Today, on June 14, we celebrate the
U.S.Army’s 250th anniversary. My patriot ancestor, Jeremiah Greenman, joined the Army before it existed 250 years ago.
My patriot ancestor joined Rhode Island’s Army of Observation one month after it was established on April 25, 1775 in response to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Greenman was two weeks past his 17th birthday.
Thereafter, on September 13, 1775, Greenman enlisted as a private in a company commanded by one of Rhode Island’s delegates to the Continental Congress, Capt. Samuel Ward. Within one week, he was on the march to Quebec with General Benedict Arnold.
Imprisoned twice, wounded thrice, my 5x-great grandfather was discharged on Christmas Day, 1783 having served longer than almost any other American soldier. During the Bicentennial year of 1976 his descendants in Illinois revealed to the world the war journal Greenman kept with him throughout the war. It is the only such daily, contemporaneous kept journal by a private soldier in the American Revolution known to exist.
During the winter of Valley Forge, so many soldiers died and needed to be replaced. Rhode Island raised a regiment of all-black soldiers, most of whom were slaves seeking to earn their freedom. Sargent Jeremiah Greenman recruited and then trained the First Rhode Island Regiment.
The Black Regiment served with distinction and some of its members took part in the famous capture of Redoubt #10 at Yorktown. Young Lieutenant Greenman was a POW at that time.
Greenman’s DIARY OF A COMMON SOLDIER IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1775-1783 was published in 1978. Greenman’s exploits are recounted throughout Bruce Chadwick’s 2005 book, THE FIRST AMERICAN ARMY.