BHHS to host Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
Alan Taylor will explore the historical contributions of Joseph Plumb Martin, a Revolutionary War soldier who lived in Prospect
May 18, 2026
By Steele Hays
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor will speak about the life of Revolutionary War soldier Joseph Plumb Martin. Photo courtesy of Blue Hill Historical Society.
BLUE HILL–Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor will speak on July 25 in Blue Hill about Joseph Plumb Martin, a Revolutionary War soldier who lived in Prospect, Maine, and whose memoir is widely considered the most definitive first-person account of the war from the viewpoint of a frontline soldier.
Taylor’s talk is being sponsored by the Blue Hill Historical Society and will be open to the public. The exact time and location of his presentation are still to be confirmed, said George Pazuniak, BHHS president.
A professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, Taylor is the author of multiple books on early American history and the settlement of the frontier. He has appeared in several of Ken Burns’ TV series on American history, and is a Maine native and Colby College graduate.
Taylor is one of the few historians to have won two Pulitzer Prizes. He won the prize for history in 1996 for his book, William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic. He won his second in 2014 for his book The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772–1832.
Joseph Plumb Martin
Martin, the subject of Taylor’s talk, enlisted at age 15 and saw extensive action in the war, serving under General Washington during the winters at Valley Forge. He was on the front lines during the siege of Yorktown, which was the final decisive victory of the war. Martin didn’t publish his memoir A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier until 1830, when he was 70 years old. The book didn’t receive much notice at the time, but later became widely cited by historians as a classic.
“The army was now not only starved but naked; the greatest part were not only shirtless and barefoot, but destitute of all other clothing, especially blankets. I procured a small piece of raw cowhide and made myself a pair of moccasons, which kept my feet (while they lasted) from the frozen ground, although, as I well remember, the hard edges so galled my ancles, while on a march, that it was with much difficulty and pain that I could wear them afterwards; but the only alternative I had, was to endure this inconvenience or to go barefoot, as hundreds of my companions had to, till they might be tracked by their blood upon the rough frozen ground.”
Martin’s memoir, written about the winter General Washington's army spent at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is seen as an unvarnished account of the hardships experienced by common soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
In 1794, Martin wed Lucy Clewly and settled in Prospect, Maine, where they raised five children. He served as a town clerk and a member of the state legislature. He died in 1850 at age 89 and is buried in Sandy Point Cemetery in Stockton Springs.