Journal Of A Revolutionary War Soldier

March 25th, 1781, ….The war has been raging on for quite a long time, and I for one am ready to go home. I’m sick of all this shooting and running and cannon balls flying. Taking other human’s lives is most definitely not something that comes easy for me, but my commanding officer, General Wahington, has promised it will all be ending in the immediate future. Then again, he’s been rong several times during this war, his wrong decisions have cost a lot of innocent men’s lives, some of them were my comrades and friends. Several times I have shot enemy soldiers who were behind trees when they pointed their guns at some of my comrad’s heads, knowing it had to be one or the other of their lives, and I chose ones I knew personally, the same ones who had stood in file with me, telling me about what they were looking for- ward to doing when they got home. Most of them just wanted to see their wives and kids again. Then 8 seconds later they’d be lying on the ground with blood gushing out of their heads and bodies from the bullets of some cursed enemy soldier who was hiding behind a tree. just waiting for some unfortunate soldier to come by wearing a blue shirt, then they would shoot them, not even thinking about the lives he had just ruined with a single bullet. The problem is when I’m involved being one of the guys involved, it’s either kill or be killed. I hate taking the lives of any of God’s children who were just doing their job, following the directions of their superior officers. I wish we could come to some kind of agreement so all this senseless killing can be stopped. God hates to see me making innocent men’s lives stop instantly, and I’m certain He knows how much I hate shooting people because each life I take will totally ruin many people’s lives forever. Mr. Franklin wrote The Declaration Of Independence and all the top-dogs in Washington signed it including Benjamin Franklin and even General Washington. Yet God has a purpose for this war. I’m sure it’s to be free from that awful King George The Third, who’s a merciless tyrant. He has no heart for any of the Americans, even the people in England hate him. Yet there’s a rumor going around that when we win this war, (and that’s when, not if), we will be able to vote for the person we want to govern our country, which sounds really far-fetched, but it will be terrific. Yet King George must be stopped, and the only way to do that is through the shedding of senseless bloodshed which is why we must win this war. I wish Cornwallis would come to his senses and let General Washington know he’s wrong for treating all the Americans so badly.

March 29th,....It finally happened! That old jer, Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington today! That means the war is officially over! His army made him surrender at Yorktown. That means I’ll be going home in a few days. There’s also some talk about making it work out so we, the people of The United States, will be able to pick who we want to run this country. That’s called voting, but I don’t know how that’s going to work. Anyway, the bottom line is there will be no more fighting. I can’t wait to get home and see my friends and family, mostly Frank. He should be walking by now, but would really like to hear him call me Dad.

March 26th 1781, ….Today I’m really ticked-off. That darn old King George The 3rd keeps taxing everything we need. Now, we here in this country call that Taxation Without Representation. It seems like everybody in this whole country dislike that gosh-darn old nerd intensely, that includes me. That stupid old king has us under his thumb and we can’t do any- thing about it which means he can tax us on everything we own or need to buy. You could say we are all victims of being under neith his thumb and we hate all of those, “thumb tax.” I’m sorry about that week pun, but that dude is really a jerk. A knot is what everybody wants to put in his tail, so you could say we want to, “jerk a knot in his, ‘tale’ so that it will have a really tragic ending for that awful tyrant. Everybody hates him and hates the things he has been putting us through. The pastor at my Church says we need to pray for him to change from his evil ways because none of us has many dollars at this point in time since and that nerd definitely doesn’t make any, “scents,” (pardon-the-pun again). At least it’s really terrific that I still have my warped sense of humor and can make some jokes about that stupid, old tyrant who has no thought for anybody else other than himself. He certainly doesn't care about how miserable our lives have been made since he has been in charge of this great country of ours. Words cannot describe how sick we all are of hearing those cannons firing all those cannon balls, especially when we don’t even know if they are from our side or their side. I have even tried my absolute best to paint a picture of all the destruction those things are causing all the Americans to have at this point in time. Yet every time we hear the noise of those cannon balls getting closer to us, we all have to run. Some of the poor victims here call that a, “Cannonball Run.” That’s a title I should write about in some book whenever the time becomes available in my day at this point in time.

Everybody hates not having having any privileges since that awful King George has taken all of them away from us. We have no say-so about who is chosen to run this great country. I’m sure Amerigo Vespuci, whom this totally awesome country is named after, would definitely not approve of how things are going at this point in time. He would definitely turn over in his grave if he was told about the criminal injustice that has been taking place amongst all the people who live here. Something has to change, and it needs to change immediately before any more of our good-people go mad because right now, “mad” is exactly what that stupid old king has been making all of us who live here in The Land Of The Free. The Home Of The Brave would be a really great nickname to call this place which so many of us have worked our fingers to the bone to help make it be the greatest country on this entire planet so it will be that way once again for all of our children and children’s children and everybody who comes after them. That’s especially true down in Georgia since down there all the people who live in that state are really brave. That’s why we all refer to them as, “The Atlanta Braves.” The chief guy around there is an Indian. His name is, “Chief Knock-A-Homa.” Some of those darn old redcoats will shoot cannonballs at us and our methods of defence. The problem is none of us know what color the coats are that they wear which makes it quite difficult to know who we need to shoot at.

