About This Book

A New Edition of the Eyewitness Account that Introduced Readers to the Experience of the Continental Army

“About sunset we made a stand, when I was wounded, having a Ball with the Wad shot through my left forearm & the fuse set my coat and shirt on fire.” So wrote Major Joseph Bloomfield in his journal on September 11, 1777, describing his experiences during the hard-fought battle of Brandywine. Bloomfield was an officer in the 3rd New Jersey Regiment from 1776 to 1779. His service took him from Fort Stanwix to Fort Ticonderoga in New York, to the battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania, and to the battle of Monmouth in his native state. He later served as governor of New Jersey from 1801 to 1812. A compassionate officer admired by his men, Bloomfield carefully recounted the hardships of military campaigns—the swings of morale, the shortage of supplies, the ever-present illnesses—and the intensity of combat. Of special interest are Bloomfield’s important notes on the culture and behavior of the Iroquois tribes known collectively as the Six Nations, which played a crucial role in revolutionary New York.

Unpublished and all but unknown when the first edition—skillfully edited by historians Mark Edward Lender and Joseph Kirby Martin—appeared, Bloomfield’s wartime journal was praised for providing both scholars and general readers with new information on the Continental soldier; the revolution’s impact on society; warfare in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and the motives and actions of the revolutionary generation. Soldiers and civilians, Patriots and Tories, come alive in this fascinating eyewitness narrative. This new edition of Citizen Soldier: The Revolutionary War Journal of Joseph Bloomfield—the first in thirty-five years—includes a new introduction and bibliographic essay by the editors.

Mark Edward Lender has written extensively on early American social and military history and is a recognized authority on the War for Independence, including Cabal! The Plot Against General Washington. Lender’s scholarship has won awards from the Society for Military History and the U.S. Army Historical Foundation and a fellowship from the Smith National Library at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. In 2017 he was a finalist for the prestigious George Washington Literary Prize.

James Kirby Martin is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Houston. Among his many books are Insurrection: The American Revolution and Its Meaning, Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered, and, with Mark Edward Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1789.

Praise for Citizen Soldier:

“A treasure.”—New York Times

“Thanks to the first-rate editing Bloomfield’s journal is fully and clearly annotated. . . . It helps to fill a gap in the literature of the unsung officers and men of the Continental Army.”—Don Higginbotham, author of Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary Rifleman