Death of a friend:
When the Americans withdrew across the river by boat–see Escape–Joseph Plumb Martin was one of the soldiers assigned to be the rear guard. As he remembered it, he was part of a group of 70 or 80 men assigned to destroy and burn all that was left of the place. He describes his efforts to locate a friend:
After the troops had left the fort and were embarking at the wharf, I went to the waterside to find one of my messmates to whom I had lent my canteen in the morning; as there were three or four hogsheads of rum in the fort, the heads of which we were about to knock in, and I was desirous to save a trifle of their contents; there being nothing to eat I thought I might have something to drink. I found him, indeed, but lying in a long line of dead men who had been brought out of the fort to be conveyed to the main, to have the last honours conferred upon them which it was in our power to give. Poor young man! he was the most intimate associate I had in the army, but he was gone, with many more as deserving of regard as himself.[1]
We do not know even the name of his friend. Martin was yet to turn 17 at the time of the battle, and his friend, described as a young man, was probably no older.
See Escape, Fort Mifflin Timeline.
[1] Martin, J.P., The Adventures of a Revolutionary Soldier , pg. 68 (1830), https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventures_Of_A_Revolutionary_Soldier