New York has fallen, and there is a vital need for reinforcements in New Jersey. Eben and many of his friends become recruits. The new soldiers join the regiment which is marching to New Jersey. As the regiment nears New Jersey, Eben soon faces the hardships and realities of war. The scarcity of food becomes more and more serious, and Eben and his friend Isaac must forage for food.

Eben's New Hampshire regiment joins General Washington's forces at the Battle of Brandywine. Isaac is killed, and in the confusion of the battle, Eben is temporarily separated from his unit.

After the battle, Eben is given leave to return home to help during the harvest season. The contrast between the deprivation and desolation of the battlefront and the comfortable life in the revolutionary towns and homes is depicted.

After the harvest, Eben rejoins his regiment, which is camped at Valley Forge. The film portrays the misery and hardships endured by New Hampshire patriots during the worst suffering of the Revolution.

1. To give students a sense of what it was like to be a soldier in the later years of the Revolutionary War.

2. To point out the kind of role performed by New Hampshire soldiers during the war.

3. To show the contrast between the deprivation on the battlefront as compared to the relative comfort of the home front in New Hampshire.

4. To show the many factors in addition to the British that the Revolutionary troops had to fight.

1. Was life at home in New Hampshire as difficult as it was in such colonies as New Jersey, New York, or Pennsylvania during the war? Why or why not?

2. How would you feel about having to go to battle with no food or without decent clothing? Would you be able to fight as well as if you had been well fed and clothed?

3. How do you think you would feel if you came home from war to find everything at home just about the same as when you left? How would you feel about people with new clothes or about eating a large, bountiful meal?

1. Find out the approximate percentage of your town's male population in the 1770s who served in the war. How many were teenagers? What was their average age?

2. From old town records, see what actions or enticements were taken to enlist soldiers. Were there any records of their families being helped? Make some recruiting posters for the Revolutionary War.

3. Many communities have marked the graves of their Revolutionary War dead. If there is a map, take field trips to the cemetery or cemeteries. If there is no map, have your students make such a map, pointing out the graves of Revolutionary soldiers.

4. Do a thorough study of one of the battles or campaigns in which New Hampshire soldiers were heavily involved. Make maps, illustrations, write stories and/or poems, publish a "newspaper" about these battles.

5. Make bulletin board displays of various battle sites (Bennington, Yorktown, Valley Forge, Fort William and Mary, Bunker Hill). Have students bring in maps, souvenirs and postcards, as well as newspaper and magazine articles about these places. (You may want to write to the battle sites for material.)

6. Do a physical education activity in "drilling" students. Use broomsticks or yardsticks in place of guns (not all trainees had guns). Tell them about "hayfoot, strawfoot." Since some militiamen had trouble knowing which was their right foot, hay was stuffed in the left shoe and straw in the right. Then they marched in rhythm to "hayfoot, strawfoot."

7. Eben left his regiment to return home to help with the harvest. Explain to the class that this was a common practice during the Revolution. Can soldiers do this today? Why not?

8. The Revolutionary War soldiers elected their own officers. What do you think of this method of getting officers? How is it done today? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both systems?

9. Have a member of the National Guard visit the class and explain the Guard's function. Compare the National Guard with the militia of the 1700s.

10. During the Revolutionary and other wars (but not today), Americans could be excused from war by providing a substitute. Was this fair? How would you like it if your father couldn't find a substitute? How did people get substitutes? What effect do you think this had on the war? Why isn't it allowed today?

11. What was the role of women during the war? Do a role-playing sequence having children pretend to be the family at home with husband and father away at war. What are their functions at home? What do you suppose women thought and felt in those days?

12. Study the role of the sea during the Revolutionary War. Study continental ships and privateers. What were the differences? What were the advantages and disadvantages of each? Have students draw pictures or make models of the different kinds of ships used.

13. Many New Hampshire towns had privateers among their settlers. Search town records for such settlers.

14. Pretend you are a soldier in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, and you have just gotten some paper to write home. Write a letter to your family telling what it's like to be at the battlefront.

• militia
• harass
• harvest
• port
• scout
• privateer
• reinforcements
• meager
• porridge
• Johnny Bull
• rations
• gills of rice
• recruit
• fodder
• lobsterback
• destination
• furlough
• billeted

• The John Paul Jones House, corner of Middle and State Streets, Portsmouth.

• New York
• Hudson River
• Philadelphia
• Staten Island
• New Jersey
• Portsmouth

• General John Sullivan
• Continental Congress

• The Revolutionary Era in New Hampshire

 
• The Capture of Fort William & Mary

 
• Raid on Fort William & Mary

 
• Liberty: Website for the PBS series on the American Revolution

 
• Archiving Early America

 
• Battles of the American Revolution

 
• The History Place: American Revolution

 
• The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789