Library Welcomes MET School Scholars

Elyssa Tardif, RIHS Education Director, leads a close reading of a letter collection

Students from the MET School in Providence visited the library this week to research primary documents about the Civil War. The visit was arranged by Elyssa Tardif, RIHS Education Director, and Robert Goldman who teaches at the MET School and directs Living History, a nine year old program that engages high school aged youth from Providence’s MET school in reenactment activities specific to the experience of Rhode Island’s 14h Regiment of Black Civil War soldiers. Rob will be directing the student research under a RI Council for the Humanities Grant.

“Everything was for the Union. I did not see a single seccession flag” , July 5, 1861. Mary ( Congdon) Dearstyne Diaries, 1861 – 1862, from The Congdon Family Papers, Mss 363

The students studied a Civil War officer’s uniform from the museum collections and three primary documents: 1) a leather-bound diary written by a young woman reflecting on the War, 1861 – 1862; 2) The letters of a Rhode Island doctor stationed in South Carolina in 1862 – 1863 with his descriptions of the suffering of the wounded; and 3) Company A, 3rd Regiment, Rhode Island Cavalry “Clothing Book” documenting supplies distributed to soldiers in 1863.
The library staff is looking forward to working with the students when they return to continue their research in the weeks ahead.

For more on RHODE ISLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR see the library’s manuscript collection Civil War Military Records (MSS 673 sg 4)

The Rhode Island Historical Society holds a great variety of records relating to the state’s military units. In addition to official records like muster rolls, clothing accounts and troop returns, there are also innumerable unofficial records such as diaries and letters written by soldiers; post-war memoirs; records of veteran groups; and records of organizations from the home front that supported the troops.

Tale of Two Books

When is the same book not the same book?

One of my greatest joys at the Library has been cataloging the unparalleled Rhode Island Imprint Collection of books printed in Rhode Island from 1800 to 1835. This week I was delighted to find what I believe to be the first full geography printed in R.I. –an 1822 Providence imprint from Miller & Hutchens, at No.1  Market Square (upstairs), of Luke Drury’s A Geography for Schools….Atlas of Forty Luminous and Concise Maps.

Title Page RI Imprint 1822

And luminous they are, documenting the burgeoning nation of the United States in its adolescence following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803-04, showing the vague and evolving boundaries of the nations of South America, and depicting the familiar coves of Narragansett Bay with a somewhat malformed version of Block Island.

Then I find a second copy. Why? Why! Why keep two?! Because a lot can happen to a book in 190 years. Like  Christopher.

Christopher was apparently the one-time owner of the second copy. But it seems he spent less time studying geography than pursuing some of his other interests. Like Indians.

But mostly he liked to paste labels. Textile labels to be exact. And we might speculate that his family was in the textile business and furnish his fine collection that mutilated this copy.

So we will keep these two brother books together. One a fine example of early 19th century printing of maps and geographic history. And one an object that gives evidence to the daily life of a Rhode Island child of that same time. So two copies of the same imprint are briefly alike, but then changed when they are taken into the lives of their owners.

~P.S.Bean, Printed Collection Librarian

In Honor and Memory: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

To celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we are looking back at the famous MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR FREEDOM AND JOBS, August 28, 1963. Rhode Islanders packed buses leaving the State the day before the scheduled march in Washington, D.C. and drove all night to attend the largest rally for civil rights our country has seen.  The RIHS Library has books and papers on Rhode Island’s part in the struggle for civil rights. Library holdings include television film, reports of the Rhode Island Holiday Commissions, manuscripts, papers of the LWV and a remarkable letter about the 1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM.  Portions of the letter are transcribed below.

Alexander  “Sam”  Aldrich was sent by New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller as an official representative to present a state proclamation to A. Philip Robinson, a principle organizer of the March. The Governor proclaimed March, August 28 “Justice and Equality Day” in New York State.  Aldrich wrote to his parents a few days after returning home from Washington, D.C. :

“There were 5 moments during those hours which I shall never forget as long as I live, “  wrote Alexander Aldrich, describing the role of A. Philip Randolph, the speech of Walter Reuther, the resounding cheer that swelled to a roar of the crowd invoked by Roy Wilkins, the songs  by Mahalia Jackson , and Martin Luther King, Jr.

