and my thoughts turn to a quiet spot located in the Adirondack Mountains, in a little wooded cemetery just a few miles north of Keene N.Y.. It’s there you would find the resting place of my great-great-great-grandfather, who as a Rhode Island teenager, enlisted with the First Continental Army. He remained a soldier for the entirety of the Revolutionary War despite suffering bayonet wounds at two separate battles and nearly dying of small pox. The battles he fought in were many. He crossed the Delaware, he endured the cold of winter at Valley Forge, and the heat of summer at the Battle of Monmouth, NJ.. Having known two teenage boys, I could reason that the decision of William Edmunds to enlist might have been driven by the desire for adventure, but adventure aside, might there have been a time, even in this young man’s heart and mind, when circumstances made his hopes grow dim? Was he ever overwhelmed with the enormity of the task at hand – even survival- as he sat with other soldiers around a fire keeping warm from the cold of winter at Valley Forge? I would hope that if he were alive today that he would know that the cause was a noble one and worth his sacrifice. It’s with deep gratitude, this July 4th, that I say thank you, Private William Edmunds, for the sacrifices you made, the dreams that you helped to inspire, and the legacy you left behind.