In October, 1777, on account of ill health, Mifflin resigned the office of Quartermaster-General as well as that of major-general, to which Congress had elected him in the preceding February. His resignation as Quartermaster-General was accepted, but his rank of majorgeneral was continued without pay until the further pleasure of Congress. Subsequently, November 8, 1777, this body again requested him to take the office of Quartermaster-General, though he does not seem to have accepted. March 2, 1778, Congress named Gen. Nathaniel Greene, Quartermaster-General, and authorized him to select two assistants and to appoint all the agents of the department. Under the organization which prevailed up to 1780, it will be observed that all the purchasing agents of the departments were citizens without military rank; they had no fixed salary, but were allowed to indemnify themselves by a commission or percentage of the funds they disbursed. The temptation thus offered to corruption was constantly increased by the fluctuations of the currency. As early as September, 1778, oats sold in Boston at $4 a bushel, and hay at $80 a ton. In October, 1778, Quartermaster-General Greene, in a letter to Washington, estimated the cost of each team per day at $14, and the cost of transporting a barrel of flour at $6 for every 10 miles. The advance in provisions and clothing was scarcely less ruinous. In 1780 the cost of a hat was $400, a suit of clothes $1,600, while the year's pay of a captain would not buy a pair of shoes. As a result of increasing prices and commissions, charges of corrup tion against Government agents soon became universal. Under such a system all efforts to protect the national treasury were vain. With no other power than to lessen its own authority and increase the general confusion, Congress at last passed a resolution in July, 1779, earnestly requesting the executive powers of each State to make the strictest inquiry into the conduct of every person within such State respectively employed, either in the QuartermasterGeneral's or purchasing or issuing Commissary-General's Departments. The State authorities were further empowered to remove or suspend persons or agents "in case of any kind of misbehavior or strong suspicion thereof," and also to discharge and appoint in the above departments such persons as they might "judge necessary." The above resolution was the first step toward the reorganization of the Quartermaster's Department, which took place in July, 1780. The new system was adopted in opposition to the report of a Congressional committee which had perfected a plan after full consultation with Washington and Greene. It established no check to corruption, but rather increased it by recognizing the paramount authority of the States, under the Confederation, in every matter pertaining to the supply of men and means for the prosecution of the war. The new organization consisted of a Quartermaster-General and an Assistant Quartermaster-General, appointed by Congress, one Deputy Quartermaster for the main Army and one for each separate army, to be appointed by the Quartermaster-General. The latter officer was further authorized to name a deputy for each State, subject to the approval of the chief executive of the State, and the deputy in his turn was to select such storekeepers, clerks, contractors, artificers, and laborers as might be necessary within his jurisdiction. Greene was so much opposed to the new organization that he resigned his position in August, and on the 5th of this month Congress elected Colonel Pickering to succeed him. This officer, who still remained a member of the board of war, discharged the duties of the office until the end of the Revolution. From this time forward Congress lost all control of national expenditures, which were now made to depend on the honesty and economy of the agents of the States. Grave as were the defects of the army supply system devised by Congress, they were small in comparison with the difficulties imposed upon the departments by a depreciated currency. So long as the Continental paper money remained at par, provisions and forage were not wanting, but as soon as depreciation set in the supplies of all kinds were gradually cut off. A consideration of the various expedients adopted during the Revolution to prevent the dissolution of the army from cold and hunger brings before us a vivid picture of those evil days. Let us not forget that the maintenance of the same general system of military policy may expose us hereafter to similar ills, and that during the rebellion, in the brief space of four years, it forced upon us a debt of almost three thousand million dollars. When Congress saw that its credit was declining through the too free emission of an irredeemable paper currency it sought to replenish the Treasury by taxes levied by the States, and when these were not forthcoming, either in money or in kind, its next alternative was to make requisition upon the States for the supplies actually needed. The responsibility was thus shifted upon the States, whose credit with the people was but little better than that of Congress. When both the Continental and State currencies failed to induce our citizens to part with their property, the next measure was forcible impressment, sanctioned by resolution of Congress and State laws. In the first grant of dictatorial powers to Washington he was authorized, in the language of the resolution to take, wherever he may be, whatever he may want for the use of the Army, if the