“ It just wasn’t possible to be an observer while [King] spoke. And I have heard this sermon before! But when he reached the part in which he repeated “I have a dream!” over and over again, and describing the elements of his dream of real equality, you wept.”

“It was a Baptist convention – jazz festival – country fair – political rally – fourth of July celebration – Oscar awards ceremony – visit to the Lincoln Memorial for two hundred and ten thousand ordinary people.”

“I feel sorry for everyone who wasn’t there.”

–Alexander  Aldrich,  Sept. 3, 1963, Chatham Center, NY.

(From Mss938 The Winthrop and Harriet Aldrich Papers, Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society Library.)

ADDITIONAL SOURCES in the library on Civil Rights and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy are in the Society’s FILM COLLECTIONS— WJAR-TV film; MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS— Mss 156 The Women’s’ Liberation Union of Rhode Island Records, 1970-1983; Mss 21 The League of Women Voters Records, 1893 – 1977; and in the PRINT COLLECTIONS — see Rhode Island State Reports: “Living the Dream,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. State Holiday Commission Report, 1987.

RECOMMENDED READING:  An Assessment of Life in Rhode Island as an African American in the Era from 1918 to 1993 by Andrew Bell (NY: Vantage, 1997)

~ Katherine Chansky, Special Collections Reference Librarian

The War on Tuberculosis

Our January presentation in the Library’s display case gives us a glimpse at the important features in our state’s efforts against tuberculosis.

In the 1890’s this nation began organizing to research, prevent and treat tuberculosis.  Rhode Islandwas at the forefront of this movement.  In 1896 the state almshouse at Howard, RI began treating tuberculosis patients.  In North Scituate the Pine Ridge Camp opened in 1904 and had a capacity for 30 patients.  The St. Joseph’s Hospital annex in Hillsgrove opened in 1905 and helped mainly the incurable cases.  A “seaside hospital” for children with tuberculosis was established in 1907 in East Greenwich as a branch ofRhode IslandHospital.

Experience in other parts of the nation showed the advantages of open-air treatment for the early stages of the disease.  Separating these patients from the rest of the population would minimize the spread of tuberculosis. The state then considered the feasibility of building and maintaining a state sanatorium.  A sanatorium was built in the northwest corner of the state, on 250 acres of land, at Wallum Lake.  It opened in 1905.  The superintendent was Dr. Harry Lee Barnes.  Under his direction the sanatorium gave patients access to fresh air along with a regular schedule, good food and medical attention.  Initially the sanatorium was overwhelmed with prospective patients.  In 1909, Barnes refused admission for 181 patients because their disease was too far advanced.  Over 200 patients needed hospital care.  Still, Barnes was criticized for admitting too many patients and for not always allowing the examining physician to have the final decision concerning the admittance of potential patients.  Barnes is also noted for refusing to allow men and women patients to mingle.

The care offered by the sanatorium was likely one of the factors that led to a decrease in Rhode Island’s death rate from tuberculosis.  It fell from 198.5 in 1907 to 131.3 in 1920.

A hospital to treat advanced cases of tuberculosis was established on theWallumLakeproperty in 1917.  In the 1930’s they added a nurses home, two other buildings for staff and also the Wallum Lake House, which included a kitchen, bakery, auditorium, chapel and pharmacy.  Until 1936 the sanatorium also had a vegetable garden, hennery and piggery.  These were constructed by patients and employees.  By 1940 the original buildings were destroyed, mainly because they were considered a fire hazard.  In the 1940’s the superintendent was Ubaldo E. Zambarano.  Today the hospital is named after him.

Tuberculosis is caused by exposure to tubercle bacilli bacteria.  There is often a six month incubation period before symptoms appear.  Individuals can become infected through exposure to infected sputum or other expectorants. In the early twentieth century, another possible cause, especially among infants and children, was consuming contaminated milk.  Rhode Island adopted a law requiring that each county have a commissioner to investigate animals thought to be infected, and to quarantine these animals for examination.  In 1920 it was noted that five of seven samples of  “baby’s milk” collected in Providence were contaminated with tubercle bacilli and that not more than 60 per cent of the Providence milk supply was pasteurized.

