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Chapter IX
The Home Front 1777-1779.
Poverty, and Efforts in Recruiting Men.
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n the year 1777, Congress, and the states individually, made an attempt
to raise an army for three years, or during the war, that Gen. Washington
might have an army that he could depend upon: but it was difficult to raise
such a force. The government of Connecticut passed a law providing, that if any
two men would procure one soldier to enlist for three years or during the war, they
should be exempted from a draft during that period. One of my neighbors
wished me to find a man who would enlist, and he would pay one half, and
find somebody to pay the other half. I found a man as he desired: but my
neighbor failed to get a partner as he proposed, and the man refused to go,
unless the whole sum was paid him in advance. I was so anxious to have the
man enlisted, that, notwithstanding my poverty, I paid him twenty pounds
myself, although I was not exposed to a draft. This settled the difficulty; and I
afterwards enlisted several others.

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