About_Joseph_Plum_Martin

Dear Editor: The purpose of this letter is to reply to the criticisms leveled by councilman Frugal against the magnificent Joseph Plumb Martin Memorial Project. Martin is quite worthy of artistic commemoration. Understanding the common soldier’s experience is fundamental to the understanding of any war. Martin’s account provides us with a comprehension of the American Revolution which would be impossible to obtain from accounts that focus on generals alone. Although Mr. Frugal is correct when he says that Milford has no legal obligation to complete the project, Milford has the duty to honor its patriot sons. Moreover, the community has a moral obligation to complete this memorial in which so many firms, including my own, have invested large amounts of time, money, and artistic talents. First of all, Joseph Plumb Martin undeniably merits artistic commemoration. While the civilians were enjoying the course of their normal life, fifteen-year old Martin who should have been in school, was enduring the hardships of war. After being enlisted for only six months, he returned home after one year, having suffered privations that could have given him the disgust of war. However, he enlisted again and remained in the continental army for the duration of the war. Only a profound sense of patriotism can explain Martin’s long commitment. Here is how he told us himself, “We were unwilling to desert the cause of our country, when in distress; that we knew her cause involved our own.” (Martin, 125) Also, saying that Martin wasn’t a hero or a high-ranked officer is not the point. We are talking about a person so young at the revolutionary period that he was flattered to be called a man, “I felt a little elevated to be styled a man.” (Martin, 16). The point, at the opposite of Mr. Frugal’s argument is that Martin, so young, so spontaneous, is representative of all those young soldiers, his comrades, and has become their voice, a symbol of all of them. In honoring Martin, we will be honoring all the young lives lost or for ever crippled for the cause of liberty. Because Martin did not belong to the aristocracy of the army, commoners better relate to him. Martin is the neighbor, the grandson who went to war and for whom old grandmas tremble. He was a good young man, who said, ” I never wished to do anyone an injury through malice in my life.” “I have suffered rather than take from anyone what belonged of right to them.” (Martin, 14). We agree that the militia was very useful as a supplement to the continental army which has never attained the desirable number of enlisted combatants. While the British had the facility to move quickly on the water-ways, the militia was a local response, a surge which often remedies to the lack of mobility of the continental army. However, the latter was the backbone of the Revolutionary War, the one without which victory would have been impossible. The militia was more focused on home defense inside their specific colony border. Finally, a soldier’s point of view is certainly a perfect complement to that of high-ranked officers in order to have the whole picture permitting to comprehend a war. A wise man said, “If the needle doesn’t go through, the thread doesn’t follow.” However, what is the use of the needle without the thread' What is the use of generals with no soldiers' Martin’s honest account of the war is an unprecedented, interesting, humorous document which gives a unique perspective from one of those who were in the cyclone’s eye. No general has suffered what Martin has. No general could have taken us to the barns where soldiers were piled up for they always gave themselves the most comfortable places in the houses. Martin spent eight years in the war because of his patriotism and his loyalty to his comrades. Only a high patriotic outburst could have inspired those verses at the opening of chapter seven, narrating the campaign of 1781: “I saw the plundering British bands Invade the fair Virginian lands. …I saw great Washington advance With Americans and troops from France; I saw the haughty Britons yield And stack their muskets on the field. (Martin, 137). Therefore, we can say that not only Joseph Plumb Martin deserves to be commemorated with a work of art but it is also the city’s moral obligation toward him all of those he symbolizes. His touching account of the Revolutionary War has enriched many generations’ knowledge of the events and is considered by many to be a classic. Let’s do the right thing by honoring Milford’s patriot son.