Rhode Island was noted for its well-organized programs to prevent and treat tuberculosis.  The state board of health kept a register of all reported cases.  The prevention of tuberculosis also involved educating the public.  To this end, the Rhode Island Anti-Tuberculosis Association was formed in 1907.  The Providence Tuberculosis League formed in 1920.  The league tried to help indigent patients to be transferred to the sanatorium.  It also held clinics, provided skin tests for children, cared for children at the Lakeside Preventorium, etc.  In 1922 there were also 21 local tuberculosis associations in the state.

There were various attempts to find effective surgical and medical treatments for tuberculosis; most had little success.

Charles V. Chapin was the Superintendent of Health for the city of Providence from 1884 to 1932.  He made significant contributions in the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis.  He urged that local health officers should distribute circulars to every family.  The circulars would explain how to prevent the spread of tuberculosis from one family member to another.  Chapin also made recommendations for disposal of the sputum of tuberculosis patients, recommendations for control of infected milk, and other recommendations.  He also urged that the families of patients should keep careful records.  Health records would give more knowledge of the susceptibility of family members, knowledge of incubation periods, and would help assess the effectiveness of preventive measures that had been used.

The display case includes photographs taken at the state sanatorium, the document that certified the Providence Tuberculosis League in 1920, promotional literature for the League’s sale of Christmas seals in 1925, and a portrait of Charles V. Chapin. The display will be on view through Friday, February 3, 2012.  The Library is open Wednesday-Friday,and the second Saturday of every month, from 10 AM to 5 PM.

~ Peter Griswold, Assistant Technical Services Librarian

Cold Christmas

New England troops had a cold Christmas in 1777 at Valley Forge. Most of us are familiar with the story—ragged, cold, hungry troops encamped in tents and tiny huts amid the snow—but the words of the men who were there remind  us of that reality. (A typical camp of the time can be seen in the background of this Peale portrait of Colonel Walter Stewart of the 2nd Pennsylvania). The encampment at Valley Forge was part of a larger strategy that required General Washington and his commanders to care about the quotidian details of their men’s lives. For us, Christmas and the winter holidays usually mean warm hearths or homes and presents, celebratory meals and the comfort of families. For Albigence Waldo, it did not.

From Waldo’s diary:

December 24.—Party of the 22^nd not returned. Hutts go on Slowly—Cold & Smoke make up fret. But mankind are always fretting, even if they have more than their proportion of the Blessings of Life. We are never Easy, always repining at the Providence of an Allwise & Benevolent Being, Blaming Our Country or faulting our Friends. But I don’t know of any thing that vexes a man’s Soul more than hot smoke continually blowing into his Eyes, & when he attempts to avoid it, is met by a cold and piercing Wind.

December 25, Christmas.—We are still in Tents—when we ought to be in huts—the poor Sick, suffer much in Tents this cold Weather. But we not treat them differently from they used to be at home, under the inspection of Old Women and Doct. Bolus Linctus. We give them Mutton & Grogg and a Capital Medicine once  in a While, to start the Disease from its foundation at once. We avoid Piddling Pills, Powders, Bolus’s Linctus’s Cordials and all such insignificant matters whose powers are Only render’d important by causing the Patient to vomit up his money instead of his disease. But very few of the sick Men Die.

2, 898 men (or about 25 % of the men in the camp) were reported unfit for duty at Valley Forge on December 23, 1777, largely due to a lack of clothing. Supplies were short, from flour and meat to linen and wool and shoes; a lack of supplies would dog the Continental Army for years, but the troops fought on. By February, about 32% of the men were listed unfit because they lacked clothing. In November, 1776 the Providence Gazette had published advertisment for “All Taylors who are desirous of employ” to make up “a great Quantity of woolen Cloathing, for the Continental Army,” but 13 months later, coats were still scarce on the ground.

