CALEB HASKELL'S DIARY
PREFACE

The men who make history rarely keep diaries. When such men do leave behind them jottings of personal experiences, these are generally but meager records of the achievements of the actors in the scenes referred to but not described.

It is left to the men of study to perpetuate the deeds of the men of action. When, however, we do get at first hand historic notes, we should read them, not as the carefully considered and finely wrought product of the professional historian, but as the skeleton plot of a noble drama which our imagination must people with its life and bustle.

Who can read a play with warmth and enthusiasm unless he sees the characters before him with all their impassioned action, and utterance the villain with his sunken eye, and the heroine with her dangerous glance more perilous than twenty swords?

The soldier who struggled thro' the forests of the upper Kennebec, who lived upon the scanty remnants of a canine carcass, who lay at death's door within a pest house, who stood in the besieging trenches amid the snows of a Canadian winter, and did the bidding of such a driving master as Benedict Arnold, hurrying from place to place, had little time for graphic story telling on the line of march and field of combat.

If his scanty notes, put down at hurried intervals, for his own use, and not to instruct the world, read in their bare outlines like entries in an almanac, it is because they are not filled in with the readers light of history and tradition.

The following is a plain man's mention of events which he partook in and where the partakers have been raised to the rank of heroes.

NOTE

Elsie A. C. Haskell⁸ (A great-granddaughter of Caleb Haskell⁵) had made a typewritten copy of Caleb Haskell's⁵ original handwritten Diary, many years ago (Early 1900's). This version including the Preface and notes at the end were transcribed from Aunt Elsie Haskell's copy.

Elsie A. C. Haskell⁸, daughter of Edwin Charles⁷ (Amos Hale⁶, Caleb⁵, Caleb⁴, Daniel³, Joseph², William¹).

Donald Haskell⁹ is a second great-grandson of Caleb Haskell⁵.
Donald Haskell⁹, son of Ernest Dexter⁸ (Edwin Charles⁷, Amos Hale⁶, Caleb⁵, Caleb⁴, Daniel³, Joseph², William¹).
Donald Haskell⁹, son of Ernest Dexter⁸ (Edwin Charles⁷, Amos Hale⁶, Caleb⁵, Caleb⁴, Sarah³ (wife of Daniel³), William², William¹).
Donald Haskell⁹, son of Ernest Dexter⁸ (Edwin Charles⁷, Amos Hale⁶, Caleb⁵, Elizabeth⁴ (wife of Caleb⁴), Ebenezer³, Joseph², William¹).
Donald Haskell⁹ is descended from William¹ through both William² and Joseph².

Other Pages
Diary Part I
Diary Part II
Diary Part III
Diary Addendum

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