Diary of Collin Burlington
Imagine if you were a 15 year old boy living in the 18th century with your mom, dad, two sisters, and three brothers. You and your dad had just been sent into the Revolutionary War that was fought between the 13 colonies of North American and Britain. You have left your family home by themselves. How can they feel so appreciated one day, then stabbed in the back by news they don’t want to hear the next day? This is the life of Collin Burlington.
Collin Burlington is living on the rough edges between Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Collin has seen many things he does not want to be reminded of or spoken of in his life. The British or so called, “Redcoats,” have been to Collin’s house once looking for American lives to spare, but they have a secret escape hole in their dining room where they hid. Collin’s job for his father is to pick in the field. He stays out there for about 4 hours a day making $2 per hour. “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time” (Rohn).
Until he was ordered into war under the Continental Army, Collin used to be in school. Collin has been in the war for over five months now and still can’t get through the rough 24 hour heart breaking days of remembering his father getting shot and killed right in front of him. Collin gets to write a letter to whomever he wants every 2 months. The first letter he wrote was to his mother. It was about the death of Collin’s father. When his mother wrote back, Collin could tell how widowed and sorrowed she felt towards these actions, “The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost” (Schopenhauer).
After many months have passed the French have finally arrived to help the Americans with their fully armored highly trained troops to fight the professionally trained Redcoats. The war was fought from 1775 to 1783 with many deaths from both sides. The great leaders of the war were General George Washington for the Americans and Lord North for the British. The war was ended when the French arrived with over 8,000 men, ships, and over 500 cavalry. Then the British had to retreat but the French were waiting on the other side, that was when the Americans knew they had won and the British had surrendered.
In the end, with the help of the French, Collin and many others were able to make it home safely to our families and not be ordered around by some King across seas in Britain for the rest of their lives.