inhabitants will not sell it, allowing a reasonable price for the same. He was further empowered to arrest and confine any person who refused to take the Continental currency or was disaffected to the American cause. In the second grant he was authorized within a circumference of 70 miles from his headqarters to take wherever he may be, all such provisions and other articles as may be neces sary for the comfortable subsistence of the army under his command, paying or giving certificates for the same. The injustice of the impressment laws was their least objectionable feature. They legalized violence, and, worse still, tended to expose unprotected citizens to cruelty and outrage. The correspondence between Washington and Greene, in 1780, shows the influence of these laws in relaxing the bonds of discipline and forcing officers to resort to illegal and summary punishment as the only means of protecting the life and property of our citizens. On the 26th of August Greene, who commanded a detachment sent to cover a foraging party near the enemy's lines, wrote as follows: There have been committed some of the most horrid acts of plunder by some of the Pennsylvania line that have disgraced the American arms during the war. The instances of plunder and violence are equal to anything committed by the Hessians Two soldiers were taken that were out upon the business, both of which fired upon the inhabitants to prevent their giving intelligence. I think it would be a good effect to hang one of these fellows in the face of the troops, without the form of a trial. It is absolutely necessary to give a check to the licentious spirit, which increases amazingly. The impudence of the soldiers is intolerable. A party plundered a house yesterday in sight of a number of officers, and even threatened the officers if they offered to interfere. It is the opinion of most of the officers that it is absolutely necessary for the good of the service that one of these fellows should be made an example of, and if your Excellency will give permission, I will have one hung up this afternoon when the army are ready to march by. There is also a deserter, taken three-quarters of the way over to New York, belonging to the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment, which the officers not only of the regiment, but several others, wish may be executed in the same way that I propose to execute the other in. Several deserters are gone off yesterday and last evening. * * * I wish Your Excellency's answer respecting the two culprits, as we shall march at five this evening, a In a postscript he adds: More complaints have this moment come in, of a more shocking nature than those related. Washington's reply was as follows: I am this moment favored with your letter of this day. I need scarcely inform you of the extreme pain and anxiety which the licentiousness of some of the soldiery has given me. Something must and shall be done, if possible, to put an effectual check to it. I entirely approve of the prompt punishment which you propose to have inflicted on the culprits in question. You will, therefore, please to order one of the soldiers detected in plundering, and also the deserters you mention, to be immediately executed. * * * * * The summary execution of American soldiers without trial, by order of the "Father of his Country," the plundering of our citizens, and the seizure of their property without payment were only a few of the evils springing from unwise legislation. Toward the close of the war one or more of the States, regardless of the general welfare, made the seizure of supplies for the army a penal offense. WASHINGTON'S CRITICISM OF OUR MILITARY POLICY. The opinions held by Washington as to our military policy, after an experience of five years, are thus stated in a letter to the President of Congress, dated the 20th of August: Had we formed a permanent army in the beginning, which, by the continuance of the same men in service, had been capable of discipline, we never should have had to retreat with a handful.of men across the Delaware in 1776, trembling for the fate of America, which nothing but the infatuation of the enemy could have saved; we should not have remained all the succeeding winter at their mercy, with sometimes scarcely a sufficient body of men to mount the ordinary guards, liable at every moment to be dissipated, if they had only thought proper to march against us; we should not have been under the necessity of fighting Brandywine, with an unequal number of raw troops, and afterwards of seeing Philadelphia fall a prey to a victo rious army; we should not have been at Valley Forge with less than half the force of the enemy, destitute of everything, in a situation neither to resist nor to retire; we should not have seen New York left with a handful of men, yet an overmatch for the main army of these States, while the principal part of their force was detached for the reduction of two of them; we should not have found ourselves this spring so weak as to be insulted by 5,000 men, unable to protect our baggage and magazines, their security depending on a good countenance and a want of enterprise a Greene's life of General N. Greene, vol. 2, pp. 207, 208. in the enemy; we should not have been the greatest part of the war inferior to the enemy, indebted for our safety to their inactivity, enduring frequently the mortification of seeing inviting opportunities to ruin them pass unimproved for want of a force which the country was completely able to afford, and of