Joseph Plumb Martin was born on November 21, 1760, in Becket, Massachusetts, and was sent to live with his grandparents when he was seven, to work on their farm. Though his grandparents disapproved, Martin enlisted in the Continental Army on July 6, 1776 when he was still only fifteen years old. He was eventually sent to New York, where he witnessed the American defeats at Brooklyn and Manhattan, which led to the capture of New York by the British, and he also survived the winter encampment at Valley Forge.

During the 1779-80 encampment in Morristown, Joseph Plumb Martin was nineteen years old, a private with the First Connecticut Brigade. Martin experienced the entire encampment—arriving the first week of December 1779 and departing June 7, 1780. Martin would recall vividly that “hard winter” many years after the war, when he wrote down his memories of serving in the American Revolution. The book was published in 1830 as A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents that Occurred Within His Own Observation. Now titled Private Yankee Doodle, Martin’s book is still considered one of the best books about the Revolution written by a person who served as a common soldier. The book is filled with fascinating details, humorous anecdotes, and wry commentary, and its information is considered accurate despite Martin’s recalling his stories years later.

Martin married Lucy Clewley in 1794 and settled in Maine, where they had at least five children. Joseph eventually became a member of the state legislature and a town clerk, in addition to being an artist, writer, and poet. He died in 1850 in Prospect (now Stockton Springs), Maine, at age 89.

Oliver Cromwell was born a freeman in 1752, in Black Horse, which is present-day Columbus in Mansfield Township, in southern New Jersey. Raised as a farmer, Cromwell joined the Continental Army in his early twenties and enlisted in a company attached to the Second New Jersey Regiment. He was with the army at the retreat of the Delaware, on the memorable crossing of the 25th of December, 1776. It is said that he could remember as an old man many details of this, and succeeding battles of Trenton and Princeton. He told an interviewer that they “knocked the British about lively” at Princeton. Cromwell was present at the battles of Brandywine and Monmouth, and also at Yorktown, where according to Cromwell he saw the last man killed.

Cromwell’s unit, Colonel Shreve’s 2nd New Jersey Regiment, was part of the winter encampment at Morristown. He served for six years and nine months; one source says that he was a drummer. Most of the information known about Oliver Cromwell comes from an article in The Burlington Gazette (of New Jersey) when the newspaper interviewed him when he reached one hundred years old. He was described as “… an old colored man, … very aged; and yet comparatively few are aware that he is among the survivors of the gallant army who fought for the liberties of our country in the days which tried men’s souls.”

His honorable discharge from the army – with the distinction of receiving the Badge of Merit, awarded for “Six Years faithful service” – was signed by Washington on June 5, 1783. Cromwell often spoke of this document with the Commander-in-Chief’s own signature, “of which he was very proud.” He died in January, 1853.

Jones was born at Colchester, Connecticut in 1767. He enlisted in Colonel Samuel B. Webb’s Regiment of the Continental Army in June of 1777 and was put under the Master of the Band to learn to play the fife. He arrived in Morristown in 1780 and would later write, “On the 12th day of January, 1780, we struck tents and took possession of the Huts. The Inhabitants remarked that it was the coldest winter ever known by the oldest inhabitants. The troops drew no rations of meat for two days (hungry times).” Lord Jones would also recall memorable brushes with George Washington, Martha Washington, and Lafayette. In one instance, he performed a song in an officer’s hut: “I paraded up and down by the Company two or three turns-when I sung (God Save America.) Colonel Webb then directed me to go to Colonel Jackson’s Hut where Mrs. W (Washington) and some ladies were and tell Mrs. W. that he had sent me to sing her a song. I did so sing the song when she presented me with a bill of three dollars, Continental Currency. The bill has been kept, folded as she gave it to me.” Lord Jones remained at Jockey Hollow until the end of camp. “A short time after, the Regiment left their huts and were marched down towards Springfield, New Jersey. My time soon after expired (June 20, 1780.) When I received my discharge I started for home with two men who were also discharged. I had to walk 150 miles. I reached home at Hartford, Connecticut without any accident.”

As an adult, Richard Lord Jones worked in the cotton-manufacturing business, and then eventually became a farmer near New Albany, Indiana, where he died in 1852. His grave is at the Fairview cemetery in New Albany, where a modern marker notes that he was a “ten year old fifer” in the Revolutionary War.

Shelley was born in 1760 in Hempstead Plains, Long Island. Shelley’s father was a ship’s carpenter who was subjected to forced labor by the British army. When his property was confiscated, he escaped to New Jersey with his family. Samuel worked as an indentured servant, and as the revolutionary conflict began to emerge, it seems that Samuel was not very interested in joining the military response to the British. Shelley was what we might refer to as a “draft dodger.” He was a very young looking man, so he claimed for many years that he was only twelve. According to his own account, “I was twelve years old for a good many years. I was always very small in stature.” He was eventually discovered when his aunt revealed Samuel’s true age to a sergeant in the Continental Army. Samuel was then forced into military service for a term of approximately nine months.

Samuel Shelley entered the New Jersey Brigade when they were at Morristown in early 1780. He was involved in only one skirmish, but he wrote an interesting narrative of camp life at Morristown. He remained with that brigade until his discharge at the end of 1780. Shelley moved several times after the war but finally settled in Wantage Township, New Jersey. At age 91, he applied for a pension, but he never received one.