I am a soldier fighting for not only my country but my life. My name is Constant Jones, I am 23 and I am an officer fighting in the revolutionary war. Since I am in the middling class I take orders from people higher than me and I get an ok meal. I fight alongside my friends that I have made over the years particularly Spencer, a childhood friend who joined the Continental Army with me. We both moved up the ranks together, but currently I am higher since I am an officer. I command a group of soldiers and Spencer is in that group. Every time we go into a battle I pray for Spencer. I say, “Dear Lord, please let us survive this battle for if I do I will worship you even more. Amen.” I fear every day as the bullets fly by. My friends are dropping like flies and I fear I am next. I wish I was home sitting by the fire with my wife Katherine and our animals on our farm. Since I have been training, she has had to run the farm. She is strong enough to farm the land unlike other women. Some people don’t like my wife working the farm, but I tell her to ignore everyone else. We live in Virginia, but for the past four years I have been living in Yorktown with my soldier troop, alongside with Spencer. I know what I am doing is right, but it is hard. My friends’ deaths gives me courage to keep moving on. I say to myself, “I fight for them.” I am doing what is right, fighting for what I believe in.
I woke up this morning and the day is just like any other day. I woke up early before my battalion and went outside. The air was cold and my mouth felt brittle. I could see my breath floating away as I breath in and out. Then I wake up my battalion with a big “good day soldiers, rise and shine for another beautiful day of training.” I hear some soldiers groan and roll over. The soldiers quickly get dressed and stand up. I give commands and we are off training. Today we are practicing firing our muskets correctly with the commands. I remember saying with force, “HALF COCK!” I watch as the soldiers half cock their guns in unison. Then I yell, “HANDLE CARTRIDGE!” Then, “PRIME THE PAN!” I take a breath after, because I could feel my throat become parched. “SHUT PAN!” I can hear the click from everyone’s musket as they shut the pan. “CHARGE CARTRIDGE!” “DRAW RAMMER!” I can hear the sound of metal rubbing against metal as they pull out the rammer. I scream, “RAM DOWN CARTRIDGE!” “RETURN RAMMER!” I scream the most important commands, “MAKE READY!” Then, “TAKE AIM!” Before I say my last command, I brace myself for when I hear the fire of the musket, it will shock me to the fullest extent. I say with hesitation, “FIRE!”
My life before the war was plain and simple. We would run simple drills to prepare for the day like today. Now I see the importance of this drilling the tasks and tactics, it all make sense to me now. These conditions are horrible. Non stop fear of being killed within a second keeps all the other soldiers on their feet. I don’t know what to do next. I just keep on fighting thinking about what I am fighting for. My training to get to this day was hard, but it was worth it all; for those men that are being sent in with no training will die quickly. It is hard to survive, but it is what we all strive for here on the battlefield. It takes extreme skill to be able to load a musket within a short amount of time, but if when you have as much experience as I do you will be able to load and fire with little to no amount of time. The training was brutal, I was always hungry and I was always in the same routine. I wake up knowing what I have to do. I don’t know if I will be here to tomorrow, so just like I did yesterday I make amends with all the people I have wronged. I lay my head on the straw and try to get some sleep while constant musket and cannon fire goes off, close.