Recommended Books after Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier

Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier

Oh, yes. If what grabbed you about Joseph Plumb Martin was that wonderful “ordinary person actually living through the Revolution” quality—the hunger, marching, lousy officers, humor, fear, boredom, and sudden violence—there are some excellent places to go next. Martin is unusually special because enlisted-men’s memoirs from the Revolution are relatively rare. 

My recommendations, roughly in the order I’d read them:

1. Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 — Jeremiah Greenman

    This would be my next book. Greenman was another Continental soldier, and his diary covers virtually the whole war. Because it was written as events unfolded rather than reconstructed decades later, you get a slightly different experience from Martin. The American Battlefield Trust specifically recommends it among Revolutionary memoirs. 

1. A Military Journal During the American Revolutionary War, 1775–1783 — James Thacher

    This one should be especially good after Martin. Thacher was a Continental Army surgeon, so you’re still down among the troops, but now seeing the war through the eyes of the man dealing with wounds, disease, camp conditions and death. His journal spans 1775–1783. 

    Even better: the original 1823 edition is digitized and free through the Library of Congress⁠.

1. Adventures of a Young Rifleman — John Joseph Henry

    This takes you into one of the most extraordinary episodes of the entire war: Benedict Arnold’s 1775 expedition through the Maine wilderness to Quebec. Henry was there. Starvation, freezing weather, ruined supplies, wilderness and exhaustion—it has that same “this is what it actually felt like” appeal.

1. The Journal of James A. Burns, 1776–1781 / other Continental soldier journals

    Once you’ve caught the primary-source bug, soldier diaries become addictive. They’re generally less polished than Martin—which is actually part of their charm. You start seeing the Revolution stripped of the marble-statue mythology.

1. A British Soldier’s Story: Roger Lamb’s Narrative of the American Revolution — Roger Lamb

    I’d put this very high on your list. You’ve already encountered Lamb in our discussions. Now read him alongside Martin. Lamb was an Irish-born British soldier who fought at Saratoga, was captured, escaped, returned to British service and later fought in the South. Reading the same war from the redcoat’s ground-level perspective is fascinating.

And then I’d make one deliberate change of perspective: read a Hessian account. Diaries and letters from German auxiliaries reveal Americans and America through genuinely foreign eyes—the landscape, food, people, warfare and political culture often struck them as deeply strange.

The three I’d put on your immediate reading stack

#1 Jeremiah Greenman — Diary of a Common Soldier

Closest spiritual successor to Martin.

#2 Roger Lamb — A British Soldier’s Story

Martin’s war from the other side.

#3 James Thacher — A Military Journal

Same Continental Army, but through a surgeon’s eyes.

There’s something important about the direction you’re taking with your Revolution reading, too. You’ve already spent plenty of time with Washington, Hamilton, Lafayette and the major campaigns. Top 10 Revolutionary Influencers.txt Martin takes you below that level. Suddenly the Revolution isn’t Washington deciding where the army will march; it’s a hungry nineteen-year-old wondering whether anybody is going to give him something to eat when he gets there.

I think following Martin with Greenman → Lamb → Thacher would give you a terrific three-way portrait of what the Revolutionary War actually felt like to the people who had to fight it.