My name is Thomas Matthews and I am a Continental Army soldier. Life and times are hard as a soldier during the Revolutionary War. We aren’t very well supplied and most of us usually don’t sleep under some shelter and when we do we sometimes don’t even get a blanket. Our uniforms aren’t very good I think. It is a blue jacket made out of wool and white stockings. We also are equipped with a musket which is a gun, a bayonet which is a dagger, and a haversack, which contains a mug, a powder horn, a canteen, and a cartridge box.
Well, let’s face it, being a Continental Army soldier is terrible. There is so much disease and it usually spreads throughout entire camps. Also, food is often scarce and the food that we do get was very poorly cooked by the cook and we usually don’t even get utensils to eat it! Sometimes when there is no food at all, some soldiers starve or have to go many days without food until they are able to find some themselves.
Also, a drum controlled a soldiers day, the different drummers played different beats to tell the soldiers where they should be and what they should be doing. Reveille was beat at sun-up. It means that it was time for the soldiers to get up and get ready for their day. Troop beats 8:00 a.m. in the summer and 9:00 a.m. in the winter. It means that soldiers should gather or assemble so the officer could call the roll and inspect us for duty. There were plenty of other drum beats that can be said but I think you get the point.
So obviously I don’t think you would want to be a soldier during the Revolutionary War. It is very hard times and as I’ve been saying, we aren’t treated very well. In conclusion, this is what it is like to be a Continental Army soldier during the Revolutionary war.