Everybody is plum sick and tired of having no privileges like all the other countries on this planet have. What makes me worried is unless England, in particular that darn old King George The 3rd, will have a change of heart and allow us to have some more say-so like most of the other countries on this old Earth, he is going to cause all of us Americans to revolt and destroy not only him, but a lot of the other people who live there. We really do not want to do that because it would be affecting so many innocent people’s lives, but if that is what it takes in order for all of us to earn our freedom from him and the whole country, including whoever takes office to replace him. Something definitely needs to change, and it needs to change immediately if not sooner. None of us want to continue fighting and killing so many innocent people, but it looks like that is the only way we are ever going to earn that freedom that all of us want and need at this point in time. Nobody, especially me wants to keep up all this ridiculous fighting and killing all the innocent people in order for us to earn our freedom from that awful tyrant, K. G. T. 3rd, then so be it. I just wish there was an easier way to do it which didn’t involve any more lives being lost in the name of freedom, but there doesn’t appear to be any other method of achieving that ultimate goal. That’s something everybody is striving for, but there doesn’t appear to be any other way than to win this dog-gone war which we all hate with a pasion, especially me. Nobody actually enjoys all this fighting, but it is for a worthy cause which will affect us, our children, our children’s children and everybody who comes after them. That would be fantastic.

Another thing that really does get my goat about this whole mess is that it seems that everything we do has to please all the people in Quebec. We don’t even speak Quebecian, or whatever language those folks speak over there. Yet it seems that everything we do must make them happy or else they’ll execute us. That is another thing which really does get my goat, which is extremely, “ba-a-a-a-ad.” They’re all thinking that they’re the baddest mojos in the valley and that nobody will ever mess with them, “butt,” (like the goats do), we shouldn’t have to put up with all those idiotic rules which all us colonists think is so, “ba-a-a-a-ad.” Hopefully Gabrial will blow his, “horn,” instead of the goats blowing their horns. Those darn old English people are really quite evil, “butt,” (like what those goats will do to them), this war will be over with in the near future. If not, there will be a lot more bloodshed which is something we are all hoping to avoid if at all possible. Yet King George The 3rd is such a jerk, hopefully that’s what somebody will put in his tail, a knot because he’s like the devil. Actually, I don’t even think Satin himself would have anything to do with that dude since he’s so evil. Yet we all have got high hopes that when justice has finally been served and that dog-gone old tyrant can be taken out of power it will make all of our lives be a lot less, “Ruff!” That means literally in every sense of the word. We should send him to Africa so that he could be known as, “George Of The Jungle.” He’s so dense I hope he doesn’t watch out for that tree since he, “wooden” do anything nice which would change any of the American’s living arrangements unless it happens to be for the worse. That dude really is the epitome of all evil. In fact he’s so bad even his good friend, Lou wouldn’t have anything to do with him, (which is short for Lucifer). Beelzebub is the only person who might possibly like him, although even he would think that guy’s too bad for that place.

March 28th 1781, ….The war appears to have no end in sight. Poor Mr. Washington’s men are pitifully low on food and supplies. Many of the soldiers have been dying from malaria, scarlet fever, smallpox, typhoid and even some have died from the common cold because we don’t have any medicine for those poor soldiers to take and those who have asthma are not able to breathe. Some have even died in my arms.

March 3oth, ….I’m sick and tired of fighting in this ridiculous war which really shouldn’t have even been started in the first place. If that awful King George The Third had any heart whatsoever, he would call an end to this ridiculous war which would end all the killing of not only our guys, but his as well. Nobody has been enjoying this fighting which has been going on for far too long. Tomas Jefferson wrote out a thing he calls The Decloration Of Independence. He’s been getting lots of big named people to sign it such as Ben Franklin, although he really had to work hard to get his signature. All he wanted to do was fly his kite. The weirdest part about that is he’s even been doing it during a thunderstorm. That dude is all bear with no foam. He is several fries short of a Happy Meal, whatever that means. You could sy Ben’s wheels are spinning but his hamster is dead. Apparently somebody said to him, “Aw, go fly a kite!” when they wanted him to go away, and he evidently took that person literally. There is even a key on the end of it. If he can’t find his house, he has no business flying a kite in a thunderstorm. His antics have really shocked a lot of people. This afternoon I heard him cry out in pain when some lightning hit his silly kite. That serves him right for not doing that during all the sunny days we’ve been having lately, but h’d rather do it during a thunderstorm. He has a lot of cool sayings that he says are wise. Like he says things such as, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” “An idle brain is the devil’s playground,” “It’s hard to hit a porch from a horse” and, “Surly to bed and surly to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” but that doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. John Hamalton also signed it and he has even got his picture on the $10.00. Even George Washington said he was going to sign it but hasn’t yet. His wife, Martha does all the laundry between them and she has a really appropriate name, “Martha, ‘Washing-ton’ of clothes” which she does every day. No wonder her fingers all look like prunes, so rinkled.

There’s a nice seamstress named Betsey who promised she would make a flag for our guys. She chose some really wild colors. They are red for the bloodshed our guys have shed, white for the skin color of all those from England and blue because that’s what everybody in the country is under King George’s rule. The problem is they are the same color as the British flag.

She also drew a star for each of the 48 states in our country. That’s because she believes that every American has the right to become a star. The stripes are a good reminder of what Jesus did for everybody when He took 39 of them on His back for everyday's healing. They should name a clothing store after her since Ross sounds like a good name for one.

See you soon. Love, Frank.