How does the author portray life as a soldier in the biography, A Young Patriot?

Murphy's A Young Patriot is a matter-offact account of the life of one young soldier in the Continental Army, and the narrative tends to demythologize some of the Revolutionary War. For instance, instead of noble, courageous men determined to hang on to win their freedom, Murphy shows mutinous, starving, miserable men who even eat tree bark to stay alive. There is a yearning among the men to be almost anywhere but in the army at Valley Forge. Some may object to A Young Patriot showing American soldiers at their worst as well as at their best, but Murphy's presentation of the reality of the war through the eyes of Joseph is to be commended for showing how real, ordinary people overcame hardship and their own weaknesses to fight for the freedom of their country, a cause that they well understood and believed worth suffering in order to achieve.