Some basic information about the huts and tents can be found online at Valley Forge Encampment and about medical staff and conditions at Valley Forge at Historic Valley Forge .

~ Kirsten Hammerstrom, Director of Collections

What’s in a Pocket?

Lucy Lockett lost her pocket
Kitty Fisher found it
Not a penny was there in it
Only ribbon round it

The best “pocket” history I know of on the web is on the V&A Museum’s site but pockets have been a topic on some 18^th century roundtables lately, and I thought it would be nice to share a Rhode Island pocket (accession number 1985.9.1, found in collection).

Probably made between 1750 and 1775, this pocket was a child’s, judging by the size. It is 12 inches long, and 9 inches at the widest part, embroidered with silk on plain weave linen, with what may be some wool threads as well in the darker yellow-cream color. The embroidery is clearly crude and the pattern wiggly and hand-drawn by an unsophisticated hand, but the pattern is typical of the 18^th century, with pointed leaf-tips that show the influence of Indian textile designs.

The back is pieced plain-weave linen coarser than the front, which is lined with the same plain-weave as the front. The slit is bound with a red-print calico much worn on the front, but with just enough detail remaining on the reverse to provide a tantalizing hint of the original fabric.

Pockets that hung on loops from petticoat ties, or were tied around the waist over petticoats and under gowns, were the 18^th century woman’s version of pockets in some skirts and dresses and the purses or bags many women carry today. They could hold a wide assortment of items from sewing tools to snuff boxes, pocket books of money or pocket-sized prayer books.

Pockets could be plain or fancy (see this fantastic assemblage in Britain):  but they all served the same purpose of carrying items to free hands.

The first pocket I made was based on the example in the RIHS collections, though not embroidered. I threaded my petticoat ties through the loop, and wore the pocket under a gown. After wearing it to a few events, I cut off the loop and sewed the top to linen tape and tied it around my waist. The loop was simply too annoying: the pocket twisted under my gown, and I was left hiking up my gown trying to get into the pocket to find a bandage for  a friend’s cut finger. I’m never very poised, and I’m no fine lady in the 18^th century, but the laughter of the soldiers in my own Regiment (though the bandage was for one of them!) was enough to fix my resolve upon solving my pocket woes.

I’ve included a PDF tracing of the  Pocket. Print it out without scaling, and then enlarge it 129% from letter to ledger size on a copy machine, and the embroidery will be full-scale for this pocket. The maker’s initials are included in cross stitch; we don’t know her name, but I think of her as Sarah Fairfax; the RIHS Registrar calls her Mrs. Ferrars. By the time of Jane Austen’s novels, women’s dresses were too slim in profile and too fine and light in fabric for pockets to be worn; reticules were carried instead.
~Kirsten Hammerstrom, Director of Collections

Fire Cake & Water: Soldiers’ Winter Part III

Perception is reality, but how does a soldier’s own reality color his perception? For Jeremiah Greenman of the 2^nd Rhode Island, who had marched to Quebec on Arnold’s expedition of 1775, eaten squirrel and dog and endured barefoot marches through snow, Valley Forge proved less remarkable an experience than it was for Albigence Waldo, the well-educated surgeon with the  1^st Connecticut. Ebenezer David, Chaplain with the 2^nd Rhode Island, was also there.

Here are their accounts for this week in December, 1777.

Greenman
S 20 to W 31
Continuing near vally forg / we drawed axes to build huts for ye winter / we began our huts / order’d to build them with logs 14 feet  one way & 16 ye other / Continuing building our huts / nothing very Remarkable & C  / mov’d in.

Waldo
December 21—[Valley Forge.] Preparations made for hutts. Provisions scarce. Mr. Ellis went homeward—sent a Letter to my Wife. Heartily wish myself at home, my Skin & eyes are almost spoil’d with continual smoke. A general cry thro’ the Camp this Evening among the Soldiers, “No Meat! No Meat!” —the Distant vales Echo’d back the melancholy sound—“No Meat! No Meat!” Immitating the noise of Crows & Owls, also, made a part of the confused Musick.

