Page:The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier.pdf/210

208 , how were five men in a mess, five hearty, hungry young men to subsist four days on twenty pounds of fresh beef, (and I might say, twelve or fifteen pounds,) without any vegetables or any other kind of sauce to eke it out. In the hottest season of the year it was the same; though there was not much danger of our provisions putrifying, we had none on hand long enough for that, if it did, we were obliged to eat it, or go without any thing. When Gen. Washington told Congress, "the soldiers eat every kind of horse fodder but hay," he might have gone a little farther, and told them that they eat considerable hog's fodder, and not a trifle of dog's,—when they could get it to eat.

We were, also, promised six dollars and two thirds a month, to be paid us monthly; and how did we fare in this particular? Why, as we did in every other. I received the six dollars and two thirds, till (if I remember rightly) the month of August, 1777, when paying ceased. And what was six dollars and sixty-seven cents of this "Continental currency" as it was called, worth? it was scarcely enough to procure a man a dinner. Government was ashamed to tantalize the soldiers any longer with such trash, and wisely gave it up for its own credit. I received one month's pay in specie while on the march to Virginia, in the year 1781, and except that, I never received any pay worth the name while I belonged to the army. Had I been paid as I was promised to be at my engaging in the service, I needed not to have suffered as I did, nor would I have done it; there was enough in the country, and money would have procured it if I had had it. It is provoking to think of it. The country was rigorous in exacting my compliance to my engagements to a punctilio, but equally careless in performing her contracts with me; and why so? One reason was, because she had all the power in her own hands, and I had none. Such things ought not to be.

The poor soldiers had hardships enough to endure, without having to starve; the least that could be done was to give them something to eat. "The labourer is worthy of his meat" at least, and he ought to have it for his employer's interest, if nothing more. But, as I said, there were other hardships to grapple with.—How many times have I had to lie down like a dumb animal in the field,