 paper, case and
one knapsack …
“Inventory of the Effects of Frederick Oblieskie,” Board of War Letters, 1778-80, vol. 153, no. 398,
Massachusetts Archives, Boston, Ma.

For more on soldier-tailors see:

"’The taylors of the regiment’: Insights on Soldiers Making and Mending Clothing, and
Continental Army Clothing Supply, 1776 to 1783,” Military Collector & Historian, vol. 63,
no. 4 (Winter 2011), 254-265.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/131742393/The-taylors-of-the-regiment-Insights-on-Soldiers-Making-
and-Mending-Clothing-and-Continental-Army-Clothing-Supply-1778-to-1783

Detail of part of a group of Continental soldiers from Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825) painting of West
Point and dependencies. View is from the east side of the Hudson River, at the top is the lower part of
Constitution Island. "Encampment of the Revolutionary Army on the Hudson River," Library of Congress.
 "All the tin Camp-kettles they can procure ..."
Cooking Gear and other Food-Related Items

Light-Weight Military Kettles, and Cast-Iron Cooking Gear, 1775-1782. Cooking equipment
for soldiers in the Continental and British armies was relatively simple. While items such as pans
and broilers (the latter sometimes made by soldiers from iron barrel hoops) were occasionally used,
a 1779 American equipment receipt shows the extent of the usual issue: "Recd. Morris Town 25
May 1779 of James Abeel DQMG. thirty five Camp Kettles two Hundred Twenty nine Canteens
fifty Knapsacks, forty Iron Cups ... p[er] Order Col Shreve of 2d Jersey Regmt." According to
Continental Army usage, thirty-five kettles were enough for two hundred and ten men, at six men
per mess squad.46
Contrary to widespread conceptions, from as early as the French and Indian War, on into the late-
19th century, tin or sheet-iron kettles were the cooking equipment preferred for soldiers to prepare
their meals in. First we will examine light-weight kettles, then equipment less often used, as well as
eating utensils.47

Continental soldier wearing typical warm weather wear consisting of linen hunting shirt and linen
overalls. This soldier carries a camp kettle, one kettle was allotted to each six-man mess group.
Illustration by Peter F. Copeland; “7th Virginia Regiment, 1777,” Peter F. Copeland and Donald W.
Holst, Brother Jonathan print series. Courtesy of the artist.
Continental Army and States' Militia, 1775-1780. Heavier cast-iron pots are known to have
been issued to Continental troops early in the war (1775-1776), but here we have evidence of just
how prevalent they were at the time.

A return of Camp Utensils in four Regts in Genl Sullivans Brigade 48

Wooden
Iron plates & Tea
pots Kettles Pails platters Bowls Canteens Spiders Kettles
Vizt in Colo Starks Regt 65 36 42 79
Do Colo Nixons 80 64 97 163 2
Do Colo Poors 89 35 64 183 83 4 2
Do Colo Reeds 107 48 114 44 1
Do Brigade Store 1 3 1 ___ 3 1 1 1
Whole Number 336 74 219 183 293 291 5 6
A true Return as recd. from the QMr of each Regt – Attestd N Norton [illegible letters]
Majr Frazier at Boston
E[rrors] Excepted
March 24th 1776 Jno. G. Frazer AQMG

Compare that return with cooking and eating utensils in the store at Medford, Massachusetts,
in a listing dated 25 March 1776: 11 “Potts,” 0 kettles, 4 “Spiders” (frying pans with three legs),
1 skillet, 1 “Stewpan,” 1 frying pan, 2 tea kettles, 12 wooden bowls, 2 canteens, 1 “Cheese
Toaster,” 1 grid iron, 1 ladle, and 1 flesh fork. The frying pans, tea kettles, skillet, stew pan,
toaster, and grid iron would have been reserved for the officers of the brigade.49
In his memoirs Joseph Plumb Martin made note of the camp kettle he carried when serving with
the Connecticut militia in 1776. "There were but three men present [in the mess]. We had our
cooking utensils ... to carry in our hands. They were made of cast iron and consequently heavy." By
1777 Martin had joined a Continental regiment and carried a camp kettle of tin or sheet-iron. After
crossing into New Jersey in the autumn of 1777, Martin's regiment halted in the town of Burlington,
"where we procured some carrion beef, for it was not better. We cooked it and ate some, and carried
the remainder away with us ... as we were not overburthened by provisions, our mess had put ours
into our kettle, it not being very heavy, as it was made of plated iron."50
Very early in the War for Independence the American military showed a preference for light-
weight cookware. A notice in the 7 October 1775 Virginia Gazette, listed among the items "Wanted
Immediately for the Army, camp kettles, either tin or brass, to hold about three gallons ..." To the
Maryland Council of Safety, 3 February 1776: "John Townsley can make of Camp Kettles 50 at 3
gallons each at 10 shillings each likewise 250 of Cantins to hold a quart or better at 3s/9d each the
above number is as near as I can undertake. But by overhalling my tin the number may be more or
possable a little less." (These three-gallon kettles were approximately ten inches high by ten inches
wide.)51
During 1776 large numbers of light kettles were sought for both Continental regiments and militia
units. Minutes of the Continental Congress, Philadelphia, 14 June, "... Thomas Bates, Blacksmith,
proposing to supply the Continental Troops with a quantity of Camp-Kettles, of Sheet-Iron" asked
for credit to purchase "five tons of Sheet-Iron." In this same entry Timothy Matlack was "directed to
write to Thomas Mayberry, of Mount-Holly [New Jersey], the manufacturer of sheet-Iron, to send
down ... five tons of Sheet-Iron" to be delivered out "as it may be wanted, to Thomas Bates, and
receive the Kettles as fast as made." The Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Committee of Inspection,
Observation, and Correspondence, "Resolved, [on 11 July 1776] That [several men] ... be requested
to collect and purchase from the inhabitants of this town all the tin Camp-kettles they can procure ...
for the use of the Militia now preparing to march by order of Congress."52
In June 1778 Timothy Pickering, then serving with the Board of War, alluded to camp kettles
being made of tin. "We are disappointed in our expectation of getting a number of iron cartridge
boxes [also known as cannisters]. We hoped they would have yielded immediate relief. But the
principal workmen in that branch are busily engaged in making camp kettles, and cannot touch the
cartridge boxes under two months from this time ... However, the disappointment is of less
consequence than was feared, for our stock of tin suitable for cannisters is much larger than was
imagined ..." Little is presently known of kettle manufacture in 1779 and 1780, though light-weight
kettles continued to be used. As the war progressed sheet-iron kettles became the predominant type
in the Continental Army, possibly due to difficulty in obtaining tinned iron; by 1781 sheet-iron had
totally replaced tin.53
American Sheet-Iron Kettles, 1781-1782. Kettles issued to Continental troops in 1781 were likely
of the dimensions given by Samuel Ogden in May of the following year when considering a new
manufacturing contract: "... supposing the Kettles to be made as formerly, which I find to average
about 8 Inches High and about eight and a half or nine Inches wide, made without Ears and without
covers." The use of sheet iron in 1781 is corroborated by a letter from Jacob Weiss to Aaron
Forman written in May, "I have sent you ... a quantity of ... sheet Iron [which] you will please to
have work'd up into Camp Kettles - Colonel Miles Depy. QMaster for the State of Penna. informs
me that the Kettles are immediately wanted ..."54
Sheet-iron camp kettle as per Timothy Pickering's 1782 specifications. This reproduction, by Patrick
M. Cunningham, measures 9 1/2 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches high, weighs 2 pounds, 12.1 ounces, and
holds 2 gallons, 1 pint (8 1/2 quarts), and was the standard-size mess kettle for the Continental Army
during 1782. American sheet-iron kettles issued in 1781 "average[d] about 8 Inches High and about
eight and a half or nine Inches wide, made without Ears and without covers." From the beginning of
the war kettles of this type were issued in large numbers to soldiers on both sides. (To determine
capacity kettles were filled with water to one inch below the rim.) (Photo by Ross Hamel)

An "Estimate of Camp Equipage intended for a Regiment of Infantry," dated 31 January 1782,
mentions kettles for mess squads. After stating that the "Sergeants of each company" were assigned
one common tent, and the "Drums & fifes, and rank & file" were to have "1 [common tent] to every
six men," the document went on to note that "Camp kettles & pails (when you have the latter) are to
be furnished as above directed ... you are to issue one of each to a mess, only where messes are
permanently small, small kettles should serve them." Small mess squads may have had only three or
four men; the size of the above-mentioned "small kettles" is not known, nor is the difference
between camp kettles and "pails." A document detailing "The allowance of kettles for the last
campaign [1782]" stipulated that one kettle would serve "every six men," including "Non
commissioned officers & privates & Waggoners."55
In April 1782 Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering contracted with Samuel Ogden for camp
kettles. Two months after that initial order (in which he wrote "I have formerly seen many kettles so
small as that two would be no more than sufficient for a mess") Pickering amended his
specifications and settled on a standard-size mess kettle. "Before this time I hope you have received
four or five hundred camp Kettles from Mr Forman ... At all events I intended to have enough made
with covers to supply the Officers but the price was so much higher (three shillings on each Kettle)
& I distressed so insufferably for want of money I order'd the whole 1500 to be made plain [i.e.,
without ears or covers]. They are to average 9-1/4 inches in breadth and depth, measured in the
clear, and to hold 9-1/2 quarts each." (In actuality, kettles of this size had a capacity of about eight
and one-half quarts when filled to one inch below the brim.) Undoubtedly most kettles made for the
Continental Army in 1782 were of these dimensions.56
Iron Pots and Pans. There seems to have been two primary reasons why iron pots were procured
for the troops. First, a unit may have been assigned to a fort, or serving in some other non-mobile
situation. On 26 February 1776 the New York Provincial Congress listed the needs of four new
regiments being raised for garrison duty, including "... 458 Camp Kettles 2/3 of this number ought
to be iron pots ..." The issue of large numbers of iron pots (along with frying pans and skillets) was
unusual, though regular regiments and militia units sometimes carried such non-standard
equipment. Minutes of the Maryland Council of Safety, 27 July 1776, "... for ... Camp Utensils for
Colonel Josias C. Hall's Battalion [of Maryland Flying Camp militia] ... Ordered, That the
Commissary of Stores deliver to Mr. Griest ninety-two Iron Pots, seven Frying Pans, three Iron
Kettles, four Skillets, and sixty Wooden Dishes."57

Cast-iron pot measuring 11 inches at its widest point (10 inches wide at the mouth) by 7 inches high,
weighs in at 6 pounds, 15.5 ounces, and holds 2 gallons (8 quarts). Of the same construction as a larger
pot found on the Gunboat Philadelphia, cast-iron cooking vessels of this capacity were provided for the
Connecticut militia in autumn 1776. (Original iron pot from author's collection Photo by Ross Hamel.)
 Soldiers serving with General Benedict Arnold's Lake Champlain fleet were in a situation similar
to garrison duty, where more cumbersome cookware was suitable. A 3 August 1776 list of stores
"Wanting on ... [the] Gundalo Providence" included "two Camp Kettles." The kettles on the
Providence were undoubtedly of cast iron, like those found on her sister ship, the Philadelphia
when she was raised from the lake in 1935. The recovered utensils included two cast-iron pots (one
nine and three-quarters inches wide, five and three-sixteenths inches deep, and a larger pot, ten and
three-quarters inches wide, eight and three-quarters deep), a large fry pan (thirteen inches wide, with
an eighteen and one-half inch long handle), and a three-legged fry pan (with a fourteen and three-
quarter inch wide pan, fourteen and three-quarter inch long handle, and standing eight and one-half
inches high). As far as the author knows the iron pots found on the Philadelphia are the only intact
examples known to have been used by Continental soldiers.58

Small long-handled fry pans such as this were used on occasion by Continental soldiers. This
reproduction has a 13 ½ inch handle and a 7 ½ inch diameter pan. (Fry pan made by Jymm Hoffman
of Hoffmans Forge, http://www.hoffmansforge.com/ )

Heavy iron cookware was also issued when lighter kettles were unavailable. Massachusetts Bay
Assembly, 27 June 1776, "Resolved, That the Committee appointed by this House [are] to provide
Canteens and Kamp-Kettles for the Troops to be raised ... [and] are directed to provide one Canteen
for each Soldier, and five hundred Tin Kettles, if to be obtained, for the use of the Troops destined
for Canada; and also three hundred and thirty-three Kettles of Tin for the Troops destined for New-
York, if to be had; otherwise that they procure Iron ones ..." A March 1776 equipment return for
John Sullivan’s brigade of four regiments listed 336 pots and 74 kettles, an indication that cast-iron
cooking gear was seen in greater numbers prior to 1777. (See Addendum for the Sullivan’s brigade
return.)59
Makeshift Cookware. There were times when cooking equipment was not on hand and, given the
ingenuity of hungry young men, it is not surprising soldiers found means for cooking without
utensils or made ad hoc replacements from non-food-related items. Among the utensils soldiers
made were broilers fashioned from iron barrel hoops, several of which have been excavated at
Revolutionary camp sites. Another interesting item is an iron spade converted into a pan, now in the
collections of Morristown National Historical Park. Soldiers persisted in frying foodstuff, even
though it was not an officially condoned cooking method; in July 1777 Virginia Captain John
Chilton noted the utensils carried by troops on a forced march in northern New Jersey, including
"Kettles, pans &c. ..." Lt. Col. Henry Dearborn, 3d New Hampshire Regiment, wrote the day before
the army marched to Valley Forge: “18th [December 1777] … this is Thanksgiving Day thro the
whole Continent of America – but God knows We have very Little to keep it with this being the
third Day we have been without flouer or bread … we had for thanksgiving breakfast some
Exceeding Poor beef which has been boil.d & Now warm.d in an old short handled frying pan in
which we ware Obliged to Eat it haveing No other Platter …” When pans were unavailable they
found other means for frying food. In late June 1782 Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering
wrote of sheet-iron kettles being burnt out long before they should have been; nine months later he
noted the reason: "As they are used as frying pans, as well as kettles, they are thereby much sooner
destroyed than if they were used only in boiling."60

Spade converted into a frying pan by soldiers, from the collections of Morristown National Historical
Park. (Pictured in George C. Neumann and Frank J. Kravic, Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the
American Revolution (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1975), 94.)
 American and British forces both converted corn into meal with ad hoc rasps: British commissary
officer Charles Stedman noted of an incident in South Carolina in October 1780, "In riding through
the encampment of the militia, the Author discovered them grating their corn, which was done
by two men of a mess breaking up their tin canteens, and with a bayonet punching holes through
the tin; this made a kind of rasp, on which they grated their corn; The idea was communicated to
the adjutant-general, and it was afterwards adopted throughout the army."61 Private John Robert
Shaw, 33d Regiment, was captured by Whig forces just before the Guilford Courthouse battle.
Shaw mentioned he and his comrades using graters as they were marched north by their captors:

We came to place where there was a mill turned by a stream, the source of which was not more
than 100 yards above the mill: - here we expected to draw some provisions, but were sadly
disappointed, as some had been three days without any, and through perfect weakness, I trembled
like a patient in a severe fit of the ague. All we drew was but one ear of corn per man, and this
was a sweet morsel to us: - we softened it in water, and grated it on the lid of our camp-kettle, and
made bread of it. This we did until we came to Frederickstown barracks, where we drew
provisions.62

New Hampshire soldier Nathan Davis recalled of the 1779 campaign against the Iroquois, ”We
… proceeded into the Indian Country where we destroyed their towns, orchards and cornfields.
The Indian corn was very large, & our soldiers made corn meal of it by grating it on the outsides
of old camp kettles which they first perforated with bayonets.”63

An iron "broiler" made from a barrel hoop by soldiers in camp. (George C. Neumann and Frank J.
Kravic, Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (Harrisburg, Pa., 1975), p. 93.
Illustration by Ross Hamel.)
 In the complete absence of cookware, and lacking materials to fashion such items as broilers or
pans, even more primitive utensils or cooking methods had to suffice. Sticks and flat stones filled
the role nicely. Shortly after the Battle of Harlem Heights in September 1776, Connecticut
militiaman Joseph Martin returned to camp to find the "invalids... broiling... beef on small sticks in
Indian style round blazing fires made of dry chestnut rails." A year later, at Barren Hill,
Pennsylvania, he "drew a day's ration of beef and flour... And how was it cooked? Why, as it
usually was when we had no cooking utensils with us, - that is, the flour was laid upon a flat rock
and mixed up with cold water, then... scorched on one side, while the beef was broiling on a stick in
the fire. This was the common way of cookery when on marches..."64
At the most elementary level, flames or a bed of hot coals served as both fireplace and oven.
Surgeon Jonathan Todd echoed Joseph Martin's firecake recipe, but without using a flat stone; from
"Camp Church's Hill 12 Miles N.W. Philadelphia 9th Nov 1777," Todd wrote, "Now 2 Months we
have drawn No other Provision than Fresh Beef & Flower - Salt we draw but Little not half Enough
to season the Beef / Our Flower we Wet with Water & Roll it in dirt & Ashes to bake it in a
Horrible Manner..." At the Whitemarsh camp in December 1777 Sergeant Ebenezer Wild told of
receiving "some fresh beef and flour, but had nothing to cook in, but were obliged to broil our meat
on the fire and bake our bread in the ashes." And Joseph Martin related that after crossing the
Delaware River to Pennsylvania in November 1777 "we procured a day's ration of salt pork... We
marched a little distance and stopped 'to refresh ourselves.' We kindled some fires in the road, and
some broiled their meat; as for myself, I ate mine raw."65
Other foods were also cooked without the aid of utensils. Rhode Island Sergeant Jeremiah
Greenman told of his arrival at Valley Forge on 19 December 1777, "this morn ye hole camp moved
about 6 milds & stoped in a thick woods ware a corn field stud by / about 10 acres not gethered / in
5 minits it was all gethered & sum of it to the fire." Pumpkins could be cooked in a similar manner.
Martin recalled in his memoirs, "I lay here [at Valley Forge] two nights and one day and had not a
morsel of anything to eat all the time, save half of a small pumpkin, which I cooked by placing it
upon a rock, the skin uppermost, and making a fire upon it. By the time it was heat through I
devoured it with as keen an appetite as I should a pie made of it at some other time."66
One Massachusetts soldier recounted an interesting instance of minimalist cooking:

