Introduction

The name of the author of the following narrative is not important. His large family still survives, has spread from coast to coast and would rather keep that name to themselves. In fact, a few family members worked diligently to prevent this collection from being published. His story may not be important either, but it does shed some light on various incidents of the American Revolution, and many readers and editors have found it vastly entertaining. It's a wonderous voice from the past.

The reader may easily conclude that the writer was a braggart as well as a Lothario, a would-be American Cassanova or enlisted-man version of Harry Flashman who bedded every woman he saw as often as he could while avoiding dangers and his duties. Several readers compared some parts of these tales to the early James Bond 007 stories of Ian Fleming. It is certainly possible that the author of these journals, obviously written some time after the events from notes or diaries, probably when he was about sixty, may have exaggerated both his sexual and martial accomplishments in the rosy light of hindsight. It is hardly credible that so many females so readily jumped in bed with him or that he was so tirelessly successful in making amorous conquests or slaying Redcoats and Hessians. Nevertheless, those parts of the story remain interesting as do his pictures of American and British leaders and the many eager women he claims to have satisfied if not thrilled. The portions that could be researched seem to hold water although some incidents, such as the wounding of Lafayette at Brandywine are in conflict with the accepted historical record.

The first two "books," the eighth book, the last few pages of fourteenth book and perhaps the fifteenth and final book, to which the writer indirectly referred as a summary volume, are yet to be found or more likely, no longer exist although some pages are not being examined and collated. What does remain, however, if very interesting. Among these pages, the writer claims to have bedded numberous women of various ages and to have been seduced, he says "raped," by one promiscious sixteen-year-old. He quotes women as praising his sexual prowess and the size of his "member" if not its appearance or staying power. He was a large man, probably six foot two or three and almost 200 pounds, or "fourteen stone" as he would have said, and was a good deal bigger than the average solider in Washington's army. As more than one of the satisfied women noted, he was big all over. He also admits to dispatching scores of Redcoats and German mercenaries, many with his blade bayonet or a small gutting knife, and to have honorably participated in a large number of major battles including those at Trenton, Brandywine, Monmouth, Cowpens and Yorktown. He also claims to have been a prisoner of the British on three occasions and to have been mistreated each time he was held captive. If the Purple Heart had been awarded in the Revolution, the teller of these tales would have had a knapsack full of them. He also may have "deserted" the army more than once during the long conflict, as did many of his fellow citizen-soldiers, but, unless this is all a clever fiction, there is no doubt of his bravery or of his dedication to the cause of the Revolution.

Where written words were in doubt the editor has used parentheses, but where names were omitted or shown with just a dash, that was the original writer's doing. Other than modernizing the spelling of such words as lanthorn, waggon and ribband and regularizing his almost non-existent punctuation, the editor has left the writer's tale alone. Enjoy! He did.

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