Why I Decided To Enlist Dbq

Fear, anger, hunger,and worry are killing me slowly, but still I know I must go on. It has now been two years of the American Revolution and I already feel like I’m halfway dead. In the summer of 1775 we had to flee from Boston and travel to Valley Forge, 18 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It is now winter and it is terribly cold. With smoke in our sleeping huts and our shoes all gone. Our beds are nothing, but cold hard dirt. Almost everyone is sick, I am not yet sick, though I may be close. The Congress helped, but by then most everyone was barefoot or close to it. It is hard and my 9-month enlistment is coming to an end and I have a decision to enlist or not. I have decided to re-enlist for the rest of the war. It is extremely hard, but
Dr. Albigence Waldo states,”Yet they still show a spirit of Alacrity and Contentment not to be expected from so young Troops”.(Waldo 151) This shows that my comrades and I are willing to keep fighting for our causes that we had when we joined in the Continental Army in the first place. Thomas Paine also tells,”Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”(Paine 153) Paine wrote this to help me and my fellow soldiers know that triumph is going to be hard to achieve, but that we still must go on even with our little supplies we have now. As I now look around camp, I still see many soldiers suffering, but ready to fight for their families and country.(Roden 137) We are willing to risk our lives for the cause of freedom. General Washington has a meeting with Congress and we stand beside him. We are barefoot, hungry, and cold, but we show Congress that we are able and willing to stand in front of them strong and full of spirit like how we will stand up to Britain.(Powell 149) We are showing Congress how much these countries and causes are to us. This reason is causing me to re-enlist because I would die if my family and country could be free of British
Dr.Waldo has told me,” The army which, has been surprisingly healthy hitherto, now begins to grow sickly from the continued fatigues they have suffered this Campaign.”(Waldo 151) Dr. Waldo tells that any of us could be sick and not know it. Then if I left I would just continue to spread it like wildfire to my friends and family. Phil Roden also has said,” Each hut slept 12 men. There were no beds, just straw on the mud floor. Cold was one problem; smoke was another.”(Roden 141) With those bad conditions there is no doubt that a soldier, like me, could get sick and accidentally spread it. That could eventually get to my family if I left the camp. Busch has also written down all that are sick from December 23,1777 to February, 1778. It tells that in December there were only 2,898, but increased to 3,989 in February only 2 months later.(Busch 147) Busch explains that it spreads really fast. If I went home it would spread so fast. There is another barefoot soldier passing by. I am very close to losing both my socks now. My shirt and pants have holes in them, which makes me shiver whenever there is a breeze. We have had so little supplies to warm us these past months.(Powell 149) This is why so many are already sick. This reason urges me not to leave no matter how much I want to, but I refuse to let my family be more in danger of dying than they already