The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin (Ordinary Courage)

Context: Originally published as A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier interspersed with Anecdotes or Incidents that Occurred within his own Observation in the year 1830—Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin is the version of his memoir edited and annotated by James Kirby Martin (JKM hereafter). Amongst the alphabet soup of names for JPM’s work I simply refer to it as The Narrative as does JKM. This name I consider to be both convenient and appropriate because there really isn’t anything quite like JPM’s story of the war. Not only does it provide immense historical insight into a relatively untold segment, but it is written in a highly entertaining style. JKM notes that his primary editorial method was a reduction of JPM’s over fondness for commas and wordiness. Overall, considering JPM’s lack of education, his writing is exceedingly well done, and there has been very little criticism of it in terms of historical accuracy. As to the story itself, it is right there in the name. Unlike the more commonly read war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Narrative is certainly a tale of adventure. Martin’s frequently light hearted tone reflects this aspect. It is not until the last pages of the book does Martin reveal a heart and purpose very similar to Remarque’s.

Overview: Quite simply, The Narrative tells us what it was like to serve in the Revolutionary War. In 1776 at age 15 Joseph Plumb Martin joined the Continental Army with three primary reasons. One, the firm hand of a recruitment officer. Two, the thought of a whole dollar, all his own. Three, and more significantly, young Martin was raised at a time when the general perception of war was romantic. To go a “sogering” was to go on the ultimate adventure of glory, where death was something that happened to other people. Martin spends almost the entirety of his story dispelling the myth of this cultural glory. He never denies the excitement of battle, or the righteous cause of liberty, or his admiration for its leaders. He is above all frank and real. There is kindness in his story. There is villainy. In simply recounting the experience as it happened he exposes glory for what it is: extravagant promotion. The men and boys in Martin’s story do not charge to victory like the Greek runners at Marathon. They march on wrapped feet and empty bellies. For Martin the environs of war were defined by staples of “fatigue, hunger and cold” only to be interdicted by the rounds of fear and death that constitute combat. JPM served the continental army for 8 campaigns. He was at the siege of Yorktown as a sapper. He saw Washington riding at the various engagements in New York early in the war. He heard The Crisis read at Valley Forge after being so bloodied defending the Delaware river. He fought crack Hessians and Brits alike at the Battle of Monmouth—all while enduring severe privation of the basic necessities. Joseph Plumb Martin wrote his narrative to highlight what he considered continued privation, the ”sufferings of private soldiers”, even after the war was over. At the time, the issue of veteran’s pensions was a bit of a mess. Despite efforts to provide for Revolutionary War veterans many were living in abject poverty—primarily the ordinary men of the war. Martin claims that, after all, if it weren’t for ordinary men “Alexander never could have conquered the world”. JPM recounted the bare reality of his experience to illustrate to his people what debt was owed. In my opinion, he did so with great success and eloquence within the confines of his book, whether it had any direct effect is less obvious. I’ve included a poem of JPM’s to further his point:

The soldier defending his country’s right,

Is griev’d when that country his services slights;

But when he remonstrances and finds no relief,

No wonder his anger takes place of his grief.

Rationale: Quite simply, I chose this book because it is a good one. I don’t think there is much of a better reason, though I did also want to present something a little different. Unless you know US history in some depth, it is unlikely you may have ever heard of Joseph Plumb Martin. In general, he is well worth having in your library if only for the reason that he resides in such obscurity. For an English teacher, this is a high interest reading. If you have a student who is a slightly above average reader, and likes adventure stories, this is one for him or her. Martin is also just funny. I highly recommend Ordinary Courage because JKM’s footnotes put the history in accessible context and clarify more archaic language. I would not recommend this text to a student below the 10^th grade unless they are an above average reader. Furthermore, I highly advocate developing a collection of memoirs; in my experience reluctant readers are more likely to be engaged by a “true story” than pure fiction. It makes everything more tangible. It is also beneficial, in the case of JPM’s story, that he is the same age as a high school student for the first half of the book. The historical component of memoirs also helps to increase the general knowledge of students. A used copy of JKM’s Ordinary Courage is $14 on Amazon Prime.

Teaching Ideas: The comparison of JPM’s narrative to All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is an interesting one, especially in reference to the preface of AQWF. Which is as follows: “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure [….] It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who […] were destroyed by the war.” Martin attempts to do the same thing, though he reserves the right to accuse, which he does so vehemently. AQWF can be considered just short of a memoir. Remarque and Martin accomplish the same thing, they explicate what it is to live through one of the extremes of the human experience. Thus, if you are possibly teaching AQWF, it would be a good idea to consider The Narrative as either a possible substitute, or to contrast sections of it with AWQF. Martin is also much less gruesome and bitter than Remarque.

The best use for this book is in a Social Studies class. It functions perfectly for satiating the primary source standards found in the Reading History section of CCSS (RH: 1-3). Thus, it may also function as an informational text in ELA (RI: 3, 6, 8). If you are teaching the Revolutionary War (a common subject) this is your best friend; I would teach the war through his eyes. Because of the way JPM tells the story, it is very modular—easy to extract specific passages and teach them independently. For instance, if you are doing a unit on argument it would be a great idea to take the last chapter of The Narrative and analyze Martin’s various appeals. Another idea would be to compare the poetry compiled in Ordinary Courage with “Tommy” by Rudyard Kipling.

Obstacles: Because this is a memoir, it is obviously not out and out fiction. It therefore challenges what can be considered literature by the definition we established at the beginning of the quarter. Nevertheless, JPM’s prose reads like that of a novel from the period. If you use the Ordinary Courage version it will reduce any restrictions from historical knowledge.