I recollect the manufacture of a dripping-pan which pleased us very much. Some person in
Massachusetts had a very large ox, which he fatted very carefully and presented to Washington
for his own table. The General divided it among the officers then at West Point, so that a piece or
two fell to each mess. Ours was a fine roasting piece, which we were hesitating to have made into
soup, our usual method of cooking beef, when a soldier by the name of Skelden said that he
would contrive a way to roast it by hanging it before the fire. He was told that we could not afford
to lose the gravy; whereupon he ran out a little distance and returned with a smooth flat stone,
which he quickly cleaned. Then he took a roll of dough and laid it neatly round the stone,
carefully turning the whole to let the edge bake while it caught the gravy. Afterwards whatever
was done quickly and well was 'equal to Skelden's dripping-pan.’67
A barrel hoop broiler found in the 21st Royal North British Fusiliers’ encampment site on Saratoga
battlefield. Similar broilers have been excavated at Continental Army sites as well. (Saratoga
National Historical Park, SARA 1770)

Eating Utensils. Unless soldiers ate directly from camp kettles, several additional food containers
were needed at mealtimes. One militia private described a repast prepared and consumed during a
brief halt on a march. Taking the "Kittle of Pudding, [he] turned it out in six Piles on the Board"
taken from a fence, a crude but practical substitute for bowls. Lt. Col. Henry Dearborn, 3rd New
Hampshire Regiment, noted in December 1777 using “an old short handled frying pan in which we
ware Obliged to Eat it haveing No other Platter …” It is likely that bowls, when available, were
also shared between several men. In 1776 the Connecticut militia were to be supplied with two
thousand cooking pots and "four thousand Wooden Bowls." Supposing six men in a mess, this
meant three soldiers to each bowl. Other documents list similar utensils. The receipt book of James
Abeel, deputy quartermaster general and superintendent of stores at Morristown, New Jersey, shows
a December 1778 issue of "38 Wooden Bowls, thirty six Trenchers & 36 wooden Dishes... for the
use of the 1 Jersey Regt." Three monthly returns for Captain Maxwell's Company, 2nd
Massachusetts Regiment, in 1779 list a total of eight camp kettles and eight bowls, on hand or
deficient, an indication that only one bowl commonly accompanied each kettle. In January 1781
Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering wrote of carts made to "carry all the kettles of a regiment,
with one small bowl to each..." Seventeen months later Pickering described camp kettle covers,
"which would be vastly convenient... as a dish to eat out of"; further evidence of common soldiers
using communal eating receptacles.68
Staved wooden bowl belonging to a soldier left sick along the line of march from Valley Forge to
Monmouth Courthouse in June 1778. “The common necessaries of life …” A Revolutionary Soldier’s
Wooden Bowl,” including, “’Left sick on the Road’: An Attempt to Identify the Soldier Left at the
Paxson Home, ‘Rolling Green,’ June 1778.”) http://tinyurl.com/at3dj3e

Turned wooden mess bowls were likely more common than staved ones. Above is a wood bowl from
the wreck of the HMS Invincible, sunk in 1758. A total of 11 wood bowls (ranging from 9 inches to
13.4 inches in diameter), the fragments of 13 other wood bowls, plus 1 pewter bowl, 1 gourd bowl,
and the remains of a “green glazed stoneware” bowl were recovered from the Invincible. Image
courtesy of John Broomhead, director Invincible Conservations Ltd.
(http://www.invincible1758.co.uk/)
 Several documents mention government supply of bowls, cups, spoons, and even some
knives; some are estimates of needs, while others are returns of items actually on hand. A blank
regimental "Ledger of Accounts of the Camp Equipage," dated 1779, lists covered kettles, common
kettles, bowls, "Mess Tubs" (possibly trenchers), and iron spoons, while a "Plan for the Cloathing
of the [Light] Infantry" stated the soldiers' necessaries: a "Pocket Knife," "Tin Spoon" and
haversack were the only food-related items given. In June 1779 Timothy Pickering included
among the “Articles to be imported in the Department of the Board of War & Defence,” “Jack
Knives, or Pocket Knives _ 10,000 Doz[en], “English fashioned knives and forks with [bone?]
handles 1500 Doz,” “Pewter or other Cheap spoons for soldiers 10,000 Doz,” and “Spoons of a
better kind for Officers _ 1000 Doz.” And among the items noted in a two other equipment
estimates were 1,400 iron cups, 15,000 wooden bowls, and 20,000 iron spoons “Requisite for an
Army of 40,000 Men," and 4,000 wooden trenchers, 12,000 wooden bowls, and 40,000 pewter table
spoons “for an Army of Twenty five thousand Men." 69

Wooden spoons excavated from HMS Invincible, which sank in 1758. Identified as being
made of sycamore. Maritime Archaeology Trust.
http://www.maritimearchaeologytrust.org/mapguide/invincible/main.php
http://www.hwtma.org.uk/mapguide/Invincible/images/ARTEFACTSsub/136.jpg
"Description - has an engraved silver band on handle of spoon a silver label has been added to the
back of the spoon: Porridge Ladle/made by/Samuel Adams/at/Valley Forge/ 1778..." Maine
Historical Society. http://mainehistory.pastperfect-
online.com/32314cgi/mweb.exe?request=record%3Bid%3D89BEEE69-0AB6-47FF-B7A8-
951653866210%3Btype%3D10

A soldier’s spoon with initials, found at the site of Fort Montgomery, New York. Charles L. Fisher,
ed., The Most Advantageous Situation in the Highlands. An Archaeological Study of Fort Montgomery
State Historic Site (Albany: (New York State Education Department, 2004), 17.
(Above and following page.) Pewter spoon excavated on Brandywine battlefield (found on the
southwest side of Sandy Hollow, across the road, along the line of retreat from Birmingham Hill).
The handle was purposely cut off, similar to several others of pewter and lead excavated by Frank
J. Kravic at Hudson Highland camp sites. Overall length, 4 1/8 inches; bowl of spoon, 2 1/2 inches
long by 2 1/4 wide; length of remaining handle, 1 3/4 inches. The maker’s mark “WB with a fleur-
de-lis,” denotes New York pewterer William Bradford. (Courtesy of Bob McDonald.) George C.
Neumann and Frank J. Kravic, Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution
(Harrisburg, Pa., 1975), 110. Morrison H. Heckscher and Leslie Greene Bowman, American Rococo,
1770-1775: Elegance in Ornament (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), 107.
Above is an unexcavated example of the same pattern spoon, with full-length handle intact. Lot 602,
pewter spoon, William Bradford (1688-1759). New York City, 1719-1759. Maker's mark stamped
inside bowl. Length 6 5/8 inches, width 2 1/8 inches. Provenance: William D. Carlebach, Bedford,
New York, 1990. New Hampshire Weekend Auction Platinum House (Northeast Auctions) 24
February 24, 2007, Manchester, NH, USA. http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/602-pewter-
spoon.-william-bradford-1688-1759-.-602-c-bc1tesevx9
 Cups, spoons, and bowls were included on returns of camp equipage actually in use. Deputy
Quartermaster General Abeel's receipt book lists "Fifty Iron Cups" issued "for the use of Genl
Maxwells Brigade" on 10 June 1779. The September to November 1779 returns of Captain
Maxwell's 2nd Massachusetts company show that while spoons were wanted for each man, none
were on hand. And two August 1779 returns for units at or near West Point (including the 2nd
Massachusetts) list wooden bowls, "Iron Cups" and "Iron spoons," though not nearly enough for
every man. Five more equipment returns for various Continental units from 1778 to 1781 show
similar shortfalls of bowls, cups, and spoons, making it probable that some men ate directly from
camp kettles, while others found their own bowls. It is also likely most men procured the non-issue
spoons, knives, and tin or horn cups. (See endnotes for equipment returns.)70 (See endnote for
Continental Army equipment returns, 1778 to 1781.)
When eating utensils were not to be had, soldiers again improvised. Here are a few accounts of
officers and enlisted men making do with ad hoc utensils. John Howland (Col. Henry Babcock’s
Rhode Island State Regiment,1776/1777) noted of the march to reinforce Washington’s forces in
December 1776,
Our condition … was bad enough. Our day's ration which we drew in the morning, was a pint of
flour per man. Some of us had canteens with only one head. This was fortunate for the possessor,
as he could receive his flour in it, and with water mix it into dough to be baked on the embers.
Some received their flour on a flat stone, if they could find one …71

Fife-Major John Greenwood, 15th Continental Regiment, wrote of the retreat from Canada in
1776,
Our general having now procured a number of open boats, we all embarked for Ticonderoga.
Being short of provisions, and without camp kettles or other cooking utensils, it may be supposed
that our situation was far from being agreeable. Our daily rations consisted of only a pint of flour
and a quarter of a pound of pork, for each man, and every day, at noon, we used to land for the
purpose of cooking our food. For want of vessels in which to mix our flour, we made and baked
our cakes on thick pieces of the bark of the trees, but such cooking was any thing but tempting,
especially to the sick, who fared no better than the rest.72

Pennsylvania Brig. Gen. William Irvine told in a letter from “Camp Short Hills, (New Jersey,)
June 14th, 1780,” during a short-term Crown forces incursion, “We have been eight days without
Baggage or Tents and cut a most curious figure. I have been so extravagant in furniture, as never
to eat twice off the same dish or plate. The bark of a friendly Oak not only supplies us with our
kitchen furniture, but we make Tents to sleep in of it ...”73
Thomas Tallow (or Tulloh), Hanover County, Virginia, in old age recalled his 1781 field
service with the Virginia militia,
we … pursued the British by day and by night down James River, I recollect at old James Town
General Wayne got near enough to fire on the rear of the British Army before they could crossed
the River, my impression was that General Lafayette was the commander in chief I frequently
saw him during this term of service .. it would be perfectly unnecessary to attempt a description
of the suffering of the Soldiers about this term of my Service, I have marched all night frequently
having nothing to eat, waded creeks & have frequently seen the Soldiers get up water in their hats
and drank as they marched, our provision was of the most inferior kind & scarcely enough to
sustain life (I have frequently seen Poplar bark used for a soldier's tray) … 74
 Park Holland, a lieutenant in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment, in his memoirs noted of a post-
war visit with his former colonel, Rufus Putnam, “We had eaten in the army for months together,
from a clean chip, with a knife and fork among half a dozen of us, and our soup with a clam shell
for a spoon thrust into a split stick for a handle, and got along very well ...”75 Holland also
described preparations at Newburgh in 1782 for a celebration of the birth of the French Dauphin,
successor to Louis the XVI.
The bower built for a hall, neatly turfed and covered with evergreens, was about twenty feet wide
and a quarter of a mile long ... To show the lack of the common necessaries of life, I mention the
fact, that, on this occasion, orders came with the invitations, for each one bidden to [dine] bring
his plate, knife and fork; all of which articles were very scarce. I have known our foreign friends,
who were accustomed to dine off silver, for months together to eat from a clean chip [of wood]
instead of a plate. Colonel [and deputy quartermaster general, Henry Emanuel] Lutterlow, a
German, I think, by birth, an officer of distinction in his own country, put up with our fare with
the utmost cheerfulness.76

Henry Fanning Watson, writing in the nineteenth century, told of

A gentleman, (C. M.,) who was an officer at the camp, has told me of some of their hardships
there. Fresh beef they could scarcely get; of vegetables they had none, save sometimes some
potatoes. Their table was loose planks, rough, as split from the tree. One dish, of wood, or of
pewter, sufficed for a mess. A horn spoon and tumbler of horn was lent round. Their knife was
carried in the pocket.77

Another method of supplying plates was mentioned by Maj. Gen. Alexander McDougall in a
letter to Samuel Adams: “West Point, Dec. 10th, 1781 Maj. [Caleb] Gibbs of your line is the
bearer of this, by whom I have sent you a plate, a specimen of the material which covers my
board. It is made, as the set is, of old unserviceable camp-kettles.”78
The Ways Soldiers Carried Food. The army issued soldiers a coarse linen bag, called a
haversack, in which to carry rations on the march. Haversacks were worn slung over the right
shoulder, hanging under the left arm. One surviving British example measures 13 1/2 inches high
by 16 3/4 inches wide, with a 2 inch linen strap. Given supply difficulties and the haste in which
many were produced, it is likely most haversacks manufactured for the Continental Army were
made without buttons. On at least one occasion soldiers were directed to construct their own.
"College Camp [Williamsburg, Virginia] October the 11th. 1775 ... [A] Captain of Each
Company is to Apply to the Quartermaster for Linnen Cloth to make a habersack for Each
Soldier one yard of Oznabrigs is Supposed to be Sufficient for the purpose of making the sack ...
Each Soldier to make his own sack ... as near one General Size & patern as Possible. Thread
Sufficient for the purpose must be Drawn ..." (A 1779 "Plan for the Cloathing of the Infantry"
called for "An Haversack of Calf Skin," although none of this type are known to have been used
by Continental troops.) Haversacks were used for purposes other than carrying rations on the
march. In November 1757 British troops at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, went to an apple orchard
and "filled bags, haversacks, baskets and even their pockets with fruit." When in Pennsylvania,
soldiers of the British 64th Regiment were ordered to convey a ration issue to camp: "Ashtown
Camp 14th September 1777 ... The Men are to go with their Haversacks for flour to Hills
Milles."79
There were other ways food was transported. Whether haversacks were available or not, it was
probably common for some of a mess squad's food to be carried in a camp kettle, each man
taking his turn with the burden. Connecticut soldier Joseph Martin wrote of this in the autumn of
1777. Martin's regiment halted in the town of Burlington, New Jersey, "where we procured some
carrion beef, for it was not better. We cooked it and ate some, and carried the remainder away
with us. We had always, in the army, to carry our cooking utensils in our hands by turns, and at
this time, as we were not overburthened by provisions, our mess had put ours into our kettle, it
not being very heavy, as it was made of plated iron." Other items were specifically intended to
hold food or converted to that purpose. In 1776 some regiments were issued the "new invented
Knapsack and Haversack," a piece of equipment used for carrying a soldier's clothing as well as
food. Other expedients were resorted to. In May 1779, the colonel of the 1st Pennsylvania
Regiment directed his officers that the "Compys will have the [new] Knapsacks delivered, that
the men may appear with their Cloathing in them this afternoon. The old Knapsacks the men
have in their Possession, they will keep to carry their Provisions in them."80
Knapsacks designed to carry only clothing and other necessaries were sometimes used to carry
food in lieu of haversacks. Orders for Jackson's Additional Regiment, "Boston Oct 4. 1777 The
Regiment to hold themselves in readiness to embark ... it is expected that every Non
Commissioned Officer & Soldier, will have his Cloathing & Necessaries put up in their
Knapsacks this afternoon, together with two days provisions Cook'd ..." The same month a
private with General Horatio Gates' Northern Army noted, "at night we drew rations and were
notified to be ready early on the next Morn' to march to Stillwater, so we boiled our Meet and
had our provisions all in our Paiks ready ... early in the Morn' [we] were paraded and marched
off ..." Joseph Martin wrote of returning to the Valley Forge camp in early spring of 1778,
carrying "two or three days' rations in my knapsack," and in July 1779 troops on Sullivan's
Expedition were issued rations and ordered "to take [them] in their packs ..."81
Reproduction of the knapsack used by Benjamin Warner during the War for American
Independence, the only extant linen knapsack known to have been used in service by a
Continental Army enlisted soldier. The original knapsack is in the Fort Ticonderoga
collection. (See endnote for a synopsis of Warner’s service.) 82
The Burden of Rations, 1762-1783. Food added weight to already overburdened soldiers, but
proper equipment could ease the load. The amount of food a haversack could hold depended
upon its size, which may have varied even in the British army; a 1762 listing of equipment
carried by British troops in America included "A Haversack, with a Strap Containing Six Days
Provisions." (The weight of the soldier's entire burden given in this list was slightly over sixty-
three pounds, at least twelve of which was comprised of foodstuff.) A British officer serving
with General John Burgoyne, noted in August 1777, soldiers carried an "enormous bulk,
weighing about sixty pounds" including "four days provision ... [which] load is a grievous
incumbrance."83
Continental troops often carried a similar load of provisions in their haversacks or knapsacks.
Here are several examples: General Washington's "Head-Quarters, Smithe's Clove, June 10th,
1779. The Rum and whiskey in the maggazine to be Delivered amongst the Brigade
Commissaryes, and a Gill Pr man to Be Issued to the whole army this Day. Four Days' flour to
be Issued to the Troops, so that the whole Army will be supplyed up to Sunday Next Inclusive.
Two Days' fresh Beef to be Issued this Day, and Cattle Eaquel to two Days' supply to be with
each Brigade Commissary, Redy to be slaughtered when wanted."; "Head Quarters, New
Windsor, July 20th, '79. ... If the maggazines will afford it, the Brigade Commissary will
allway[s] have about them, Redy to Issue at a Moment's warning, tow Days' salt Provisions and a
Larger Quantity of Bread or flour. The troops are allways to have two Days' [meat] Cooked ...
that they may be Redy to march at a moment's warning." On the 30th of July General John
Sullivan's soldiers in Pennsylvania were ordered "to take in their packs ten days bread, part hard
& part soft, also two days' salted meat." (The allotment of these articles had been set on 11 July
at "1 1/4 pound of soft bread or flour or 1 pound of hard bread per day [and] 1 1/4 [pound] of
fresh or salt beef ...")84

Continental Army wooden canteen marked “U States.”

Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution.
Carrying Drink and Procuring Water. German Lieutenant Christian von Molitor,
campaigning with the British army in June 1777, noted, "The officers must be satisfied walking,
regardless of how long the march might be. And anyone who does not wish to die of thirst, must
carry his own canteen."85 Soldiers were issued or procured various beverages, including rum,
vinegar, molasses, and water, which were carried in canteens made of tin or wood (the
predominant type), slung over the right shoulder, resting on the left side.
On at least one occasion troops used ingenuity in devising a way to carry water, as related by
Maryland Congressman Charles Carroll in September 1777:

I have had conversation with Mr. Peters, secretary to our [War] board, who informs me that in the
month of June last 1000 tin cartridge boxes were sent to the Army … Mr. Peters moreover
informs me that to his certain knowledge several of these cartridge boxes were converted by the
soldiers into cantines, and by some officers into shaving boxes. 86

Tin cartridge canisters, used by some soldiers to carry water.

(Illustration by Ross Hamel)

When issued to soldiers, rum and vinegar were commonly mixed with water, but obtaining
that water was another matter the usual source being the nearest spring, creek, river, or lake.
When on the march commanders allowed the men to refresh themselves at regular intervals.
Continental Army general orders, 19 September 1780, "... Before the March commences the
soldiers are to fill their Canteens with Water ... The officers who lead the columns will take care
to regulate the Motions of the Troops so as not to injure them by too rapid a march and will order
proper halts at about every five Miles distance, and if possible at such places as to give the men
an opportunity to replenish their Canteens with Water." Captain John Chilton noted on 26 July
1777, "Marched 11 Miles by 9 Oclock breakfasted in a Meadow by a fine Spring ..." Of course,
merely ordering the troops to be watered did not necessarily make it so. Captain Chilton, 27 July
1777, "By reason of rain the night past [we] did not move till late this morning ... [we marched
through] Hackitts Town [New Jersey] ... passed 2 Miles when we were ordered to sit down in the
Sun no water near to refresh ourselves ..."87
Finding potable water added to the problem. One soldier-turned-sailor wrote from one of
Benedict Arnold's row gallies on Lake Champlain, "Octo 3 [1776] ... we are forst to ... Drink
lake worter." According to one author, a number of accounts described "the near stagnant
conditions of [the lake] south of Crown Point and the poor water quality." At Whitemarsh,
Pennsylvania, in November 1777, Elijah Fisher, 4th Massachusetts Regiment, expounded on
conditions in camp: "the warter we had to Drink and to mix our flower with was out of a brook
that run along by the Camps and so many dippin and washin [in] it maid it very Dirty and
muddy." Joseph Martin had his own problems with poor water in the summer of 1780. On
Constitution Island, across from West Point, New York, a detachment from the Corps of Sappers
and Miners was set to work on fortifications. Martin recalled that their rations were "salt shad
and bread," the work strenuous, and the days hot. "... to complete a bad business there was not a
drop of water on the island, except the brackish water of the river, and that was as warm as milk
and almost as nauseous as the waters of the Nile after it had felt the effects of Moses' rod."88
The need of good water for cooking and drinking forced commanders to adopt proactive
measures. Washington's army "Head-Quarters, Middle-Brook, June 3, 1777 ... The Brigadiers to
have the Springs, adjacent to their several encampments, well cleared and enlarged; placing
Sentries over them, to see that the water is not injured by dirty utensils. A board sunk in them,
will be the best means to keep them from being muddy, and an arbour over them will serve to
preserve them cool." General orders, Orangetown, New York, 9 August 1780, "No time is to be
lost in sinking Wells as the water of the brook is rather indifferent."89
Linen haversacks were the preferred receptacle for carrying food. (One surviving British example measures
13½ inches high by 16¾ inches wide, with a two–inch linen strap; the haversack’s flap is closed with two
buttons.) Here we see a typical Continental soldier’s haversack, with boiled beef and hard biscuit in a wooden
bowl. Linen bags inside the haversack were used for storing meat, flour, biscuits, bread, and other rations.
Also shown are a tin cup, horn spoon, and tin canteen with a wool cover. (Photograph by the author.)
______________________

Equipment Shortages. Haversacks, canteens, and camp kettles were subject to a high rate of
attrition and often in short supply. At the advent of each campaign seasons large supplies of each
were needed to complete the men adequately. Often sufficient quantities had not been received
even after the army marched. During a period of marching and countermarching in July 1777,
the commander in chief reported that, "Canteens, Tomhawks and other camp-utensils must be
very beneficial to the troops; but unless more care be taken to preserve, it will be impracticable
to supply them." In planning for the "ensuing campaign" of 1782, Timothy Pickering informed
General Washington that nothing more need be purchased "except knapsacks, canteens & camp
kettles." He particularly mentioned canteens as "an article so frequently lost & broken."90
Several months later, orders for the attack on the British at Germantown (4 October 1777)
directed soldiers to "take their provision in their habersacks [sic], such as have not habersacks
are to take their provision in their pockets, or in such manner as may be most convenient."
Writing after the battle, Washington's adjutant general, Timothy Pickering, noted that,
"Haversacks ... are exceedingly wanted for carrying the men's provisions. In the last action the
men having no other way tied their provisions up in their blankets and shirts some of which were
left in consequence thereof." Sgt. Jeremiah Greenman, on his way to Valley Forge,
Pennsylvania, in 1778, on one day "toock sum provision in a hankerchife." When the New Jersey
Brigade had a large influx of drafted men in June 1778, their commander related a need for this
same item. "There is about 450 of the new Leveys come in. I do not know what we shall do for
want of Haversacks, should we March, to carry their Provisions. Coll. Cox has given orders to
the first and 2d Regts. to get as much cloath from his agent here as will make them [haversacks]
but he says there is no more therefore the 3d and 4th [Regiments] must be served from camp."91
Every theater of the war saw supply shortages. In May 1778 a two-thousand man expedition
was sent against British-held St. Augustine, East Florida. From "Camp at Fort Howe on
Alatamaha" River, Georgia, an American officer complained to William Moultrie, "you have
been much too parsimonious in your fitting us out for this expedition ... what is more
inconvenient than to have only one camp-kettle to ten, twelve or fifteen men? and in this hot
climate to have one small canteen to six or eight men? we think no expense too great to procure
men, but we do not think after we have got them, that we ought to go to the expense of
preserving their health ... the Gen. requested me to desire you to send round in a boat ... 500
canteens, 100 camp-kettles, and 35 or 40 tents ..."92
Units earmarked for Sullivan's 1779 Indian Expedition also experienced shortages. General
Edward Hand wrote in March, from Minisink on the New York/New Jersey frontier, that he
"wish[ed] to know where we may be supplied with ... Camp Kettles & Canteens all which we are
destitute of ..." (The units under his command were the 2nd New York Regiment, German
Regiment, Spencer's Additional Regiment, Armand's Legion Infantry, and Captain Schott's
Independent Company.) A series of receipts made early in 1779 show severe shortfalls in
numbers of canteens and knapsacks needed by the New Jersey Brigade for the year's campaign.
On 29 January, 301 knapsacks and 175 canteens were issued to the 2nd New Jersey Regiment;
four months later on 25 May an additional 50 knapsacks, 229 canteens, and 35 camp kettles were
issued to the same unit. (Thirty five kettles would supply 210 common soldiers. During this
period the overall strength of the 2nd New Jersey ranged from 431 non-commissioned officers
and rank and file in January, to 356 three months later.) In April, when the entire Jersey Brigade
numbered 1,011 men, "86 Canteens 581 Knapsacks ... [and] five Hund. Canteen Straps" were
issued to supply a deficit. In August 1779, after the troops under Sullivan had already marched
great distances in difficult country, at Tioga, Pennsylvania, the general ordered "The different
Corps ... immediately to call on the Qr.Mr Genl For ... Knapsacks, haversacks, & Canteens."93
During the last autumn of the war there were still problems. From "Camp Verplanks point,"
New York, in September 1782, Timothy Pickering complained that a contractor had promised
"that he would make 200 [camp kettles] p[er] week & if there were a great demand double that
number. The demand was in fact very great, & Mr. Ogden was again and again informed of it, he
was told often of the extreme suffering of the army for want of the kettles. The soldiers were in
reality obliged to broil their meat on the coals, or wait to boil the pot in succession from morning
to evening. Yet these representations did not appear to quicken Mr. Ogden, and instead of
delivering the first five hundred in three weeks & the second five hundred in the three weeks
next following, his kettles have been recd. at the army, in small parcels ... The kettles are too
deficient in quality, & many that would have been rejected, have been received for the like
reason that the troops have often accepted bad provisions from the contractor, to save themselves
from starving." As noted, shoddy materials were part of the problem. A May 1782 document
noted that "Ogden's [previously supplied kettles] were evidently too thin & would soon burn
out."94

Private soldier, Capt. Andrew Fitch’s company, 4th Connecticut Regiment, 1778-79
 Appendix A.

“I hired some of my pack carried about a dozen miles …”

Excerpts from Ezra Tilden’s diary, 1776-1777

From Dwight Mac Kerron, ed., “Exult O Americans & Rejoice!” – The Revolutionary War Diary of
Ezra Tilden (Stoughton, Ma.: Stoughton Historical Society, 2009)

Should anyone assume Tilden’s list of the belongings he carried into service in 1776 represented a
typical Continental soldiers’ burden, it must be remembered that he was a short-term militia
soldier serving at a fixed post. And, despite previous tours of duty (eight months in 1775, and two
months earlier in 1776) Tilden was still very much an amateur, with no campaign experience. He
also had recourse to placing excess gear, and occasionally his entire knapsack, on a cart
accompanying his unit.
With those caveats, still his roster of goods does provide examples of the type of personal
belongings Continentals likely carried on occasion. Tilden’s recounting also shows how certain
items could be wrapped for protection or to separate them from other knapsack contents.
Below are included a several excerpts from two campaigns showing how Ezra Tilden bartered
and sold some of the gear he carried into service, and his purchase and trade for new items.
Two of Tilden’s bartering threads are particularly followed in the appended diary excerpts.
The various knapsack swops are marked in brown text, while his purchase and sale of watches are
marked with pink text.

Fort Ticonderoga Garrison, 1776

p. 9
August 5, 1776
An Account of some things I carried into the Army in my Pack:
A woolen Shirt with a snuff bottle full of ground coffee in it, and one and a half of chocolate in it too,
wrapt up in a piece of brown paper and a new cotton and linen shirt and a new milk cheese wrapt up in it
which weighed five pounds, a pair of white stockings, a pair of blue stockings, a bag of plumbs, a bag
with three pounds and half of sugar in it, a pair of boots, a cap, a powder horn, four sheets of paper wrapt
up in a piece of brown paper and four quills in it, a brown paper with two pieces of soap in it, one great
pin, four small ones, one brown thread needle, and one worsted darning needle, one ball of white yarn,
one ball of blue yarn, some strings, some thread, some sealing wax, a snuff box full of snuff, a pewter
bason, a wooden plate, a spoon, a fork, a Jack-knife, a pen-knife, a pair of knee buckles, a pocket book
and case to it, a small toothed comb, a pocket looking glass, an under-jacket, a short coat, a great coat, a
pair of grey stockings, two pair shoes, a striped shirt, a pair of long trowsers, a hat, two handkerchiefs, a
pair of shoe buckles, a pair of garters, a pack to carry my things in, some bread, a pair of arm strings, a
pair of leather breeches, a pair of cloth breeches, a leather strap, a cod line, a frock, some tow.
N.B. I have here set down, not only my pack and things in it, but even my clothes and things that I
wear, besides the things in my pockets that I carry & other things.

p. 10
“An account of the towns through which we came from Stoughton to Ticonderoga … Aug. 6 1776 we
came from Stoughton, Aug. 23 we arrived at Ticonderoga.”

p. 11
“Thurs. Aug. 15, 1776. We came to the town of No. 4 in Charlestown [New Hampshire] … that day I
sent home by Mr. Spear a great coat a woolen shirt and an under jacket … that we drawed
ammunition, powder, balls and flints and provisions.”
p. 12
“tues. Aug. 20 … that A.M. I hired some of my pack carried about a dozen miles I believe which cost
me six coppers and that P.M. I joined with the mess in buying a short handled pan to fry in which cost
me for my part of it six coppers …”

p. 12
“Wed. Aug. 21 … I laid out 3 Dollars for a pair of shoes in Brookfield …”

p. 13
“Fri. Aug. 23 … obliged to have my pack carried some as well as at two other different times I had
to hire all or part of my pack carried a little way.” Tilden next refers to feeling unwell, so it is not
known if he had his pack carted due to sickness, its weight, or both.

p. 17
“Camps at Ticonderoga Fort Sab[bath]. Day P.M, Sept. 1, 1776, E. Tilden.
I have now within the few days since I have been here in the camps Really wanted or Longed for
Green Sauce [garden greens] and the following things viz: such as Green Corn, Green Beans &
pease, new Potatoes, Cucumbers, Butter, Cheese, molasses, spoon victuals, pudding, &c &c &c., all
of which things with a great number of others I want, but I cannot get any of them now at all, at all,
at all.

p. 27
“Fri. Sept. 20 … I sold my calfskin pumps to Solomon Jordan for 10s L.M.”

p. 32
“Thur. Oct. 17 … I sold my pocket looking glass [mirror] to Sam. Fisher for half a dollar. I bought a
pair of silver knee buckles of Elisha Hawes for which I gave him 6s. L.M.”

p. 32
“Sab. Day, P.M. Oct. 2[0], 1776 … By some means or other my cap was lost but how I know not …”

p. 33
“Thurs. Oct. 24, 1776 … I swopt my best purse away to Elijah Hawes for his old one and he gave me
7d. L.M. to boot … I swopt away my cotton handkerchief with Nath’l Tilden Jr. for his checkered
one, and I had 26s 6d o[ld].t[enor]. to boot.”

p. 33
“Fri. Oct. 25, 1776 … I Sold my white stockings to one of the Jersey blues for five s. 6 d. … I sold
them buckles to a man, I know not who, for a dollar in the p.m. of that same day, and that day in the p.m.
I sold my leather breeches to a man I know not who for a dollar.”

p. 34-35
“Tues. a.m. Oct. 29, 1776 … I swopt cartouch boxeswith Nathl’l Tilden Jr. and he gave me one
shilling L.M. to boot.”

p. 34
“Fri. Nov. 1, 1776 … I swopt packs with Elisha Hawes, and he gave me 1s L.M. to boot … Sold Elijah
Wentworth my snuff bottle for six coppers only I am to have the use of it till my time is out here …
Sold Elisha Hawes my pewter basin and spoon, wooden plate and my fork for half a dollar, only I
am to have them to use some while I am here and that night I bought a pint pewter porringer of
Nath’l Tilden Jr. and a pewter spoon in it for six coppers.”
p. 36.
“Nov. 14, 1776 … Thursd. morn’g sold my right in the pan … Today to Elisha hawes for 6.d L.M. ”

p. 36
“Sat. Nov. 16, 1776 … P.M. I swopt buckles with a man I know not who and he gave me 12s & 11d
o.t. to boot.”

p. 37
“Tues. p.m. Nov. 19. I took my gun again of[f] Stetson that I let him have to bring up here and I let
him take that gun of Capeen’s again that I brought up here; I swopt away that great heavy gun of
mine that P.M. to Elisha Haws for a French gun and I gave him a dollar and a half to boot. I bought a
pair of shoe buckles of Henry Stone, Jr. for which I gave him a pair of shoe buckles that I value at
half a dollar and a piece of cloth for a long pair of long trousers that I gave Elisha Hawes 55s. for o.t
on Nov. 13, 1776 and which I valued at 55s. o.t. and a three dollar bill likewise I gave him besides that
night in money only he gave me back 9s o.t. for it; and I bought that cloth for trousers of him again
that night and I gave him 3£ o.t. for it; and the next day I scour’d up them buckles and I sold them for
$5.25.”

“Sat. Nov. 23. Thomas Jordan and henry Stone Jr. both came back again from Independent side from the
carting business there into our mess. & the same day I swopt packs with Henry Stone jun. & I gave him
a Dollar to boot.”

p. 38
“Mon more [November 25 1776] … I swopt guns with Henry Stone jun, & I gave him 2s. L.M. to boot.
Mod. P.M. Nov 25 I sold my pewter porringer & spoon for 9d L.M.”

p. 38
“Tues. a.m. Nov 26, 1776 … I swopt combs with Elisha Hawes & I gave him 3 cop. To boot. We did
start out from Ticonderoga for Stoughton … home.”

