Historical Context
Benjamin Bartholomew (1752-1812) was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania on January 16, 1752. Initially, Bartholomew joined the 4th Pennsylvania Battalion as a lieutenant in January 1776. When the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment was reorganized, he was commissioned as a captain. During his service, he was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. After recovering, he rejoined the army and served with the 5th Pennsylvania through the Yorktown Campaign. After the war, Bartholomew married Rachel Dewees, had fourteen children, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer in East Whiteland, Pennsylvania. He died on March 31, 1812. His diary, starting on May 19, 1781, and continuing through March of 1782, details his regiment's march from Pennsylvania to Virginia, mundane military life, and participation in the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia. After the British surrender, the 5th Pennsylvania traveled through Virginia to North Carolina. Bartholomew mentions Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, the arrival of French troops in Virginia, and the execution of American soldiers for desertion.
Eyewitness accounts of American Revolution soldiers’ lives are exceedingly rare, and Bartholomew’s diary provides insights into the daily activities of soldiers, both on and off the battlefield. He frequently mentions early mornings, lengthy marches, assignments requiring strenuous manual labor, and sleeping in primitive camps. Much of their time in camp focused on extensive military training through drills, which lasted anywhere from several hours to all day. Other camp duties included clearing fields to establish their camps, chopping firewood, foraging for food, digging latrines, and erecting fortifications.
Soldiers shared tents and cooked meals together in small groups known as a “mess.” Soldiers usually consumed one or two small meals a day. Ideally, their rations consisted of meat, bread or flour, and some type of vegetable. However, the Continental Army consistently struggled to distribute enough food to its soldiers mainly due to transportation issues. This often led to malnourishment and other health problems, reducing the number of soldiers fit to fight.
Soldiers’ equipment included their weapons (typically a flintlock musket and bayonet), a cartridge box for their ammunition, a haversack to hold their personal belongings and dining utensils, a canteen, and if they were lucky, a blanket. Whenever there was downtime, soldiers entertained themselves by playing marbles, cards, or dice games. But even after sundown, while most soldiers slept to recover from their exhausting days, some men were always assigned to guard duty.
To add to their struggles, Congress consistently struggled to regularly pay soldiers. Hard currency, like coins, was in short supply, so the army paid many soldiers in paper money, which was subject to high levels of inflation. To supplement their meager pay, many states issued grants of land as enlistment bonuses. However, this promise of future land did little to provide for soldiers and their families during the war itself. See below for selected excerpts from Bartholomew’s diary.