What have you for your Dinners Boys? “Nothing but Fire Cake & Water, Sir.” At night, “Gentlemen the Supper is ready.” What is your Supper Lads? “Fire Cake & Water, Sir.” Very poor beef has been drawn in our Camp the greater part of this season.  A Butcher bringing a Quarter of this kind of Beef into Camp one day who had white Buttons on the knees of his breeches, a Soldier cries out – “There, there Tom is some more of your fat Beef, by my soul I can see the Butcher’s breeches buttons through it.”

December 22.—Lay excessive Cold & uncomfortable last Night—my eyes are started out from their Orbits like a Rabbit’s eyes, occasion’d by a great Cold & Smoke.

What have you got for Breakfast, Lads? “Fire Cake & Water, Sir.” The Lord send that our Commissary of Purchases may live [on] Fire Cake & Water, ‘till their glutted Gutts are turned to Pasteboard.

Our Division are under Marching Orders this morning. I am ashamed to say it, but I am tempted to steal Fowls if I could find them, or even a whole Hog, for I feel as if I could eat one. But the Impoverish’d Country about us, affords but little matter to employ a Thief, or keep a Clever Fellow in good humour. But why do I talk of hunger & hard usage, when so many in the World have not even Cake & Water to eat. …

This evening a Party with two field pieces were order’d out. At 12 of the Clock at Night, Providence sent us a little Mutton, with which we immediately had some Broth made, & a fine Stomach for same. Ye who Eat Pumpkin Pie and Roast Turkies, and yet Curse fortune for using you ill, Curse her no more, least she reduce your Allowance of her favours to a bit of Fire Cake, & a draught of Cold Water, & in Cold Weather, too.

David
Decem. 22 1777
Dear Sir,
Have written you once or twice of late & missed in sending … I road through Germantown—to hear the inhabitants complain—to see the ruins of furniture, & Rooms kneedeep in feathers from beads was truly affecting—A Cow Horse or sheep was scarce to be seen for mile—After the Enemy returned we set out to Cross Schoolkill, accidentally met a large party of the Enemy at the Ford, who had drove our militia—this caused delay—since we have crossed we have lain a few days 7 or 8 Miles short of this at a place called the Gulph—The whole Army are come here to build Hutts to winter in The Huts are to be 14 feet by 16—in hight 6 ½–twelve Soldiers to a hut each mess builds their own—Those in each Regiment who build the best are to have 12 Dollars Premium—They are now laying out the ground

to Morrow I expect to take the ax—To think of the Jersey & so large a Part of this Province [Pennsylvania] lying at the Mercy of the Enemy is truely affecting—yet I believe the Measures to be the best possible in present circumstances—After Huts are provided we may send out large Scouts to check small parties—For our whole Force to be exposed for the winter as they have been we should have no Army in the Spring—Had we retired to any of the towns we should have found them crowded with Refugees—

May kind Heaven render the next Campaign prosperous & put speedy issue to this contest—we ruin the Country for miles round wherever we lay

“We ruin the Country for miles round wherever we lay:” Ebenezer David’s perspective is different from Greenman and Waldo’s. Waldo whines, he gripes, he complains, he thinks of the people who are better off than he is. Greenman observes, neutrally, for the most part.  David steps back farther and sees the effect of the war on the people and the country around him.  Each man’s record of the war is colored by his position and his education; as a minister, David has the broadest perspective and looks the most outside himself. As the best-educated and wealthiest, Waldo’s experience in the war offers the greatest contrast to his former life. Greenman, poorly educated and without a profession when he joned the Army at 17, has the most reportorial and neutral perspective of the three.

~ Kirsten Hammerstrom, Director of Collections

Wild goose-foot paddle boat chase

A recent reference inquiry led to a partially successful search for information on a twelve ton boat fitted out by carpenter Elijah Ormsbee of Providence with a steam engine constructed by David Wilkinson of Pawtucket in 1792. According to volume two of State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, edited by Edward Field, Ormsbee and Wilkinson “…navigated their steamboat between Providence and Pawtucket and exhibited her capacity to their admiring fellow citizens ‘between the bridges’ on the Seekonk River. Instead of a side wheel the boat was propelled by a ‘goose-foot paddle’. The boat was named the Experiment, and the inventors had such faith in its success that they had tickets engraved and printed for passages on her.”

