Читать книгу The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775 - Abraham Tomlinson - Страница 4

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Having been, for several years, engaged in the establishment of a Museum in Poughkeepsie, I have, by extensive travel and research, and by the kindness of many of my fellow-citizens in Dutchess county and elsewhere, obtained numerous objects, not only curious in themselves, but valuable as materials for history. Among these are two manuscript Journals, kept by common soldiers, each during a single campaign, and written at periods seventeen years apart. One of these soldiers served in a campaign of the conflict known as the French and Indian War, which commenced a hundred years ago; the other soldier assisted in the siege of Boston, by the American army, in 1775 and 1776. Believing that a faithful transcript of those Journals, given verbatim et literatim, as recorded by the actors themselves, might have an interest for American readers, as exhibiting the every-day life of a common soldier in those wars which led to the founding of our republic, I have yielded to the solicitations of friends, and the dictates of my own judgment and feelings, and in the following pages present to the public faithful copies of those diaries.

Perceiving that much of the intrinsic value of these Journals would consist in a proper understanding of the historical facts to which allusions are made in them, I prevailed upon Mr. Lossing, the well-known author of the "Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution" to illustrate and elucidate these diaries by explanatory notes. His name is a sufficient guaranty for their accuracy and general usefulness; and I flatter myself that this little volume will not only amuse, but edify, and that the useful objects aimed at in its publication will be fully attained. With this hope, it is submitted to my fellow-citizens.

Abraham Tomlinson.

Poughkeepsie Museum, December, 1854.