1777 Campaign to Saratoga

p. 39
“Sat Aug 30th A.M. I bought a watch of David Nuting for which I gave him just 20 dollars N.B. I
bought the watch of him in West borough. N.B. In the P.M. I sold the watch to one William Shephard
in our company for 24 dollars exactly … N.B. It was the first watch I ever owned”

p. 39
“Sab. Night Aug. 31 I bought a new pair of cow hide pumps of one Mr. Gilbert of Brookfield for which
I gave him 18s L.M. three dollars.”

p. 40
“Sat. Sept 6, 1777 … at the house of one Mr. Barber … I sold my pocket looking glass to one mr.
Garner of … Worthington. I sold it to him for a dollar.”

p. 40
“Tues. Sept. 9, 1777 … at Bennington head quarters I bought a watch of john Stone Jr. for which I
gave him $36 … Said Stone is a man that belongs to our company and this is the second watch that
ever I owned.”
p. 40
“Wed. Sept. 10, 1777 … Our teamsters … who brought up the baggage for Cap. Smiths’ company
did set out from Bennington for home for they did not go no farther than Bennington head quarters
with the pack[s], and then we had to take our packs and carry them ourselves. Some things we were
ordered to leave at Bennington and I left the following things there viz: A blue jacket, a pair of
gloves, a pair of muffetts, a pair of new shoes, six sheets of papers wrapped up in a piece of paper, a
pair of boots, some rags, needles, thread and yarn.” (Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Edition,
two vols. (Glasgow, New York, and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1971), vol. 1, 1871. Muffetee:
a muffler worn around the neck; refs. 1706, 1772)

p. 41
“Sat. Sept. 13, 1777 … At head quarters at Powlet our mess drawed a tent … I think it was in the
town of Powlet I sold Wm. Davis a man in our company my watch that I bought of Stone Sept. 9. I
sold it to him for $42 … Sept. 13, 1777 P.M I sold John Stone Jr. the watch that I bought the day
before of our adjutant for which Stone gave me $17 down, three dollars more the next day A.M. and a
note for 3£ L.M. upon interest and on demand.”

p. 41
“Mon Sept. 15 A.M. In Powlet I sold my black hamdkerchief that I had up there to a man I know not
who for 15s L.M. …”

p. 41-42
“Tues. Sept. 16, 1777 I spent 3d L.M. laid out to Samuel Hayward for washing a shirt, a pair of stockings
and two handkerchiefs, but I found all the soap to wash them things with … Tues. P.M. I bought a watch
of our adjutant John Tolman, for which I gave him $45. $30 down and an order to Capt. Aaron Smith
for $15. More to be paid when the Capt. draws my wages etc. and it is the third watch which I have
owned.”

p. 42
“Thurs. A.M. Sept. 18, 1777 … in our march from Powlet to Ward Skeensborough I boughr a china
faced watch of one Peter Robinson I think his name was, of Captain Johnson’s company and Col.
Johnson’s regiment a very small watch it was and an almost new one it was; and I gave him 45 good
new continental dollars in money down for it. N.B. The other three watches that I owned before it
were old fashioned silver faced watches and pretty large ones they also were; especially one of them
was very large and it is the fourth watch I ever owned and that day in the p.m. in our march back I
sold that watch to Noah Wilcomb, a man in our company and in my mess. I sold it to him for fifty
dollars, twenty dollars he paid me down and I took a note of him for the other thirty dollars for to be paid
in three months with interest.”

p. 42-43
“Fri. Sept. 19, 1777 … I believe it was in the a.m. I bought a pretty smallish china faced watch of
Isaac Campbell in Capt. Bradley’s company of Col. Gill’s our regiment and I gave him thirty eight
dollars for it and if I get sick or weary of the watch I will return it to him before the campaign is out he
will take it of me again if I do not hurt it and will give him a dollar to take it again etc., it is the fifth
watch that ever I owned, etc.”

p. 43-44
“Sat. [September 20] … I sold that watch that I bought of Copeland the day before, I sold it to Abner
Farrington and Cor[poral]. Samuel Adams both of our company … They gave me for it forty five
dollars, fourteen dollars in pay money and the rest in continental.”
The first watch that I sold gained $4. in:
The second “ “ “ $6. in
The third “ “ “ $5. in
The fourth “ “ “ $5. in
The fifth “ “ “ $7. in

In the whole I have gained $27. Sat. P.M. I bought an old fashioned silver faced watch back again of
Davis, that watch I sold to him for $42. Sept 13 for which I gave him $43.”

p. 44
“Mon. Sept. 22, 1777 We stayed at White Creek all day … I swopt packs with Mr. Hezekiah Drake a
man in our company. I let him have my leather hair pack for his old cloth pack almost wore out and
he gave me $3. To boot.”

p. 45
“Thurs. Sept. 25. … At night there was another pretty smart rain and I was then at Stillwater …
Well, Thurs. p.m. we marched a mile or two upon the great road down toward Albany from head
quarters at Stillwater and got into a house to shelter us from the rain … we had no shelter since we
came into Stillwater nor cover before but the heavens which were pretty leaky that p.m., and that
night too for … what part of the night there was to come, we lay out in the open air”
See also 41, 42, 46, 47, 48, 51)

p. 45
“Fri. Sept. 26 P.M. … At Still water I lost off the seals to my watch.”

p. 47
Fri. … Oct. 3 … P.M. I bought a handkerchief [from] I know not who, for which I gave him $2. N.B. I
did set the handkerchief up that night to hussle for. 7 men put in half a dollar apiece and I had a hussle
besides, so I got $3.50 for the handkerchief although I lost my hussle.”
Hustle (hussell, hussle): “to shake, to toss”; “to shake the money in a game of hustle-cap”; “to shake
to and fro, toss (money in a hat or cap, in the game of hustle-cap)”
Hustle-cap (also hussel-cap): “A form of pitch-and-toss, in which the coins were ‘hustled’ or shaken
together in a cap before being tossed.”
Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Edition, two vols. (Glasgow, New York, and Toronto: Oxford
University Press, 1971), vol. I, 1354.

p. 47
“Fri. Oct. 3 I think I have made since I came from home 9£, 2S, 4d L.M. a trading in watches, in a
handkerchief, going on guard and upon fatigue for people besides doing my own duty upon guard
and fatigue, and dong some writing and selling my allowance of rum … besides I have made
something perhaps in selling my black handkerchief and pocket looking glass and in swopping
packs … I made 3s L.M. a buying apples and selling them out again etc.”

p. 48
“Mon. … Oct 6, 1777 … I bought a pair of almost new stockings of Enoch Talbot for which I gave
him two dollars.”
p. 50
“Wed. Oct 8, 1777. I laid out half a dollar for a book … of a man, I know not who, a book he took
out of the regulars’ camps that morning after the regulars went and left their lines … The title of
the book was ‘An Account of the European Settlement in America.”
Edmund Burke: “What is considered a joint work of Burke and his cousin, William Bourke,
appeared in 1757 -- An Account of the European Settlement in America -- and shows how carefully at
this date he had studied the condition of the colonies.”
http://www.nndb.com/people/019/000084764/

p. 50
“Fri. a.m. Oct. 10, 1777 … I laid out 1 s 1m for a pack and that a.m. I laid out 2s 1m more for a pair of
buckles … I bought an old pack of John Smith for which I gave him 1s L.M. … I made 8s & 8d
L.M. selling my watch … I sold that watch to Jacob French Jr …”

p. 52
“Sat. Oct. 18 … Sat. night I sold a jacket to Sam Hayward for a dollar, which jacket I found at
Stillwater a few days ago &c, … I bought a gun, bayonet belt and sheath of Mr David Mills for
which I gave him $8.50”

p. 52-53
“Tues. Oct 21 … At Half-moon I sold a man 6 sheets of paper for 2s. L.M. N.B. That paper I brought
from home & it did not cost me above 1s. L.M. nor hardly that &c.”

p. 52
“Thurs Oct. 23, 1777 … At Clinconsborough I gave a negro 18d L.M. for a pipe. I bought a checkr’d
shirt of 1 of the Continental soldiers. I have him 5 dollars … I bought a cartouche box of Sam
Hayward … I gave him 3£”

p. 54
“Wed. p.m. Oct. 29th … At Clinconsborough I sold Wm. Davis my checkered shirt that I bought a few
days ago for which he gave me 39s L.M. …”
p. 55
“Thurs. a.m. Oct. 30, 1777. I sold Mr. John Cook Jr. in Catskill my cartridge box, one of them and a
bayonet that I found with a sheath but no belt to it tho’ and 55 balls … he gave me about 16s L.M. so
that I made in all these things about $2.”

p. 55
“Morning at Mr. Cook’s in Cats-kill … I bought a pencil and money case to it … of Mr. John Cook jr
for which I gave him 3d L.M.”

p. 56
“Mon. Nov. 3 … in New burgh we stayed in tents that night. I made in selling one half of my gun 7s 6d
L.M. In New Marlborough I believe … sold ½ of [my gun] & accoutrements to Corp. Adams for
which he gave me a note upon interest on demand for 6 dollars & he is to carry it half the way
amarching …”
p. 57
“Fri. Nov. 7, 1777 … [paid] 9d L.M. for a book entitled An Oration Delivered when Gen.
Montgomery and other brave officers and soldiers fell at Quebec, I bought of a women in
Peekskill.”
An Oration in Memory of General MONTGOMERY, and of the Officers and Soldiers who fell with
him, DECEMBER 31, 1775, before QUEBECK; drawn up (and delivered FEBRUARY 19, 1776,) at
the desire of the Honourable Continental Congress, by WILLIAM SMITH, D˙ D˙, Provost of the
College and Academy of PHILADELPHIA. American Archives: Documents of the American
Revolutionary Period, 1774-1776
http://amarch.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A94194

p. 57
“Sat. Nov. 8 1777 … At Phillips Manor or Terry town I bought a silver faced watch back again of
Harry Stone Jr. which watch I first bought of the Adj. John Tolman and which I sold to Stone ..
N.B. The crystal of the watch was cracked or broke and the hook of the chain to wind it was broke
also and it was very dirty besides and a good deal out of order.”

p. 58
“Wed. Nov. 12, 1777 … I swopt packs with John McIlvain. I had his calf skin one of him and I let
him have the old one I had of Drake and I gave him 3 dollars to boot”

“Mon. Nov. 17 A.M. … Some time in Nov. I swopt away an old pack that I found at Stillwater … for
that old pack I let John McIlvain have a few days ago for his pack. I swopt with him and he gave me
1s L.M. to boot.”

p. 60-61
“Fri. Nov. 28, 1777 A.M. I was on picquet guard again at Scarsdale … At Scarsdale I sold a woman my
pint porringer and spoon, plate and fork for 5s 1d L.M. … I sold Timothy Moore my book that I
bought … entitled `An Account of the European Settlements in America.’ I sold it to him … for two
dollars so in selling the book I gained 9s L.M. …frid. P.M. I swopt packs with Sergt. William Everett.
I let him have my calfskin one that I had of John McIlivain, I let him have it for his cloth one and
he gave me 22s. L.M. to boot so that now in swopping packs I have made 4s. L.M. besides having a
better pack than I let McIlvain have.”

p. 61
“Sat. Nov. 29, 1777 … I spent 41/2d L.M. for apples … I gave Thaddeus Fuller six apples … for a
sugar box. I bought a little tin kettle of Spear for which I gave him 1s. 18d. l.m. and that night I lost
an old striped shirt of mine by turning up a copper with Davis, to see which should have both shirts
his and mine …”

p. 61
“Sab. Day, Nov. 30, 1777 … I sent a pack that weighed eleven and one half pounds … by Mr. John
Spear in his cart home to Stoughton which comes to 8s 6d. L.M. at 9d L.M. a pound for carrying and
there was in the pack an ax wrapped up in an old piece of shirt and a blanket and leggings and a
blue jacket and a pair stockings and an old pair of trousers.”

P. 62
“Tues. Dec. 2, 1777. P.M. At New Haven I gave one Mr. Isaac Doolittle a dollar for cleaning my
watch and putting a new hook to the chain to wind it up.”
__________________________________________
 Appendix B.

Soldiers had what and how many?

Military equipment returns provide a snapshot of how well or poorly supplied various
organizations were at a given date. The lists given below are a sampling of those documents. A
link to additional returns is given at the end of this Appendix.

1779

"Return of arms and accoutrements Received and delivered out of the Commissary General
Milatiry Store by Majr. Jona Gostelowe …,” Philadelphia.
As of 31 March 1779: 1,544 “Gun Worms,” 9,973 “Brushes & Wires,” and 2,156 “Screw Drivers”
were in store.
The 1st Maryland Regiment was issued 228 repaired muskets, 228 brushes and wires, and 228
screwdrivers
The 10th Pennsylvania received 20 repaired muskets, 20 brushes and wires, and 20 screwdrivers.
"Return of arms and accoutrements Received and delivered out of the Commissary General Milatiry Store
by Majr. Jona Gostelowe …,” Philadelphia, 30 April 1779, Miscellaneous Numbered Records (The
Manuscript File) in the War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records, 1775-1790's, Record
Group 93, National Archives Microfilm Publication M859, reel 68, item no. 21016.

1780

"Return of Arms, Ammunition, Accoutrements, Drums, and Fifes, in possession of the Jersey Brigade,"
26 January 1780 (Courtesy of Eric Olsen, citation pending)
1st 2d 3d Additional
Regt. Regt. Regt. Regt.
Equipment Ogden Shreve Dayton Spencer Total
Guns 236 275 251 153 915
Bayonets 149 158 101 94 502
Bayonet Belts 148 164 84 93 489
Slings 2 4 23 5 34
Cartridge Boxes 228 265 250 152 895
Brushes & P. Wires 6 7 29 21 63
Gun Worms 5 3 10 3 21
Screw Drivers 14 4 18 3 39
Flints 310 560 409 282 1561
Cartridges 5280 7801 6241 4750 24,072
Drums 9 6 5 4 24
Fifes 6 6 7 5 24
 1781
“Present State of the Arms Ammunition and Accouterments in the 2nd Massachusetts Brigade …,”
West Point, 25 May 1781
Total “Brush
Rank & File “Wormes” & Picks”
2nd Regiment, Colonel Sprout 239 53 good 9 good, 247 wanting
4th Regiment, Colonel Shepard 235 40 good, 16 wanting 57 good, 189 wanting
9th Regiment, Colonel Jackson 252 19 good , 1 wanting 167 good, 94 wanting

Total
Rank & File “Screwdrivers”
2nd Regiment, Colonel Sprout 239 34 good, 222 wanting
4th Regiment, Colonel Shepard 235 65 good, 181 wanting
9th Regiment, Colonel Jackson 252 93 good, 168 wanting
“To complete the present force of the Regiments,” total needed are 763 brush and picks
763 screwdrivers
129 worms

“Present State of Camp Equipage in the 2 nd. Masst. Brig[ade].”

Total Horseman’s Common
Rank & File Marquees Tents Tents
2nd Regiment, Colonel Sprout 239 - 2 3
4th Regiment, Colonel Shepard 235 1 - 1
9th Regiment, Colonel Jackson 252 1 - -

Total Camp Wooden

Rank & File Kettles Buckets Bowls Canteens Knapsacks
2nd Regiment, Colonel Sprout 239 56 1 35 47 25
4th Regiment, Colonel Shepard 235 37 - 9 21 100
9th Regiment, Colonel Jackson 252 64 3 23 25 142

Total Iron Brass

Rank & File Axes Pots Kettles Spades Picks
2nd Regiment, Colonel Sprout 239 14 - - 10 1
4th Regiment, Colonel Shepard 235 6 3 - 5 -
9th Regiment, Colonel Jackson 252 18 - - 4 1

Total Blankets
Rank & File Good Bad Wanting
2nd Regiment, Colonel Sprout 239 160 3 124
4th Regiment, Colonel Shepard 235 196 8 79
9th Regiment, Colonel Jackson 252 215 16 60

“Present State of the Arms Ammunition and Accouterments in the 2nd Massachusetts Brigade …,”
West Point, 25 May 1781, miscellaneous returns, Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives
Microfilm Publication M246, Record Group 93, reel 36.
___________________________________________
“Present State of the Arms, Ammunition and Accoutrements in the Third Massachusetts Brigade
…,” 25 May 1781
Total Worms “Brushes & Wires”
Rank & File Good Wanting Good Wanting
1st Regiment, Vose 246 31 13 44 219
5th Regiment, Putnam 252 30 37 39 200
7th Regiment, Brook 252 3 46 - 265
New York Regiment, Van Schaik 342 - 60 - 372

Total Screwdrivers
Rank & File Good Wanting
1st Regiment, Vose 246 60 203
5th Regiment, Putnam 252 62 197
7th Regiment, Brook 252 3 262
New York Regiment, Van Schaik 342 - 372

“Present State of Camp Equipage in the 2 nd. Masst. Brig[ade].”

