Having been, for several years, engaged in the establishment of a
Museum in Poughkeepsie, I have, by extensive travel and research, and
by the kindness of many of my fellow-citizens in Dutchess county and
elsewhere, obtained numerous objects, not only curious in themselves,
but valuable as materials for history. Among these are two manuscript
Journals, kept by common soldiers, each during a single campaign, and
written at periods seventeen years apart. One of these soldiers served
in a campaign of the conflict known as the FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR,
which commenced a hundred years ago; the other soldier assisted in the
siege of Boston, by the American army, in 1775 and 1776. Believing
that a faithful transcript of those Journals, given _verbatim et
literatim_, as recorded by the actors themselves, might have an
interest for American readers, as exhibiting the every-day life of a
common soldier in those wars which led to the founding of our
republic, I have yielded to the solicitations of friends, and the
dictates of my own judgment and feelings, and in the following pages
present to the public faithful copies of those diaries.
Perceiving that much of the intrinsic value of these Journals would
consist in a proper understanding of the historical facts to which
allusions are made in them, I prevailed upon Mr. LOSSING, the
well-known author of the "_Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution_" to
illustrate and elucidate these diaries by explanatory notes. His name
is a sufficient guaranty for their accuracy and general usefulness;
and I flatter myself that this little volume will not only amuse, but
edify, and that the useful objects aimed at in its publication will be
fully attained. With this hope, it is submitted to my fellow-citizens.
ABRAHAM TOMLINSON.
POUGHKEEPSIE MUSEUM, _December, 1854_.