A Record of Their Time

Speakers: Dr Krysten Blackstone, Lecturer in International and Military History, University of Salford and Jonathan Jeffries

Soldiers in the Continental Army kept diaries as records of their service during the American Revolution, writing in them almost daily. These personal entries vary from short notations about the weather, to longer descriptions of their experiences and observations. However, new evidence suggests that on certain campaigns, a unique practice took place – soldiers sharing their diaries.

Our speakers will delve into the discovery of this unusual practice, closely examining the rare and overlooked examples to understand why soldiers shared their personal diaries and why they only did so during specific campaigns. Entries appear to have been copied from one soldier to another for certain periods of time, sometimes as long as months!

This lecture is an opportunity to engage with sources that have never been published and consider a practice rarely discussed in academic literature, all the while learning about some key campaigns of the American Revolutionary War as told by the soldiers themselves.