Total Marquees Horseman’s Tents Wall Tents Common Tents
Rank & File (Good) Good Bad Good Bad Good Bad
1st Regiment, 246 1 - 6 - 2 2 3
5th Regiment, 252 1 - 3 - - - -
7th Regiment, 252 - 1 2 - - 8 2
1st New York 342 - 5 - 4 3 38 27

Total Camp Kettles Buckets Bowls Canteens Knapsacks

Rank & File Good Bad Good Good Bad Good Bad Good Bad
1st Regiment, Vose 246 60 203 1 1 - 9 - 23 -
5th Regiment, Putnam 252 62 197 2 2 2 5 - 11 35
7th Regiment, Brook 252 3 262 - 3 2 18 2 65 -
1st New York 342 - 372 1 - - - - - -

Total Axes Iron Brass Spades Picks

Rank & File Good Bad Pots Kettles Good Bad Good
1st Regiment, Vose 246 6 - - - 1 - 1
5th Regiment, Putnam 252 7 2 - - 4 1 2
7th Regiment, Brook 252 9 2 - - 7 - 2
1st New York 342 - - - - 1 1 -

Total Blankets
Rank & File Good Bad Wanting
1st Regiment, Vose 246 125 1 155
5th Regiment, Putnam 252 134 27 143
7th Regiment, Brook 252 215 - 81
New York Regiment, Van Schaik 342 327 32 29

“Present State of the Arms, Ammunition and Accoutrements in the Third Massachusetts Brigade
…,” 25 May 1781, miscellaneous returns, Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives Microfilm
Publication M246, Record Group 93, reel 36.
 1782-1783

“Inspection Return of the Second New York Regiment … for February 1780,” 3 March 1780.
Rank and file strength, 165 (plus 27 sergeants); 133 muskets, 1 screwdriver, and 18 brushes and
picks on hand.
Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives Microfilm Publication M246, Record Group 93, reel 67.

“Inspection Return of the second New York Regiment … for … April 1782,” 12 May 1782.
Rank and file strength, 451 (plus 39 sergeants); 488 muskets, 9 worms, and 21 screwdrivers on
hand.
Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives Microfilm Publication M246, Record Group 93, reel 67.

“Inspection Return of the 2d. New Jersey Regiment commanded by Colo. E. Dayton for … May,”
1782.
27 sergeants and 300 rank and file, present fit for duty (8 sergeants on command, 16 rank and file
sick absent); equipment on hand, 373 muskets, 363 bayonets, 144 screwdrivers, 144 worms, 9 brush
and picks (398 brush and picks wanting). Optimal establishment, 45 sergeants, 612 rank and file.
“In Use,” 41 camp kettles, 21 bowls, 52 trenchers, 25 portmanteau, 9 canteens, 64 knapsacks, 20
axes, 7 shovels.
Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives Microfilm Publication M246, Record Group 93.

“Inspection Return of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment commanded by Colo. Dayton for December
1782,” dated 24 January 1783.
26 sergeants and 265 rank and file, present fit for duty (2 sergeants sick present, 2 on command, 2
on furlough; 19 rank and file sick present, 5 sick absent, 37 on command, and 23 on furlough);
equipment on hand, 365 muskets, 351 bayonets, 114 screwdrivers, 115 worms. Optimal
establishment, 45 sergeants, 612 rank and file.
“In Use,” 33 camp kettles, 13 bowls, 27 portmanteau, 223 canteens, 359 knapsacks, 25 axes and
hatchets, 2 picks, 5 spades.
Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives Microfilm Publication M246, Record Group 93.
__________________________

Examples of turnscrews and worms.

George C. Neumann and Frank J. Kravic, Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American
Revolution (Harrisburg, PA, 1975), 264.
 Related Articles by the Author

Resource File: Examples of Continental Army Camp Equipage and Vehicle Returns, 1775-1781
(John U. Rees) http://www.scribd.com/doc/223095304/Resource-File-Examples-of-Continental-
Army-Camp-Equipage-and-Vehicle-Returns-1776-1781-John-U-Rees
Contents
1. Clothing and Equipment Lost at Bunker Hill, 17 June 1775 (including a discussion of “snapsacks”)
2. Cooking and Other Equipment in Brig. Gen. John Sullivan’s Brigade, 24 March 1776
3. Main Army: Return of Arms and Accoutrements issued from 1 April to 1 August 1777
4. Return of Camp Equipage Delivered to the Army during the 1777 Campaign
5. Partial List of Stores Captured on the British Ship Symmetry, Wilmington, Delaware, January 1778
6. Camp Equipage in the 1st Pennsylvania Brigade, Valley Forge, 3 June 1778
7. "A Return of Quarter-Master-General's Stores in The Brigades at West Point & Constitution Island," 1
August 1779: North Carolina, 4th Massachusetts, and Paterson’s (Massachusetts) Brigades
8. "A Return of Quarter-Master-General's Stores in the Second Pennsylvania Brigade ... at Camp West
Point," 4 August 1779
9. Return of Quartermaster’s Stores for Maj. Gen. John Sullivan’s Army, Tioga, 21 August 1779.
10. Return of Clothing and Camp Equipment in Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair’s Pennsylvania Division in the
Hudson Highlands, 1 October 1779.
11. Return of Quartermaster’s Stores in the 1st Connecticut Brigade (Including Brigadier General and Staff),
Hudson Highlands, 25 May 1781
12. "Return of Waggons, Horses … &c the property of the United States Army – Camp Tappan – 27th
September 1780"
13. "Return of all Public Property in the Quarter Masters Department with the Southern Army"
14. Two Returns of Horse and Wagons with the Pennsylvania Line in Virginia, 12 June and 27 November
1781
Appendices:
1. Overview of Wheeled Transportation.
2. Material Culture Articles Related to Items on the Equipment Returns

“Spent the winter at Jockey Hollow, and … washed together while there …”: American Revolution
Army Women Names Project - Continental Army
https://www.scribd.com/document/322026319/American-Revolution-Army-Women-Names-Project-
Continental

"’The proportion of Women which ought to be allowed...’: An Overview of Continental Army

Female Camp Followers”
1. “A clog upon every movement. “: Numbers
2. "Rations... Without Whiskey": Women’s Food Allowance
3. "Some men washed their own clothing.": Women's Duties and Shelter
4. Orders Concerning Women in the Summer of 1777 (Delaware Regiment of Maj. Gen. John
Sullivan’s Division
5. "Coming into the line of fire.": Women on the March or on Campaign
Appendices
A. An Estimate of Females with Continental Army Units on the March to Yorktown, 1781
B. Mess Roll of Capt. John Ross’s Company, 3d New Jersey Regiment
C. Tent Assignments in Lt. Col. John Wrottesley’s (3d) Company, 1st Battalion,
Brigade of (British) Guards (Including “British Army orders regarding female
followers, summer 1777”)
D. Period Images of Army Followers or Poor to Middling Female Civilians
E. Photographs of Army Women at Living History Events
F. Online Articles Pertaining to Female Camp Followers and Related Subjects
During the War for American Independence
G. Other Authors’ Monographs (Women Following the Army)
The Continental Soldier, vol. VIII, no. 3 (Spring 1995), 51-58. ALHFAM Bulletin (Association of
Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums), vol. XXVIII, no. 4 (Winter 1999), 18-21.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/255868431/The-proportion-of-Women-which-ought-to-be-allowed-An-
Overview-of-Continental-Army-Female-Camp-Followers

“’They were good soldiers.’: African–Americans Serving in the Continental Army,”

http://www.scribd.com/doc/123231213/%E2%80%9CThey-were-good-soldiers-
African%E2%80%93Americans-Serving-in-the-Continental-Army

“’At Eutau Springs he received three wounds …’: Black Soldiers in Southern Continental
Regiments”
Contents
Overview of Numbers
Gleaning Veterans’ Pensions
Georgia
South Carolina
Maryland
Delaware
Virginia
Analysis: William Ranney’s Painting “Battle of Cowpens” and Black Cavalry Soldiers
Analysis: Officers’ Servants
North Carolina
Post-War Comments on Unit Integration, Slavery, and Societal Attitudes towards Blacks
Appendices
A. "Return of the Negroes in the Army," 24 August 1778, White Plains, New York
B. Estimated Populations of the American Colonies, 1700-1780
C. Synopsis of African-American veterans’ pensions found on Southern Campaign Revolutionary War
Pension Statements & Rosters (with links to pension transcriptions)
D. Analysis of average number of African Americans in all the brigades listed in the 24 August 1778 “Return
of the Negroes in the Army” showing 755 black soldiers in fifteen brigades of Gen. George Washington’s
main army at White Plains, New York.
E. A Study in Complexity: Comparison of Virginia Continental regiment lineage with that of the
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Lines
F. Synopsis of the Chesterfield List (Virginia, 1780-1781) (Including, “Numbers of African-Americans on the
Chesterfield List.”)
https://www.scribd.com/doc/290761045/At-Eutau-Springs-he-received-three-wounds-Black-
Soldiers-in-Southern-Continental-Regiments

“When the whole are completely formed, they may ground their arms …”: Grounding versus
Stacking Arms in the Continental Army (With Notes on British and German Practices)
https://www.scribd.com/doc/292407335/When-the-whole-are-completely-formed-they-may-ground-
their-arms-When-the-whole-are-completely-formed-they-may-ground-their-arms-Groundin

“’Was not in the battles ... being a Waiter.’ Enlisted Men and Civilians as Officers’ Servants during
the War for American Independence”
Part 1. “Our boys bring down something to eat ...”: Overview: Field and Company Officers’
Servants
https://www.scribd.com/doc/260955648/Was-not-in-the-battles-being-a-Waiter-Enlisted-Men-and-
Civilians-as-Officers-Servants-during-the-War-for-American-
Independence?secret_password=OJ0XV4DLMfjssaEcdU34
see also http://allthingsliberty.com/2015/04/war-as-a-waiter-soldier-servants/
"’The load a soldier generally carries during a campaign …”’: The British Soldier's Burden in the
American War for Independence”
(Dedicated to the recreated 17th Regiment of Foot)
Contents
1. Overview
2. “Complement of necessaries, etc., for the soldier.”: Personal Equipage as Stipulated in Military Treatises
3. "An enormous bulk, weighing about sixty pounds": British Troops’ Necessaries in Garrison and on
Campaign
a. 1762, British Grenadiers
b. 1771, 7th Regiment
c. Undated, Brigade of Guards
d. August 1776, Gen. Sir William Howe’s troops
e. 1776, Brigade of Guards
f. 1777, 40th Regiment, Personal Effects and Blanket Slings
g. 1777, 49th Regiment, Personal Effects and Blanket Slings
h. 1778, Guards Battalion
i. 1779, 17th Regiment
j. 1780-1781, Cornwallis’s Army
4. “A habersack for Each Soldier":Ways and Means of Carrying Food, and the Burden of Rations
5. "Four Days' flour to be Issued to the Troops": The Burden of Rations, 1762-1783
6. "The men having no other way ...": Shortages of Equipment for Food Carriage and Cooking
7. "Very Dirty and muddy.": Carrying Beverages and Difficulties in Finding Drinkable Water
8. Other Resources (Online Articles)
https://www.scribd.com/document/335479170/The-load-a-soldier-generally-carries-during-a-
campaign-The-British-Soldier-s-Burden-in-the-American-War-for-Independence

“’With my pack and large blanket at my back …’: British and American Officers’ Equipage and
Campaign Gear
Contents
1. “Things necessary for a Gentleman to be furnished with …”: Officers’ Kit for Regimental Service
a. British Officers’ Belongings
b. Continental Army Officers’ Kit.
c. Cooking and Eating Utensils.
2. "The officers must be satisfied walking …”: Allotment of Horses
3. Officers and Knapsacks: A Compendium of Accounts and Images
a. 1762, British Grenadiers
b. 1771, 7th Regiment
c. Undated, Brigade of Guards
d. August 1776, Gen. Sir William Howe’s troops
e. 1776, Brigade of Guards
f. 1777, 40th Regiment, Personal Effects and Blanket Slings
g. 1777, 49th Regiment, Personal Effects and Blanket Slings
h. 1778, Guards Battalion
4. Other Resources (Online Articles)
Appendix A.
Officers and Knapsacks: A Compendium of Accounts and Images
a. Knapsack: Rufus Lincoln, Massachusetts militia and 14 th Massachusetts
b. 1775, British, 43d Regiment, officer’s knapsack
c. 1776, 17th Regiment, Officer’s Rolled Blanket (“Pedlar's Pack “) and
Personal Belongings
d. 1776, Continental, 22d Continental Regiment, knapsack and belongings
e. 1777, Massachusetts Militia officer carrying a knapsack
f. 1777, British, 42d Regiment, portmanteau, no knapsack
g. 1777, British 49th Regiment, officers’ blanket slings
h. 1777, Continental Officers’ Knapsack Contents Described by a German Officer
i. 1777, British Officers, Saratoga Campaign, Knapsacks and Packhorses
j. 1779, British, 43d Regiment, officer’s marquee and possibly officer’s knapsack
k. 1781, British, Cornwallis’s Southern Army, officers and knapsacks
l. 1782, Continental, 2d Maryland Regiment, lieutenant colonel wearing a knapsack.
m. 1782, Continental Army, New Jersey Regiments, officers issued canteens but not knapsacks
Appendix B.
Miscellaneous Narratives on Officers’ Belongings and Campaign Living
a. 1776, British, Suggested Officers’ Campaign Equipage
b. 1776, British, 5th Regiment, campaign camp and food
c. 1776, Continental, 3d Virginia officer’s chest
d. 1776, Continental, Gen. Thomas Mifflin’s blanket coat and Colonel Lippitt’s andirons
e. 1776/1777, Militia, 1st Battalion Philadelphia Associators, Deceased Officer’s Belongings
f. 1776/1777, British, 33d Regiment, Officer’s Necessaries
g. 1777, British, 40th Regiment, Reduction of Officers’ Baggage
h. 1777, British, 24th Regiment and 24th Regiment, Saratoga Campaign
i. 1777, British, 46th Regiment, Officer’s Field Equipage
j. 1777, Continental, 7th Pennsylvania Regiment, Officer’s Belongings
k. 1777-1778, Continental, Rev. Enos Hitchcock’s personal belongings
l. 1777 and 1782, British and Continental, a bed made of chairs or stools (In honor of Joshua Mason)
m. 1778, Continental Officers and Horse Canteens
n. 1778, British, 42d Regiment, campaign living
o. 1780, German, Jaeger Camp Description
p. 1781, Continental Maryland Regiments, Officers’ Portmanteaus
q. 1781, French Officer’s Remarks on Continental Officers’ Life Style
r. 1781, Continental, 3d Maryland Regiment, Officer’s Greatcoat and wearing red coats
https://www.scribd.com/document/338154147/With-my-pack-and-large-blanket-at-my-back-
British-and-American-Officers-Equipage-and-Campaign-Gear

“’Cost of a Knapsack complete …’: Notes on Continental Army Packs and the Soldiers’ Burden”
Part 1. “This Napsack I carryd through the war of the Revolution”
Knapsacks Used by the Soldiers during the War for American Independence
a. Overview
b. Knapsacks and Tumplines, Massachusetts, 1775
c. The Uhl Knapsack
d. Leather and Hair Packs, and Ezra Tilden’s Narrative
e. The Rufus Lincoln and Elisha Gross Hair Knapsacks
f. The “new Invented Napsack and haversack,” 1776
g. The Benjamin Warner Linen Pack
h. British Linen Knapsacks
Appendices
a. Carrying Blankets in or on Knapsacks.
b. “Like a Pedlar's Pack.”: Blanket Rolls and Slings
c. More Extant Artifacts with Revolutionary War Provenance or with a Design Similar to
Knapsacks Used During the War
d. Extant Knapsacks Discounted as having Revolutionary War Provenance
http://www.scribd.com/doc/210794759/%E2%80%9C-This-Napsack-I-carryd-through-the-
war-of-the-Revolution-Knapsacks-Used-by-the-Soldiers-during-the-War-for-American-
Independence-Part-1-of-%E2%80%9C-Cos
"`The great distress of the Army for want of Blankets ...': Supply Shortages, Suffering
Soldiers, and a Secret Mission During the Hard Winter of 1780":
1. "Our condition for want of ... Blankets is quite painful ..."
Shortages in the Continental Army, 1776-1779
2. "Without even a shadow of a blanket ..."
Desperate Measures to Procure Covering for the Army, 1780
Addendum.
“To Colonel Morgan, for the use of the Light Infantry, twenty four Dutch Blankets & four pair of rose
Blankets.”: Examples of Bed Coverings Issued to Continental Troops
Endnote Extras.
Note
20. Clothing New Jersey's Soldiers, Winter 1779-1780
38. The Effect of Weather on the Squan Mission
Location of Squan Beach
43. Captain Bowman's Soldiers
46. Bowman's 2d New Jersey Light Company at the Battle of Connecticut Farms
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 52, no. 3 (Fall 2000), 98-110.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/274667902/The-great-distress-of-the-Army-for-want-of-Blankets-
Supply-Shortages-Suffering-Soldiers-and-a-Secret-Mission-During-the-Hard-Winter-of-1780

“`White Wollen,' 'Striped Indian Blankets,' 'Rugs and Coverlids': The Variety of
Continental Army Blankets," The Brigade Dispatch, vol. XXVI, no. 4 (Winter 2000), 11-14.
http://www.revwar75.com/library/rees/variety.htm

“To Colonel Morgan, for the use of the Light Infantry, twenty four Dutch Blankets & four
pair of rose Blankets.”: Examples of Bed Coverings Issued to Continental Troops
https://www.scribd.com/doc/273957204/To-Colonel-Morgan-for-the-use-of-the-Light-Infantry-
twenty-four-Dutch-Blankets-four-pair-of-rose-Blankets-Examples-of-Bed-Coverings-Issued-
to?secret_password=xY0eynb69XnvEPEOnKFY

“Images and Descriptions of Wool Blankets and Wool, Wool/Linen Coverlets in the
American Textile History Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts (The Chace Catalogue)”
https://www.scribd.com/doc/273789670/Images-and-Descriptions-of-Wool-Blankets-and-Wool-
Wool-Linen-Coverlets?secret_password=9AeF0J9Ae2vyuCCoKqRC