A ticket for travel on the Experiment appears with the caption “The above is a fac simile of the tickets that were issued by Elijah Ormsbee and David Wilkinson for contemplated trips on the ‘steamboat’ in 1792.”

The identical ticket  appears online on sheaf: ephemera and is said to have been for travel on a later vessel by the same name, built in 1808 by Varnum Wilkinson for inventor Robert Grieve. This boat was “driven by a propeller, with power supplied by [eight] horses on a treadmill” to put the machinery in motion. (Where exactly were those eight horses?)

The online article goes on to describe the sad fate of the latter Experiment, when on a return trip from Pawtuxet  “a gust of wind drove the boat upon the mud flats . . . where she lay all night.”

For a more detailed account of the early Experiment, see “Elijah Ormsbee”, by Edwin A. Platt, a paper read before the New England Chapter, Steamship Historical Society of America, at Providence, R.I., May 12, 1946 (RI Biog Or-5, Historical Monograph No. 1).

LT 12/19/2011

Soldiers’ Winter Part II

Plan of Fort Mifflin

There is yet another Rhode Island record of the events at Fort Mifflin: the letters of Ebenezer David, Chaplain of the 2^nd Rhode Island. Today, his November 23, 1777 letter to Nicholas Brown will be added to the accounts of Fort Mifflin. David was a graduate of Rhode Island College (now Brown University), and a Seventh-Day Baptist. He resigned from the Regiment in January, 1778 to undertake medical training, but  rejoined the troops at Valley Forge in the medical service a month later. He died  March 19, 1778, of what was probably typhus, contracted during an epidemic.

Waldo
November 15
An attack was made on Fort Mifflin by 4 ships, 4 Batteries, & 1 Gally. Our People fired from Fort Mifflin 1 Battery, 12 Gallies & two Shearbacks or small ships. The firing was incessant all Day. Our people defended themselves with unparallel’d bravery amidst a continual storm of Balls ‘till at length when Capt. Lee’s company of Artillery were almost all cut off, and a reinforcement had stood at the Guns till 9 o’clock in the evening the Garrison evacuated the  fort, after having spiked up the Cannon. Capt. Stephen Brown was kill’d by a shot from the round-top of a Ship that had hauled up in pistol shot of the Fort.
Mem.—Fort Mifflin was a Burlesque upon the art of Fortification.

Greenman
S15.
This morning about 9 oClock the Enemy made a furious attack, by the River, & land / the Ships came as near to the Fort as posable in the Main Channell, & a large East Indiaman they cut down & mounted 20 24 pounders on here. She came up under the protection of the Land Batteries, behind Hog Island & anchored four yards from the Angle of the SW Battery, the Fort had been very much exposed on this side / than on it, did not remain one Single Gun except those that was dismounted Major Thayer ordered a 32 pounder to be carried thare, which was effected with great trouble & danger, this was done before the Ship got up / the single gun put 14 shot into her bow but as soon as She was farly at anchor she began to play, all resistance became imposable, in 3 or 4 Broad Sides and from the tops with Cowhorn filled with Grape Shot so that it was almost imposable for a man to move without being killed…

David
Nov 23—1777
–the 15 of the Month & 6^th Day of the Canonade the East-indiaman Cut down [the Vigilant] of which you must have heard with 20-24 pounders came up a Channel that was said by the Commodore to the insuffitient for her, & laid within Pistol shot of the Fort. Our Cannon being chiefly dismounted, & the Fort badly constructed—What was extraordinary she fired 2- 24 pound shot into a 32 Pounder, from which she received the chief annoyance. This Day the fire exceeded all Description from their Fleet & Batteries.

