Diary of Ezra Green, M.d. from November 1, 1777, to September 27, 1778

In the chaos of revolution, one man kept detailed account. Dr. Ezra Green, surgeon aboard the Continental frigate Ranger under John Paul Jones, recorded ten months of naval warfare, makeshift surgery, and the grim realities of 18th-century seafaring. His diary begins in November 1777, as the young American navy challenges the world's greatest maritime power, and follows the Ranger through its historic cruise against British shipping, tense encounters with French allies, and brutal battles that nearly destroyed the ship. Green's entries document amputations performed with saws and boiling oil, the camaraderie and petty squabbles of sailors, weather that could kill, and the strange pride of serving a cause larger than oneself. This is not romantic revolutionary history. It is the raw, methodical voice of a man who saw horror weekly and recorded it with the same steady hand he used to amputate limbs. For anyone who wants to hear an 18th-century American speak in his own words, unfiltered by later mythology, this diary is irreplaceable.