“A Quantity of Tow Cloth, for the Purpose of making of Indian or Hunting Shirts …”:
Proper Terminology: Hunting shirt, Rifle Shirt, Rifle Frock … ?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/241410261/A-Quantity-of-Tow-Cloth-for-the-Purpose-of-making-of-
Indian-or-Hunting-Shirts-Proper-Terminology-Hunting-shirt-Rifle-Shirt-Rifle-
Frock?secret_password=B5Ass1zGmYgykkILpBjz

“`The first object … should be to clean your Arms …’: The Care and Cleaning of Firelocks in the
18th Century”
https://www.scribd.com/doc/292985859/The-Care-and-Cleaning-of-Firelocks-in-the-18th-Century-
A-Discussion-of-Period-Methods-and-Their-Present-Day-Applications

“When the whole are completely formed, they may ground their arms …”: Grounding versus
Stacking Arms in the Continental Army (With Notes on British and German Practices)
https://www.scribd.com/doc/292407335/When-the-whole-are-completely-formed-they-may-ground-
their-arms-When-the-whole-are-completely-formed-they-may-ground-their-arms-Groundin
“’To hold thirty-six cartridges of powder and ball …’: Continental Army Tin and Sheet-Iron
Canisters, 1775-1780”
Including:
“They will … scarcely last one Campaign.” The Problem of Poorly-Made Continental Army Cartridge Pouches
and Introduction of the New Model Box
“The tin magazines … preserve the ammunition from wet … better than any other.”
Miscellania Concerning Crown Forces and Tin Canisters.
Alternative Names for Tin/Iron Cartridge Boxes
“Carried by Moses Currier in the Rev. War.”: Descriptions of Extant Canisters
http://www.scribd.com/doc/145591110/%E2%80%9C-To-hold-thirty-six-cartridges-of-powder-
and-ball-%E2%80%A6-Continental-Army-Tin-and-Sheet-Iron-Canisters-1775-1780

"’The taylors of the regiment’: Insights on Soldiers Making and Mending Clothing, and
Continental Army Clothing Supply, 1776 to 1783,” Military Collector & Historian, vol. 63, no. 4
(Winter 2011), 254-265.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/131742393/The-taylors-of-the-regiment-Insights-on-Soldiers-Making-
and-Mending-Clothing-and-Continental-Army-Clothing-Supply-1778-to-1783

"`To subsist an Army well ...': Soldiers' Cooking Equipment, Provisions, and Food
Preparation During the American War for Independence”:
"’All the tin Camp-kettles they can procure ...’: Iron Pots, Pans, and Light-
Weight Military Kettles, 1759-1782”
Subheadings:
Tin Kettles, 1759-1771”
“British Kettles in the American War, 1776-1781”
“Continental Army and States’ Militia, 1775-1780”
“American Sheet Iron Kettles, 1781-1782”
“Iron Pots, Pans, and Makeshift Cookware”
“Eating Utensils”
“Officers’ Cooking Equipment”
“Kettle Covers”
“’The extreme suffering of the army for want of … kettles …’:
Continental Soldiers and Kettle Shortages in 1782”
“’A disgusting incumbrance to the troops …’:
Linen Bags and Carts for Carrying Kettles”
“’The Kettles to be made as formerly …”: Kettle Capacity and Weight, and
Archaeological Finds”
Subheadings:
“Kettle Capacity and Sizes, 1759-1782”
“Louisbourg Kettle, Cape Breton Island”
“Fort Ligonier (Buckets or Kettles?)”
“Rogers Island (Bucket or Kettle?)”
“1812 Kettles, Fort Meigs, Ohio”
“Overview of Cooking Equipment, 1775-1783”
Addendum to online version:
“Two brass kettles, to contain ten gallons each … for each company …”
Brass and Copper Kettles
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 53, no. 1 (Spring 2001), 7-23.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/180835470/To-subsist-an-Army-well-Soldiers-Cooking-Equipment-
Provisions-and-Food-Preparation-During-the-American-War-for-Independence
"`To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.’: Soldiers' Food and Cooking in the War for
Independence”
"The manner of messing and living together": Continental Army Mess Groups
“Who shall have this?”: Food Distribution
"A hard game ...": Continental Army Cooks
“On with Kittle, to make some hasty Pudding …”: How a "Continental Devil" Broke His Fast
1. The Army Ration and Cooking Methods.
2. Eating Utensils.
3. The Morning Meal.
4. Other Likely Breakfast Fare.
Addenda
“The men were very industrious, in baking, all the forepart of the evening.”: Soldiers’ Ingenuity,
Regimental Bakers, and the Issue of Raw Flour
“The Commissary [is] desired … to furnish biscuit and salt provisions …”:
Hard Bread in the War for Independence.
"The victuals became putrid by sweat & heat ...": Some Peripheral Aspects of Feeding an Army
1. The Ways Soldiers Carried Food
2. The Burden of Rations, 1762-1783
3. Carrying Drink and Procuring Water
4. Equipment Shortages
5. Spoilage of Issued Meats
"We had our cooking utensils ... to carry in our hands.": Continental Army Cooking and Eating Gear,
and Camp Kitchens, 1775-1782
Endnotes:
#50. Compendium of Ration Allotments, 1754-1782
Continental Army rations (summary)
British Army rations (summary)
Caloric Requirements and Intake
#73. Miscellaneous returns of cooking gear and eating utensils, 1778-1781
(Appended) List of author’s articles on food in the armies of the American Revolution
http://www.scribd.com/doc/129368664/To-the-hungry-soul-every-bitter-thing-is-sweet-Soldiers-
Food-and-Cooking-in-the-War-for-Independence

"`As many fireplaces as you have tents ...': Earthen Camp Kitchens”:
Contents
Part I. "Cooking Excavations": Their History and Use by Soldiers in North America
A. Advantages.
B. Digging a Field Kitchen.
Part II. Complete 1762 Kitchen Description and Winter Covering for Field Kitchens
Part III. Matt and I Dig a Kitchen.
Sequenced photos of kitchen construction, June 1997, Bordentown, New Jersey.
Part IV. Original Earthen Kitchens Examined by Archaeologists.
A. The Laughanstown, Ireland Earthen Kitchen.
B. The Gloucester Point (VIMS) Kitchen, 1781.
C. Hessian Kitchens, Winchester, England, 1756.
Appendices:
1. Encampment Plans (with an emphasis on kitchen placement): Continental Army, Hessian, and British
2. British Image of Cooking Excavations (Redcoat Images No. 2,000)
3. Newspaper Article on the Discovery of the Gloucester Point Kitchen
4. Miscellaneous Images of Earthen Camp Kitchens and Soldiers Cooking
https://www.academia.edu/21056265/_As_many_fireplaces_as_you_have_tents_..._Earthen_Camp_
Kitchens
(Video of Old Barracks kitchen, courtesy of David Niescior, https://vimeo.com/151154631 )
"`We ... got ourselves cleverly settled for the night': Soldiers' Shelter on Campaign During the War
for Independence,"
Part I, "`Oznabrig tabernacles’: Tents in the Armies of the Revolution":
1. “Put our Men into barns …”: The Vagaries of Shelter
2. "We Lay in the open world": Troops Without Shelter on Campaign
3. "State of Marquees and Tents delivered to the Army...": Varieties of Tentage
a. British Common Tents
b. American Common Tents
c. Horseman’s and Cavalry Tents
d. Wall Tents
e. Marquees
f. Bell Tents for Sheltering Arms
g. Dome, Square, and Hospital Tents
h. French Tents
4. "Return of Camp Equipage": More on Tents.
Appendices
Illustrations of French Tents
The Common Tent as Illustrated in a German Treatise
How to Fold a Common Tent for Transport (from a German Treatise)
Interior Views of Common Tents: Sleeping Arrangements in Three Armies
A Melange of Marquees: Additional Images of Officers’ Tents
Encampment Plans: Continental Army, Hessian, and British
Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Part I. (Philadelphia, Pa.: Styner and Cist, 1779)
“A Correct View of the Hessian Camp on Barton Farm near Winchester … by Willm. Godson, Land
Surveyor to the Right Worshipful the Corporation of Winchester occupé le 16 Juillet 1756”
Lewis Lochee, An Essay on Castrametation (London, 1778) (British treatise on tents and encampments.)
Humphrey Bland, A treatise of military discipline: in which is laid down and explained the duty of the officer
and soldier, through the several branches of the service. The 8th edition revised, corrected, and altered to the
present practice of the army (London: B. Law and T. Caslon, 1762).
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 49, no. 3 (Fall 1997), 98-107.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/262657282/Oznabrig-tabernacles-Tents-in-the-Armies-of-the-
Revolution-part-1-of-We-got-ourselves-cleverly-settled-for-the-night-Soldiers-Shelter

Part V, “`We built up housan of branchis and leavs ’: Continental Army Brush Shelters, 1775-
1777”
A. "This night we lay out without shelter ...”: Overview of American Soldiers' Campaign Lodging
B. "We maid us some Bush huts ...": Brush Shelters, 1775 and 1776.
C. "Huts of sticks & leaves": Washington's Army in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 1777.
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 55, no. 4 (Winter 2003-2004), 213-223.
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/pdfs/huts5.pdf

Part VI, "`We built up housan of branchis & leavs ...’: Continental Army Brush Shelters, 1778-
1782
A. "Found the regiment lying in bush huts ...": Continental Troops on Campaign and on the March,
1778-1780.
B. "Pine huts," "Huts of rails," and "Bush Tents": Virginia and the Carolinas, 1781-1782.
C. "Return of Camp Equipage": More on Tents.
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 56, no. 2 (2004), 98-106.
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/pdfs/huts6.pdf
“’Reach Coryels ferry. Encamp on the Pennsylvania side.’: The March from Valley Forge to
Monmouth Courthouse, 18 to 28 June 1778”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/133301501/“Reach-Coryels-ferry-Encamp-on-the-Pennsylvania-side-”-
The-March-from-Valley-Forge-to-Monmouth-Courthouse-18-to-28-June-1778
Endnotes:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/133293312/Endnotes-“Reach-Coryels-ferry-Encamp-on-the-
Pennsylvania-side-”-The-March-from-Valley-Forge-to-Monmouth-Courthouse-18-to-28-June-1778
Contents
1. “We struck our tents and loaded our baggage.”: Leaving Valley Forge
2. Progress, June 18, 1778.
3. Progress, June 19, 1778.
4. “Crost the dilliware pushed on about 5 milds …”: June 20, 1778: Progress and a River Crossing
5. “4 Wagons & Horses, and 1000 Men at a Try.”: The Mechanics of Ferrying an Army
6. “Halt on the first strong ground after passing the Delaware ...”: June 20th River Crossing
7. “The number of boats … will render the passage of the troops very expeditious.”:
June 21st Ferry Operation
8. “The Troops are passing the River … and are mostly over.”: June 22d Crossing
9. “The Army will march off …”: June 22d and 23d, Camp at Amwell Meeting
10. “Just after we halted we sent out a large detachment …”: Camp and Council: Hopewell
Township, 23 to 24 June
11. “Giving the Enemy a stroke is a very desireable event …”: Advancing to Englishtown,
24 to 28 June
Progress, June 25, 1778.
Progress, June 26, 1778.
Progress, June 27, 1778.
Forward to Battle, June 28, 1778.
12. “Our advanced Corps … took post in the evening on the Monmouth Road …”:
Movements of Continental Detachments Followng the British, 24 to 28 June 1778
The Advance Force: Scott’s, Wayne’s, Lafayette’s, and Lee’s Detachments.
Daily Movements of Detachments Later Incorporated into Lee’s Advanced Corps.
13. Echoes of 1778, Three Years After.
Addendum
1. Driving Directions, Continental Army Route from Valley Forge to Englishtown
2. Day by Day Recap of Route
3. The Road to Hopewell.
4. The Bungtown Road Controversy.
5. Weather During the Monmouth Campaign
6. Selected Accounts of the March from Valley Forge to Englishtown
a. Fifteen-year-old Sally Wister
b. Surgeon Samuel Adams, 3rd Continental Artillery
c. Henry Dearborn, lt. colonel, 3rd New Hampshire Regiment
d. Captain Paul Brigham, 8th Connecticut Regiment
e. Sergeant Ebenezer Wild, 1st Massachusetts Regiment
f. Sgt. Jeremiah Greenman, 2d Rhode Island Regiment
g. Dr. James McHenry, assistant secretary to General Washington
7. List of Related works by the author on military material culture and the Continental Army
Endnotes contain:
1. Army General and Brigade Orders, June 1778.
a. Orders Regulating the Army on the March from Valley Forge.
b. Orders Issued During the Movement from Valley Forge to Englishtown.
2. Division and Brigade Composition for Washington’s Main Army to 22 June 1778
3. Washington’s army vehicle allotment for the march to Coryell’s Ferry,
4. Wheeled Transportation (a primer on the vehicles and artillery on the road to
Monmouth, including twenty-one illustrations)
5. Division and Brigade Composition for Washington’s Main Army after 22 June 1778
 _____________________

