Joe survives the war and tells all about it !

America would not be what we are today if the Revolutionary War had not happened. Our freedom was won because our ancestors took up the call to serve. Yet, few people today know much about these people who gave up so much for us. 

Honestly, our lack of knowledge is not our fault because not much has survived from two hundred  years ago. There were no televisions or 24 hour news crews documenting  every second. News traveled by word of mouth with one page broadsheets  serving as  newspapers that were passed from person to person. 

To learn about our  Veterans we can look at military roll call, tax records and pensions.  All of these contain hard facts and very little personal information.

So when I say we hit the Jackpot with our ancestor I am not exaggerating. 

Our ancestor Joseph Joslin not only survived the war and collected a pension but he kept a daily journal detailing his experiences. The Connecticut Historical Society thought his journal was so important they transcribed it and published it on their website.(1)

[SOURCE: Uniforms of the Armies in the War of the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Lt. Charles M. Lefferts. Limited Edition of 500. New York York Historical Society. New York, NY. 1926.]

Joseph Joslin  was born into a large family of 9 children in Thompson, Connecticut on April 9, 1759. He was the third son born to Joseph Joslin Sr and Mary Adams. 

By the time Joseph turned 17 the Continental Army had been fighting the British for a year. His two older brothers Jesse and John were already enlisted. Joseph could of enlisted when he turned 16 but he didn't. I suspect that his parents needed him to keep working on the farm after his brothers joined. I can only imagine how frustrated this made our 17 year old ancestor.

In March of 1777 Joseph enlisted as a teamster and served under John Loyd.

 A teamster moves military supplies with a horse and wagon.  America in 1776 was made up of rural farmland. The few roads that existed  were so bad  that people preferred to get in a boat to travel to other  colonies rather than try to navigate the roads. Wagons were scarce and people who could fix and drive those wagons were even scarcer. Joseph's skill as a teamster and the fact that he was literate made him a valuable recruit. (2)

Joseph kept a journal from 1777-1779. 

This is an excerpt from March 19,1777.

19  "we got Some breakfast to Capt David taylors and then took Care of oxen and greased the wheels and I went and found a Place to have our Clothes Washed and it was at on Ebenezer munsons and we got Some Dinner at Comforts hoyts and it was a very warm Day and I think I See Some Prisoners Come from Peekskill and at knight we Did lie on rhe floor at Esqs Benedicts and I thought they was very nice Peopel"

The journal is not a page turner but you really get a sense of what life was like in colonial America . 

The war ended in September of 1783 and in October Joseph married Lydia Bucklin from Smithfield , Rhode Island. The couple moved to Smithfield where their first child Junia was born in 1784. They eventually moved back to Thompson , Connecticut and had two more children. 

When he was 67 Joseph served as a Republican Representative in the legislature. He  collected a military pension in 1841 when he was 81 years old. Two years later he died and was buried in old East Thompson Cemetery where so many of our ancestors are buried.  

(1) Joslin's Revolutionary War journal was transcribed by the Connecticut Historical Society. 

 You can down load the journal here:

https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/primary/20/



(2) Learn more about Teamsters here at:

U.S. Army transposition Museum website:

https://transportation.army.mil/museum/revolutionarywar/index.html