The noise and misery of Mud Island must have been intense, as 400 Americans defended the Fort against some 2000 British troops. More than half of the American defenders were killed or wounded before the Americans evacuated and began the march to Whitemarsh and eventually to winter quarters at Valley Forge. When Major Simeon Thayer, of the 2^nd Rhode Island, ordered the evacuation of the Fort, Greenman wrote:

Major Thayer evacuated the Fort with a Degree of fermness equal to the Bravery of his defence, he set fire to the Remains of the Barracks & with less than two hundred men carried off all the wounded & most of the Stores

A 32-pound gun produces not just enormous noise but also a shockwave that reverberates in your chest and pops in your ears, so the terror and noise is multidimensional; you cannot escape it. It is impossible for most of us to really imagine what those men experienced 234 years ago.  Reading their journals, erratic spelling and all, helps us put ourselves in their place.

Soldiers’ Winter

Sometimes you find the best things in a random way: thanks to an emailed reference question, I discovered the diary of Albigence Waldo, surgeon with the 1^st Connecticut Regiment, Continental Army, covering the period November 10, 1777-January 8, 1778. The “So what?” of this for Rhode Island is that the 1^st Connecticut and the 2^nd Rhode Island were both engaged in the Defense of the Delaware in 1777 and encamped at Valley Forge in 1777-1778, months recorded in the Diary of Jeremiah Greenman, sergeant with the 2^nd Rhode Island. (Full disclosure: this writer’s family belongs to the reenacted 2^ndRhode Island Regiment.) While the RIHS does not own the original of either of these diaries (Waldo’s is at Harvard, and Greenman’s remains in private hands), both have been published and can be compared.At 17, Greenman joined the army in 1775 and participated in Benedict Arnold’s expedition to Quebec; the privations of that starving march when soldiers ate squirrel head and candle wick soup, killed and ate their own dogs, and abandoned their sicker comrades, surely colored Greenman’s experience of Valley Forge. Waldo, well-educated, a scholar of Latin, left behind a flourishing practice, a comfortable home, wife, and children; his perspective and his language, are far different from Greenman’s.

But to compare them is to understand each man better, and to understand the war better—so hard to do now, when it is so long ago and far away in time, technology, and myth-making.

West Jersey History Project Hessian Map

To begin with, some minor background: After the battle and retreat from Fort Mifflin in November, the Continental Army fell back to Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, and engaged in minor skirmishes with British forces in early December 1777. The goal was to get to winter quarters at Valley Forge, and to build shelter for the coming winter.

Here is the action at Fort Mifflin, side by side:

Waldo November 10 After describing the turn of fortune experienced by Captain Nichols, caption of an English packet captured at New Castle, Waldo notes, “An incessant cannonading at or near Red Bank this day. No salt to eat dinner with. November 11, 12, 13, & 14—Nothing material happened.

Greenman M 10.  this day the Enemy set out a new, resolving if posable to reduce the fort, knowing if it was nor done they would be obliged to evacuate Philadelphia, [they] opened three more batteries upon it & keep up an incessant fire on the Fort, all the palisades where broken dow[n], the Diches filled up with Mud by the strong tides, Capn. Treet, who distinguished himself by his bravery, and his Lieut, was killed / the Garrison exhausted & almost reduced. T 11. this morn cule / We burst an eighteen pounder which was got from the wreck of the agusta, and killed one Many & by the Scales & peaces of the Carriage Eighteen More where slightly wounded— W. 12 Colo. Smith was wounded and went out of the [fort] with the old Garrison, being relieved by Major Thare [Thayer] with sum of our men, the Enemy now began to doubt the promises of their Engineer Montresor who had constructed the Fort & had bosted at the beginning that he would reduce it in a few days…

Greenman, uneducated, a sergeant, has a different set of responsibilities than Waldo, and a in every sense, a different position. He seems unlikely to have agreed with Waldo’s estimation that “Nothing material happened” those days in November, 1777.

~Kirsten Hammerstrom, Director of Collections

You can read Greenman’s published diary, Diary of a common soldier in the American Revolution, 1775-1783 : an annotated edition of the military journal of Jeremiah Greenman by Robert C. Bray and Paul E. Bushnell (DeKalb, IL: 1978)  in the RIHS Library. Waldo’s diary was published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 21 No. 3, 1897, now available free through JSTOR. The Map of the American Fortifications on the Delaware is one of the Revolutionary War Era Maps available through the West Jersey History Project.