Endnotes

1. "Plan for the Cloathing of the Infantry," 1779, George Washington Papers, Presidential Papers
Microfilm (Washington, DC, 1961), series 4, reel 63.
2. Title: [Panoramic view of West Point, New York showing American encampments on the Hudson River]
Creator(s): L'Enfant, Pierre Charles, 1754-1825, artist
Date Created/Published: [1778?, (likely 1782, J.U.R.)]
Medium: 1 drawing : watercolor ; 142.7 x 27.7 cm (sheet)
Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-642 (color film copy transparency of entire item) LC-USZC4-268 (color
film copy transparency of left) LC-USZC4-269 (color film copy transparency of left center) LC-USZC4-270
(color film copy transparency of right) LC-USZC4-271 (color film copy transparency of right center) LC-
USZ62-40974 (b&w film copy neg. of left) LC-USZ62-40975 (b&w film copy neg. of left center) LC-USZ62-
40976 (b&w film copy neg. of right center) LC-USZ62-40977 (b&w film copy neg. of right)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: DRWG 1 - L'Enfant, no. 1 (F size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
Pencilled on back: "Encampment of the Revolutionary Army on the Hudson River."
Title devised by Library staff.
Published in: The American Revolution in drawings and prints; a checklist of 1765-1790 graphics in the
Library of Congress / Compiled by Donald H. Cresswell, with a foreword by Sinclair H. Hitchings.
Washington : [For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], 1975, no. 557.
Exhibited in: "Creating the United States" at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011.
Date for painting of 1782 is based on the service chevrons on the saluting soldier’s left sleeve; the
chevrons were first authorized on the 7th of that month.
Army orders “Head Quarters, Newburgh, Wednesday, August 7, 1782. … Honorary Badges of distinction are to be
conferred on the veteran Non commissioned officers and soldiers of the army who have served more than three
years with bravery, fidelity and good conduct; for this purpose a narrow piece of white cloath of an angular form is
to be fixed to the left arm on the uniform Coat. Non commissioned officers and soldiers who have served with equal
reputation more than six years are to be distinguished by two pieces of cloth set in parellel to each other in a simular
form; should any who are not entitled to these honors have the insolence to assume the badges of them they shall be
severely punished. On the other hand it is expected those gallant men who are thus designated will on all occasions
be treated with particular confidence and consideration.”
Army orders, “Head Quarters, Newburgh, Sunday, August 11, 1782 … In order to prevent misapplication of the
honorary badges of distinction to be conferred on the Noncommissioned officers and soldiers in consequence of
long and faithful service, through any mistake or misapprehention of the orders of the 7th. instant the general thinks
proper to inform the army that they are only attainable by an uninterrupted series of faithful and honorable services.
A soldier who has once retired from the field of glory forfeits all pretentions to precedence from former services;
and a man who has deservedly met an ignominious punishmt. or degredation cannot be admitted a Candadate for
any honorary distinction, unless he shall have wiped away the stain his reputation has suffered by some very brilliant
achievement, or by serving with reputation after his disgrace the number of years which entitle other men to that
indulgence. The badges which Noncommissioned officers and soldiers are permitted to wear on the left arm as a
mark of long and faithful service are to be of the same colour with the facings of the corps they belong to and not
white in every instance as directed in the orders of the 7th. instant.”
General orders, 7 August 1782, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the
Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, vol. 24 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1938), 487-488. General orders,
11 August 1782, ibid., vol. 25 (1938), 7-8.
2. James Thacher, Military Journal of the American Revolution (Hartford, Ct. 1862), 206.
3. Thomas Anburey, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America in a Series of Letters by an
Officer, vol. I (New York: The New York Times & Arno Press, 1969), letter XXXVI, 8 August
1777, 378–381.
4. Loftus Cliffe to Jack, 24 October 1777, Loftus Cliffe Papers, William L. Clements Library,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Loftus Cliffe correspondence, lieutenant, 46th Regiment,
Collections of the William C. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
5. Sheldon S. Cohen, "Captain William Leslie's 'Paths of Glory,’" New Jersey History, 108
(1990), 63.
6. Loftus Cliffe to Jack, 24 October 1777, Loftus Cliffe Papers, William L. Clements Library,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
7. Molitor to a female friend (probably his wife), 24 June 1777, “Journal of First Lieutenant
Christian Theodor Sigmund von Molitor, Bayreuth Regiment,” Journal of the Johannes Schwalm
Historical Association, Inc., vol. 4, no. 4 (1992), 7-8.
8. Walter Harold Wilkin, Some British Soldiers in America (London, Hugh Rees, Ltd., 1914),
246-247. For a synopsis of British foraging operations around Philadelphia in December 1777,
see, John W. Jackson, With the British Army in Philadelphia, 1777-1778 (San Rafael, Ca., and
London, U.K.: Presidio Press, 1979), 169-170.
9. Part III, p. 10. T. Triplett Russell and John K. Gott, "Captain John Chilton's Diary", Fauquier
Heritage Society News, vol. 2, no. 1 (October 1994) part I, pp. 1-9.
10. Richard Butler to William Irvine, 8 July 1781, John Blair Linn and William H. Egle,
Pennsylvania in the War of the Revolution, Battalions and Line 1775–1783, vol. I (Harrisburg,
Pa.: Lane S. Hart, State Printer,1880), 530-532.
11. Francis Barber to his wife, Mary Ogden Barber, 3 July 1781, Roland M. Baumann, ed.,
Miscellaneous Manuscripts of the Revolutionary War Era, 1771–1791, in the Pennsylvania State
Archives, Manuscript Group 275 (microfilm edition, 1 reel) (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical
and Museum Commission, 1978), frame 298. The 1781 Virginia summer campaign was hard on
that most crucial of items, footwear. Despite receipt of a “large quantity of … shoes” mentioned
by Lt. Ebenezer Wild on 5 May, the light troops sorely needed footwear by late summer, Ensign
Benjamin Gilbert noted on 18 July while at Malvern Hill, “we are in Daily expectations of
marching [to Carolina]. But I dread the march, our men having not more than one pair of shoes
or Hose to Eight men, and the sands are so hot in the middle of the Day that it continually raises
Blisters on the mens feet.” General Wayne claimed the same hardship for his troops, writing on
August 9th, “Notwithstanding this Circumstance, Delicacy has induced me to march the
Penns[ylvani]ans. bare foot over sharp pebbles, & thro’ burning sands (altho’ heretofore unused
to such treatment) rather than discriminate between any body of troops under my Command.”
Gilbert to Park Holland, August 1781, John Shy, ed., Winding Down – The Revolutionary War
Letters of Lieutenant Benjamin Gilbert of Massachusetts, 1780–1783 (Ann Arbor, Mi.:
University of Michigan Press, 1989), 46–47. Anthony Wayne to Lafayette, 9 August 1781,
Stanley J. Idzerda, ed., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution – Selected Letters and
Papers, 1776–1790, vol. IV (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1981), 307–309.
12. Don N. Hagist, “’The Bivouack of an Army ‘: Roger Lamb’s Description of a Campaign
Encampment in America,” The Brigade Dispatch, vol. XXXVI, no. 4 (Winter 2006), 15-18.
13. George Smith, An Universal Military Dictionary: A Copious Explanation of the Technical
Terms &c. Used in the Equipment, Machinery, Movements, and Military Operations of an Army
(London: Printed for J. Millan, near Whitehall, 1779), 193.
14. Ibid., 223.
15. Thomas Simes, The Military Instructor for Non-Commissioned Officers and Private Men of the
Infantry (second edition; London, 1778)
16. Thomas Simes, A Military Guide for Young Officers …3rd Edition (London: Printed for J.
Millan, near Whitehall, 1781), 167. Simes’ earlier work The Military Medley (1768) contains the
same list with few differences. See, Thomas Simes, The Military Medley: Containing the most
necessary Rules and Directions for attaining a Competent Knowledge of the Ar: To which is added
an Explanation of Military Terms, Alabetically Digested (London, 1768), 5-6.
17. Bennett Cuthbertson, System for the Compleat Interior Management and Oeconomy of a
Battalion of Infantry (Dublin: Printed by Boulter Grierson, 1768), 101.
18. Ibid., 93.
19. Ibid., 94.
20. Ibid., 82.
21. Ibid., 114.
22. Ibid., 101.
23. Ibid., 85.
24. Ibid., 85. Cuthbertson also wrote on how to ensure soldiers cared for and retained the items
issued them: (p.87) “To prevent as much as possible, the least embezzlement of the necessaries,
with which a Soldier is provided, and to give a greater chance for the discovery of thefts, all their
linen articles should have the name of the owner, with the number of the Regiment and Company
he belongs to, marked with a mixture of vermilion and nut-oil, which when perfectly dried can
never be washed out; under the slit of the bosom of the shirt, will be found the most convenient
place, as at the weekly inspection of necessaries, and Officer can easily examine, if the shirts at
that time worn by the Soldiers are their own; some mark should also be fixed upon the woolen
Stockings and the Shoes, otherwise an officer will find himself exposed to numberless
impositions, from the irregularity of particular Soldiers, and their unconquerable desire for drink,
which tempts them frequently to exchange and pledge their necessaries, if not prevented by
every precaution in the power of an Officer to invent.”; (pp. 87-88) “That the necessaries of a
Soldier may always be kept up in good condition, and that it may be the more readily discovered,
if any part has been lost or embezzled, every officer should have a roll of those of his Company,
and every Serjeant and Corporal one of the Squad he inspects; and at the weekly review of linen,
&c. … an Officer ought strictly to examine every particular belonging to his Company,
observing that they agree in quantity … and likewise, that every article has the proper mark of
belonging to the man who shews it …”
25. For examples, see, Matthew H. Spring, With Zeal and Bayonets Only: The British Army on
Campaign in North America, 1775-1783 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008);
William W. Burke and Linnea M. Bass, “Preparing a British Unit for Service in America: The
Brigade of Foot Guards, 1776,” Military Collector & Historian, vol. 47, no. 1 (Spring 1995), 2-
; John U. Rees, "'We are now ... properly ... enwigwamed.': British Soldiers and Brush Shelters,
1777-1781," The Brigade Dispatch, vol. XXIX, no. 2 (Summer 1999), 2-9.
(World Wide Web, http://revwar75.com/library/rees/enwigwamed.htm )
26. Arthur Baillie, lieutenant, to Henry Bouquet, colonel, 28 August 1762, Henry Bouquet,
Papers of Col. Henry Bouquet, series 21648, part 2 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical
Commission, 1940), 77-78. First brought to my attention by via R. Scott Stephenson, "'The
Camp Looks So Pretty With all the Lanterns': Thoughts on Reconstructing the Physical World of
the British Soldier on Campaign in North America", Standing Orders: A Newsletter for
Researchers of the British Army in North America, 1739-1765, vol. 3, no. 1 (November 1990).
27. Stuart Reid, Quebec, 1759: The Battle that Won Canada (Oxford, U.K.: Osprey Publishing,
2003), 16. John Knox, captain, 43rd Regiment, The Siege of Quebec and the Campaigns in North
America, 1757-1760 (abridged edition) Brian Connell, ed., (Edinburgh, U.K., 1976, originally
published 1769), 118-119. (See also Lawson, 1963:47. Still seeking full citation for this
source)
28. Reid, Quebec, 1759, 16.
29. “Establishment of Necessaries in Lord Robt. Bertie’s Company,” 7th Regiment, Royal Fuzileers,
30 March 1771, Walter Home, captain, Officer's Memorandum Book. George Chalmers
Collection, Peter Force Papers, Library of Congress. Standing orders for the 65th Regiment,
copied from an officer’s notebook found in the papers of the Wood family of Monk Bretton and
Barnsley (circa 1776/1777, transcription by Walt Norris, 1989), Metropolitan Borough Council
Archives and Local Studies Department, Barnsley, U.K.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/Military/65thFootStandingOrders.html
30. Loudoun Papers (LO 6514), Manuscript Collection at the Huntington Library, San Marino,
California. (Courtesy of Linnea M. Bass.)
31. William W. Burke and Linnea M. Bass, “Preparing a British Unit for Service in America:
The Brigade of Foot Guards, 1776,” Military Collector & Historian, vol. 47, no. 1 (Spring 1995),
2-11. http://www.military-historians.org/publications/journal/samples/Guards.pdf
32. Sheldon S. Cohen, "Captain William Leslie's 'Paths of Glory'", New Jersey History, 108 (1990),
63.
33. "4th Battalion of Grenadiers Orderly Book, 30 June - 15 November 1776," John Peebles (42d
Regiment) diary, notebook 2, GD 21/492, 2, Scottish Record Office. (Courtesy of Don N. Hagist
and Andrew Watson Kirk.)
34. Thomas Glyn, "The Journal of Ensign Thomas Glyn, 1st Regiment of Foot Guards on the
American Service with the Brigade of Guards 1776-1777," 7. (Courtesy of Linnea M. Bass.)
35. British Orderly Book [40th Regiment of Foot] April 20, 1777 to August 28, 1777, George
Washington Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm (Washington: Library of Congress, 1961),
series 6 (Military Papers, 1755-1798), vol. 1, reel 117. See also,"`Necessarys … to be Properley
Packd: & Slung in their Blanketts’: Selected Transcriptions 40th Regiment of Foot Order Book,”
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/40th.htm
36. 49th Regiment, "British Orderly Book, June 25, 1777 - Sept. 10, 1777,” George Washington
Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm (Washington: Library of Congress, 1961), series 6
(Military Papers, 1755-1798), vol. 1.
37. British Orderly Book [40th Regiment of Foot] April 20, 1777 to August 28, 1777, George
Washington Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm (Washington: Library of Congress, 1961),
series 6 (Military Papers, 1755-1798), vol. 1, reel 117. See also,"`Necessarys … to be Properley
Packd: & Slung in their Blanketts’: Selected Transcriptions 40th Regiment of Foot Order Book,”
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/40th.htm
38. Order book, 43rd Regiment of Foot (British), 23 May 1781 to 25 August 1781, British Museum,
London, Mss. 42,449. (Courtesy of Gilbert V. Riddle.)
39. A.R. Newsome, ed., "A British Orderly Book, 1780-1781,” North Carolina Historical Review,
vol. IX, 2 (1932), 178-179.
40. Newsome, "A British Orderly Book, 1780-1781,” vol. IX, 3 (1932), 286-287.
41. Frederick Wilhelm de Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the
United States. Part I. (Philadelphia, Pa. 1779), 141, 148-149, 152-153, 154.
42. Vol. 8, May 26, 1777, Washington to William Smallwood, page 128-129.
43. Vol. 8, July 4, 1777, General Orders, page 344-348.
44. General Orders, 6 August 1777, Fitzpatrick, WGW, vol. 9 (1933), p. 28.
45. Joseph Brown Turner, ed., The Journal and Order Book of Captain Robert Kirkwood of the
Delaware Regiment of the Continental Line (Port Washington, N.Y., 1970), 165-166.
46. James Abeel Receipt Book 1778-1779, Manuscript Collection of Morristown National
Historical Park Collection (microfilm edition), reel 1, entry 656.
47. Charles E. Hanson, Jr., "Sheet Iron Kettles," The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly, vol. 28,
no. 1 (Spring 1992), 2-6. This article discusses the use of sheet-iron kettles by both soldiers and
civilians from the late-18th century to the mid-19th century.
48. John G. Frazer, “A Return of Camp-Utensils &c in Store at Medford,” 25 March 1776,
George Washington Papers (Library of Congress, 1961), series 4.
49. Peter Force, American Archives, series 5, vol. III (Washington, D.C.: Published by M. St.
Clair and Peter Force, 1853), 453.
50.. Joseph Plumb Martin, Private Yankee Doodle: A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers
and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York, 1962), 51, 81.
51. Mark Hutter, "Supplying Virginia's Regiments," The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter, vol. 17,
no. 2 (Summer 1996), p. 17. John Townsley to Council of Safety, 3 February 1776, William Hande
Browne, ed., "Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety August 29, 1775-July
6, 1776", Archives of Maryland, vol. XI (Baltimore, 1892), 138.
52. Force, American Archives, series 4, vol. VI (1846), 1707. ibid., series 5, vol. I (1848), 188.
53. Pickering to Washington, 9 June 1778, GW Papers, series 4, reel 49.
54. Samuel Miles, D.Q.M., to Pickering, 21 February 1781, Miscellaneous Numbered Records (The
Manuscript File) in the War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records 1775-1790's, no.
24506 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M859, reel 84) U.S. War Department Collection
of Revolutionary War Records, Record Group 93, Washington. Samuel Ogden to Pickering, 8 May
1782, ibid., reel 88, no. 25500. Melville J. Boyer, ed., "The Letter Book of Jacob Weiss,"
Proceedings of the Lehigh County Historical Society, Vol. 21 (September, 1956), 124.
55. Timothy Pickering, "Estimate of Camp Equipage intended for a Regiment of Infantry", 31
January 1782, target 4, Numbered Record Books Concerning Military Operations and Service, Pay
and Settlement Accounts, and Supplies in the War Department Collection of Revolutionary War
Records (National Archives Microfilm Publication M853, reel 29) Record Group 93, NA. Pickering
to Walker, 22 March 1783, GW Papers, series 4, reel 91.
56. Pickering to Samuel Ogden, 30 April 1782, Nod. Record Books, NA, vol. 83, reel 26, 252-253.
Pickering to Peter Anspach, 26 June 1782, Misc. Nod. Records, NA, reel 87, no. 25345.
57. Journals of the Provincial Congress of New York, vol. I (Albany, 1842), 324. Peter Force,
American Archives, series 5, vol. I (Washington, 1848), 1344.
58. "A Return for Stores Wanting on [Board?] Gundalo Providence ...," 3 August 1776, Misc. Nod.
Records, NA, reel 69, no. 21134. Philip K. Lundeberg, The Gunboat Philadelphia and the Defense
of Lake Champlain in 1776 (Basin Harbor, VT, 1995), 36-43. See Howard P. Hoffman, Ship Plan,
Gondola Philadelphia, drawing no. 00122, sheet 13 of 16, Anchors, Fireplace and Cooking Utensils,
Division of Armed Forces History (Naval Section), National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution. Harold L. Peterson, The Book of the Continental Soldier (Harrisburg, PA,
1968), 147-148. George C. Neumann and Frank J. Kravic, Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of
the American Revolution (Harrisburg, PA, 1975), 91. George C. Neumann to John U. Rees, 6 May
1997 (letter, author's collection). Most of the articles described as coming from the Philadelphia are
at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.. The three-legged fry pan is in a private collection.
59. Force, American Archives, series 5, vol. I (1848), 294.
60. Neumann and Kravic, Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia, 92, 94. Peterson, Book of the
Continental Soldier, 148-149. William Louis Calver and Reginald Pelham Bolton, History Written
With Pick and Shovel (New York, 1950), 216. Charles Knowles Bolton, The Private Soldier Under
Washington (Williamstown, MA, 1976), 82-83. Dan L. Morrill, Southern Campaigns of the
American Revolution (Baltimore, 1993), 148-149. 27 July 1777 entry, John Chilton's Diary (captain,
3rd Virginia Regiment), Keith Family Papers, 1710-1916, Virginia Historical Society. Lloyd A.
Brown and Howard H. Peckham, eds., Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775-1783
(Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1939; reprinted Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1994), 123-125.
Pickering to Peter Anspach, 26 June 1782, Misc. Nod. Records, Natl. Archives, reel 87, no. 25345;
document courtesy of Marko Zlatich. Pickering to Captain Walker, 22 March 1783, George
Washington Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm (Washington: Library of Congress, 1961),
series 4, reel 91.
61. Charles Stedman, The History of the Origin, Progress and Termination of the American War,
vol. 2 (two vols.; Dublin: privately printed, 1794), 225. See also Roger Lamb, soldier in the 23rd
Regiment, who noted converting canteens into rasps during Cornwallis' southern campaign:
"Sometimes we had turnips served out for our food, when we came to a turnip field, or arriving
at a field of corn, we converted our canteens into rasps and ground our Indian corn for bread,
with our lean beef." Don N. Hagist, A British Soldier's Story: Roger Lamb's Narrative of the
American Revolution" (Baraboo, Wi.: Ballindalloch Press, 2004), 90.
62. John Robert Shaw, The Life and Travels of John Robert Shaw, the Well-Digger, Now
Resident in Lexington, Kentucky (Lexington, 1807; reprinted, Louisville: George Fowler, 1930),
68. Roger Lamd, 23d Regiment, "Sometimes we had turnips served out for our food, when we
came to a turnip field; or arriving at a field of corn, we converted our canteens into rasps and
ground our Indian corn for bread; when we could get no Indian corn, we were compelled to eat
liver as a substitute for bread, with our lean beef. In all this his lordship participated, nor did he
indulge himself even in the distinction of a tent; but in all things partook our sufferings, and
seemed much more to feel for us than for himself.” Roger Lamb, An Original and Authentic
Journal of Occurrences during the late American War, from it’s Commencement to the Year
1783 (Dublin, 1809; reprint, New York: The New York Times and Arno Press, 1968), 381.
63. Nathan Davis account (1st New Hampshire Regiment), supporting deposition for William
Morris pension file (S1061), ”At the place called Tioga Point, we built a fort and left the women
and sick with a guard, with two brass field pieces and two howitzers. We then proceeded into the
Indian Country where we destroyed their towns, orchards and cornfields. The Indian corn was
very large, & our soldiers made corn meal of it by grating it on the outsides of old camp kettles
which they first perforated with bayonets.” (National Archives Microfilm Publication M804,
2,670 rolls, roll 1772) Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files,
1800–1900, Record Group 15; National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Davis gave a
longer recounting in Pliny H. White, “History of the Expedition against the Five Nations,
Commanded by General Sullivan, in 1779,” The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries,
concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, vol. III, second series
(Morrisania, N.Y.: Henry B. Dawson, 1868), 203-205:
“It may now, perhaps, be proper to notice our manner of livelyhood. Whilst marching in the
wilderness, as before observed, we had only half our allowance of provisions, which was one
half pound of flour, and one half pound of fresh beef, or rather an apology for beef, as our cattle
had become intolerably poor, in consequence of constant driving. When we came to an Indian
town, we had neither meal nor flour, but only a trifle of salt. When we first came to the Indian
towns, their corn was suitable to boil or roast; of course we had plenty of succotash. When the
corn became too mature for this, we converted some old tin kettles found in the Indian
settlements, into large graters, and obliged every fourth man, not on guard, to sit up all night, and
grate corn, which would make meal, something like hominy. This meal was mixed with boild
squash or pumpkin, when hot, and kneaded into cakes, and baked by the fire. This bread, coarse
as it was, relished well among soldiers fatigued with daily marches through the wilderness, and I
very much doubt, whether one of them would have allowed George III. one morsel of it, to have
saved him from the lock-jaw. When we left Tioga Point, we left the principal part of our
clothing, by general order. We were not allowed any clothing besides what we wore, with the
exception of one spare shirt. Our clothing consisted of a short rifle frock, vest, tow trousers,
shoes, stockings, and blanket. Marching nearly the whole time in the woods, among the thick
underbrush, it may well be supposed that we had little left of our clothing, on our return to the
garrison. Our feet were many of them bare and bleeding. I shall ever remember my own situation
at this period. Destitute of shoes, and almost destitute of pantaloons, we encamped one night on
an open ground, covered with wild grass. In the morning, the ground was covered with frost.
Going some forty or fifty rods for water to boil my half pound of beef, Lieutenant Thomas
Blake, of our Company, observed my situation, went to his portmanteau, took out a pair of shoes
and a pair of pantaloons, and kindly presented them to me.”
64. Martin, Private Yankee Doodle, 43, 76.
65. Jonathan Todd to his father, 9 November 1777, Todd was surgeon's mate in Colonel Heman
Swift's 7th Connecticut Regt., Jonathan Todd, letters, 1777-1778, Revolutionary War Pension and
Bounty - Land - Warrant Application Files, National Archives Microfilm Publication M804, reel
2395. "Journal of Ebenezer Wild," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd series,
vol. VI (Boston, 1891), 103-104. Martin, Private Yankee Doodle, 97.
66. Ibid., 43, 103. Robert C. Bray and Paul E. Bushnell, eds., Diary of a Common Soldier in the
American Revolution: An Annotated Edition of the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman,
(DeKalb, Il., 1978), 73-74.
67. H.G. Mitchell, ed., "A Massachusetts Soldier in the Revolution. By Park Holland," New
England Magazine, New Series, vol. 20, March-August 1899 (Boston: Warren F. Kellogg,
Publisher, 1899), 323-324.
68. M.M. Quaife, ed., "Documents - A Boy Soldier Under Washington: The Memoir of Daniel
Granger", Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XVI, 4 (March 1930), 546. Lloyd A. Brown and
Howard H. Peckham, eds., Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775-1783 (Chicago:
The Caxton Club, 1939; reprinted Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1994), 123-125. Force,
American Archives, series 5, vol. III (1853), 453. 31 December 1778, James Abeel Receipt Book
1778-1779, Morristown NHP Collection, reel 1, entry 656. 6 September, 5 October, 2 November
1779, Returns for Captain Maxwell's Company commanded by Col. John Bailey (2nd Mass. Regt.)
1775-1780, Folder 8E-10, WARS 8 VI, The Revolution, Box 5, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial
Association, Historic Deerfield Massachusetts. Timothy Pickering to Washington (with enclosed
memorandum), 14 January 1781, Washington Papers, series 4, reel 74. Pickering to Peter Anspach,
26 June 1782, Misc. Nod. Records, Natl. Archives, reel 87, no. 25345.
69. Blank regimental ledger, 1 September 1779, Josiah Harmar Papers (microfilm edition, reel
10), William L. Clements Library, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor. "Plan for the Cloathing of the
Infantry," 1779, GW Papers, series 4, reel 63. “Estimate of Articles to be imported in the
Department of the Board of War & Defence,” June 1779, The Papers of the Continental
Congress 1774-1789, (National Archives Microfilm Publication M247 reel 158); Record Group
(RG) 360, National Archives (NA), Washington, DC, 1958: vol. 3, 424, 434-435)."Estimate of
Necessaries Requisite for an Army of 40,000 Men," [1781?], and "Estimate of Stores &ca. for an
Army of Twenty five thousand Men so far as concerns the Quarter Master Generals
Department," [1781?], Numbered Record Books Concerning Military Operations and Service,
Pay and Settlement of Accounts, and Supplies in the War Department Collection of
Revolutionary War Records, Record Group 93, National Archives Microfilm Publications M853
(Washington, DC, 1973: vol. 103, reel 29, targets 2 and 4).
70. 10 June 1779, James Abeel Receipt Book 1778–1779, Lloyd W. Smith Collection, 69 reels,
Morristown National Historic Park, reel 1, entry 656; 6 September, 5 October, 2 November 1779,
Returns for Captain Maxwell's Company commanded by Col. John Bailey (2d Mass. Regt.) 1775–
1780, Folder 8E–10, WARS 8 VI, The Revolution, Box 5, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial
Association, Historic Deerfield Massachusetts; "A Return of Quarter–Master–General's Stores in
The Brigades at West Point & Constitution Island," 1 August 1779, and "A Return of Quarter–
Master–General's Stores in the Second Pennsylvania Brigade... at Camp West Point," 4 August
1779, Papers of the Continental Congress (NA Microfilm Publication M247, vol. 3, reel 192, 3, 145,
153).
71. Edwin M. Stone, The Life and Recollections of John Howland, late President of the Rhode
Island Historical Society (Providence: George H. Whitney, 1857), 66 (World Wide Web),
http://tiny.cc/7THqK .
72. John Greenwood, "Memoirs of the Life of the late Mr. John Greenwood, Mechanical and
Surgeon Dentist, of New-York City: Compiled by E. Bryan," The American Journal of Dental
Science, devoted to Original Articles, reviews of Dental Publications; the latest Improvements in
Surgical and Mechanical Dentistry, and Biographical Sketches of distinguished Dentists (Kelley
and Fraetas, Printers, New York, 1839), 103 (Google Books). The unit he belonged to is
identified on page 99; major of his regiment was Henry Sherburne, his captain was Thomas
Theodore Bliss, 15th Continental Regiment.
73. “Letters of General William Irvine to his Family ... Mrs. Ann Irvine, Carlisle, Penn,” The
Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries, vol. VII (New York: Trubner and Co., 1863), 81-
82 (Google Books).
74. Thomas Tallow (Tulloh), pension application (W6334), transcribed by Will Graves.
http://revwarapps.org/w6334.pdf, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements
& Rosters, (World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
75. Park Holland, “A Visit to Judge Stephen Jones, at Machias, 1784,” The Bangor Historical
Magazine, vol. IV (July, 1888-June, 1889), Joseph W. Porter, editor and publisher (Bangor, Me.:
Benjamin A. Burr, 1888-1889), 104 (Google Books).
76. Jeffrey H. Fiske and Sally Ostergard Fiske, eds., Journal of Park Holland: Soldier of the
Revolution and Shays’ Rebellion, Maine Surveyor, and Early Penobscot Settler (New Braintree,
Ma.: Towtaid, 2000), 16, 17. Examples of available dishes, bowls, and plates of the Revolutionary
era are pictured in George C. Neumann and Frank J. Kravic, Collector’s Illustrated Encyclopedia
of the American Revolution (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1975), 110–114.
77. Henry Fanning Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time ..., two
Volumes, vol. II (Philadelphia: Baird and King, Printers, 1850), 321.
78. James K. Hosmer, Samuel Adams (Boston and New York: The University Press Cambridge,
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913), 386. Adams responded to McDougall’s gift on 13 May
1782, “The present you sent me by Maj. Gibbs gratified me exceedingly. I intend to transmit it to
my posterity as a specimen of Spartan frugality in an American general officer. The citizen and
the soldier are called to the exercise of self-denial and patience, and to make the utmost exertions
in support of the great cause we are engaged in.”
79. British haversack pattern (1992), Brigade of the American Revolution. Haversack kit
available from Roy P. Najecki, Sutler, 1203 Reynolds Rd., Chepachet, RI 02814. Brent Tarter,
ed., "The Orderly Book of the Second Virginia Regiment, September 27, 1775-April 15, 1776",
The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 85, no. 2 (April 1977), no. 3 (July 1977),
165-166. "Plan for the Cloathing of the Infantry", 1779, George Washington Papers, Presidential
Papers Microfilm (Washington, D.C., 1961), series 4, reel 63. John Knox, captain, 43rd
Regiment, The Siege of Quebec and the Campaigns in North America, 1757-1760, Brian
Connell, ed., (Edinburgh, U.K., 1976, originally published 1769), 50. Order Book of the 64th
Regiment of Foot, Washington Papers, series 6B, vol. 3, p. 2.
80. Joseph Plumb Martin, Private Yankee Doodle: A Narrative of Some of the Adventures,
Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York, N.Y., 1962), 81.Samuel Chase to
Thomas Jenifer, 10 February 1776, "Journal of the Maryland Convention, July 26-August 14,
1775/Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, August 29, 1775-July 6,
1776," William Hand Brown, Archives of Maryland, vol. 11 (Baltimore, Md., 1892), 150. A
"rough draft of the new Invented napsack and haversack in one that is adopted by the American
regulars of Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Virginia ...," Samuel Chase to J. Young, 9 February
1776, (includes a rough sketch of new invented knapsack and haversack, Maryland State Papers,
(Red Books), Archives of the State of Maryland, access. no. MdHR 4561, loc. 1-6-3-38, 4, item
13. Regimental Orders, 26 May 1779, The Orderly Book of the First Pennsylvania Regiment,
Col. James Chambers, 23 May 1779 to 25 August 1779, John B. Linn and William H. Egle, eds.,
Pennsylvania in the War of the Revolution, Battalions and Line. 1775-1783, II (Harrisburg, Pa.,
1880), 442.
81. Orders, 4 October 1777, Orderly Book, possibly belonging to Lt. Col. William Smith of
Jackson's Additional Regiment, 1777-1780, Numbered Record Books Concerning Military
Operations and Service, Pay and Settlement of Accounts, and Supplies in the War Dapartment
Collection of Revolutionary War Records, Record Group 93, National Archives Microfilm
Publication M853, reel 3, vol. 17, target 3. M.M. Quaife, ed., "Documents - A Boy Soldier
Under Washington: The Memoir of Daniel Granger", Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XVI,
4 (March 1930), 546. Martin, Private Yankee Doodle, 117. General orders, 30 July 1779, Order
Book of Lt. Col. Francis Barber, 26 May 1779 to 6 September 1779, Louise Welles Murray, ed.,
Notes from Craft Collection in Tioga Point Museum on the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, (Athens,
Pa., 1929), 55.
82. Benjamin Warner (pension no. S14798) served was born in New Haven, Connecticut in
1757, and served as follows: On 8 May 1775 enlisted as a private in Capt. Caleb Trowbridge's
company, Wooster's Connecticut Regiment, discharged 6 September 1775; enlisted in Capt.
Oliver Hanchet's company, Benedict Arnold's Connecticut Regiment and was at the Siege of
Quebec, discharged April 1776; on 6 August enlisted in Capt. Goodyear's company, Colonel
Thompson's Connecticut Regiment, was at the Battle of Long Island, discharged in early
December 1776; on 28 April 1777 enlisted in Captain Parmelee's company, Major Atkinson's
Connecticut Regiment, discharged in early December 1777; enlisted in May 1779 and served
three months in Capt. William McClure's company, Colonel Crane's 3d Artillery Regiment.
Christopher Fox, Anthony D. Pell Curator of Collections at Fort Ticonderoga, notes, “The
[Warner] knapsack was one of the museum's earliest acquisitions. Inside the knapsack was found
a note by Benjamin Warner which reads ‘This Napsack I Caryd Through the war of
the Revolution to achieve the Merican Independance. I transmit it to my olest sone Benjamin
Warner, jr. with directions to keep it and transmit it to his oldest sone and so on to the latest
posterity and whilst one shred of it shall remane never surrender your liberty to a foren envador
or an aspiring demegog. Benjamin Warner, Ticonderoga March 27, 1837."
83. "Return of the Weight for the Cloathing, Arms, Accoutrements ... Necessary's &Ca of a
Grenadier, upon a March," Arthur Baillie, lieutenant, to Henry Bouquet, 28 August 1762, Scott
Stephenson, "'The Camp Looks So Pretty With all the Lanterns': Thoughts on Reconstructing the
Physical World of the British Soldier on Campaign in North America", Standing Orders: A
Newsletter for Researchers of the British Army in North America, 1739-1765, vol. 3, no. 1
(November 1990). Thomas Anburey, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America in a Series
of Letters by an Officer (New York, N.Y., 1969), vol. I, letter XXXVI, 378-381.
84. The Orderly Book of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, Col. James Chambers, 23 May 1779
to 25 August 1779, John B. Linn and William H. Egle, eds., Pennsylvania in the War of the
Revolution, Battalions and Line. 1775-1783, II (Harrisburg, Pa., 1880), 449, 470. Louise Welles
Murray, ed., Notes from Craft Collection in Tioga Point Museum on the Sullivan Expedition of
1779, (Athens, Pa., 1929), 55. General orders, 11 July 1779, Orderly book of Col. Oliver
Spencer's Regt., 27 July 1779 - 28 September 1779, Early American Orderly Books, reel 9, item
93, p. 31.
85. Bruce E. Burgoyne, Enemy Views: The American Revolutionary War as Recorded by the
Hessian Participants (Bowie, Md., 1996), 160-162. Mike O’Donnell, U.S. Army & Militia
Canteens, 1775-1910 (Alexandria, Va.: O’Donnell Publications, 2008), 14-40. See also, George
C. Neumann and Frank J. Kravic, Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American
Revolution (Harrisburg, Pa., 1975), 59-63.
86. Kate Mason Rowland, The Life of Charles Carroll of Carrolton 1737 - 1832 with his
Correspondence and Public Papers, vol. I (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898),
217-218.
87. General orders, 19 September 1780, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George
Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, vol. 20 (Washington, DC, 1937),
349-350. 26 and 27 July 1777 entries, John Chilton's Diary (captain, 3rd Virginia Regiment),
Keith Family Papers, 1710-1916, Virginia Historical Society.
88. Journal of Jehiel Stewart, 1775-1776, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty - Land -
Warrant Application Files, National Archives Microfilm Publication M804, reel 2290, W25138.
Excerpts of this journal are covered in Donald Wickman, ed., "A Most Unsettled Time on Lake
Champlain: The October 1776 Journal of Jahiel Stewart", Vermont History, vol. 64, no. 2 (Spring
1996), 98, endnote 7. William B. Lapham, ed., Elijah Fisher's Journal While in the War for
Independence ... 1775-1784 (Augusta, Me., 1880), 7. Martin, 192-193.
89. General orders, 3 June 1777, Fitzpatrick, WGW, vol. 8 (1933), 175. General orders, 9 August
1780, ibid., vol. 19 (1937), 348.
90. General orders, 8 July 1777, Fitzpatrick, WGW, vol. 8 (1933), 369-371. Timothy Pickering to
George Washington, 8 February 1782, Numbered Record Books Concerning Military
Operations, Letters sent by Timothy Pickering, Quartermaster General. Jan. 3-May 9, 1782, vol.
83, reel 26, p. 72-73.
91. John F. Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge: July 1, 1777-December 19, 1777 (Philadelphia,
Pa., 1965), 214. "Return of Cloathing wanting in the Brigades ... Camp at Towamensing", 13
October 1777, The Papers of the Continental Congress 1774-1789, National Archives Microfilm
Publications M247, (Washington, DC, 1958), reel 38, pp. 117-118. Robert C. Bray and Paul E.
Bushnell, eds., Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution: An Annotated Edition of
the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman, (DeKalb, Il., 1978), 119. William Maxwell to
George Washington, 5 June 1778, GW Papers, series 4, reel 49.
92. Kenneth Coleman, The American Revolution in Georgia 1763-1789 (Athens, Ga., 1958),
106-108. Charles Pinckney to William Moultrie, 24 May 1778, William Moultrie, Memoirs of
the American Revolution. vol. I (reprint, New York, N.Y., 1968), 212-214.
93. Edward Hand to George Washington, GW Papers, series 4, reel 56. Receipts for equipment,
New Jersey troops, 29 January, 27 April, 25 May 1779, James Abeel Receipt Book 1778-1779,
Lloyd W. Smith Collection, Morristown National Historical Park Library, Doc. #LWS ???. For
unit strengths see Charles H. Lesser, Sinews of Independence: Monthly Strength Reports of the
Continental Army (Chicago, Il. and London, 1976), 100, 112. Orderly book of Col. Oliver
Spencer's Regt., 27 July 1779 - 28 September 1779, Early American Orderly Books, 1748-1817,
Collections of the New York Historical Society, microfilm edition (Woodbridge, N.J., 1977),
reel 9, item 93, p. 31.
94. Timothy Pickering to Robert Morris, 29 September 1782, Numbered Record Books
Concerning Military Operations, Letters sent by Timothy Pickering, Quartermaster General, vol.
84, reel 27, p. 163 (Document courtesy of Marko Zlatich, Washington, D.C.). "Weight of Camp
Kettles [May] .1782." ibid., vol. 103, reel 29, pp. 100-101.