seeing the country ravaged, our towns burnt, the inhabitants plundered, abused, murdered, with impunity from the same cause. Nor have the ill effects been confined to the military line. A great part of the embarrassments in the civil departments flow from the same source. The derange ment of our finances is essentially to be ascribed to it. The expenses of the war and the paper emissions have been greatly multiplied by it. We have had a great part of the time two sets of men to feed and pay-the discharged men going home and the levies coming in. This was more remarkably the case in 1775 and 1776. The difficulty and cost of engaging men have increased at every successive attempt, till among the present lines we find there are some who have received $150 in specie for five months' service, while our officers are reduced to the disagreeable necessity of performing the duties of drill sergeants to them, with this mortifying reflection annexed to the business, that by the time they have taught these men the rudiments of a soldier's duty their services will have expired and the work recommenced with a new set. The consumption of provisions, arms, accouterments, and stores of every kind has been doubled in spite of every precaution I could use, not only from the cause just mentioned, but from the carelessness and licentiousness incident to militia and irregular troops. Our discipline also has been much hurt, if not ruined, by such constant changes. The frequent calls upon the militia have interrupted the cultivation of the land, and of course have lessened the quantity of its produce, occasioned a scarcity, and enhanced the prices. In an army so unstable as ours order and economy have been impracticable. No person who has been a close observer of the progress of our affairs can doubt that our currency has depreciated without comparison more rapidly from the system of short enlistments than it would have done otherwise. There is every reason to believe that the war has been protracted on this account. Our opposition being less, the successes of the enemy have been greater. The fluctuation of the army kept alive their hopes, and at every period of the dissolution of a considerable part of it they have flattered themselves with some decisive advantages. Had we kept a permanent army on foot the enemy could have had nothing to hope for, and would in all probability have listened to terms long since." Further confirmed in his convictions by the defeat of General Gates, he wrote to the President of Congress on the 15th of September: I am happy to find that the last disaster in Carolina has not been so great as its first features indicated. This event, however, adds itself to many others to exemplify the necessity of an army and the fatal consequences of depending on militia. Regular troops alone are equal to the exigencies of modern war, as well for defense as offense, and whenever a substitute is attempted it must prove illusory and ruinous. No militia will ever acquire the habits necessary to resist a regular force. Even those nearest to the seat of war are only valuable as light troops to be scattered in the woods and harass rather than do serious injury to the enemy. The firmness requisite for the real business of fighting is only to be attained by a constant course of discipline and service. I have never yet been witness to a single instance that can justify a different opinion, and it is most earnestly to be wished that the liberties of America may no longer be trusted, in any material degree, to so precarious a dependence. I can not but remark that it gives me pain to find the measures pursuing at the southward still turn upon accumulating large bodies of militia, instead of once for all making a decided effort to have a permanent force. In my ideas of the true system of war at the southward, the object ought to be to have a good army rather than a large one. a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 7, pp. 162, 164. CHAPTER VII CAMPAIGN OF 1781. Be the dangers of standing armies what they may, with the opening year came ample proof of the correctness of Washington's statement, that "It is our policy to be prejudiced against them in time of war." MUTINY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. The growing discontent of troops without pay, without clothing, and often without food, culminated, on the 1st of January, in a revolt of the Pennsylvania Line. Despite the efforts of their officers, several of whom were killed and wounded in the attempt to restore order, the mutineers, under the command of their sergeants, marched toward Philadelphia with the intention of demanding redress from the Gov ernment. Fearing that the defection might extend to the rest of the Army, Congress sent a committee, preceded by the governor of Pennsylvania, to make the following propositions to the mutineers: To discharge all those who had enlisted indefinitely for three years or during the war, the fact to be inquired into by three commissioners to be appointed by the executive and to be ascertained, where the original enlistment could not be produced, by the oath of the soldier. To give immediate certificates for the depreciation on their pay and to settle arrearages as soon as circumstances would admit. furnish them immediately with certain specified articles of clothing which were greatly wanted.a To These terms which involved the complete surrender of the civil power, not to the Army, but to a band of mutineers, were accepted with the further stipulation that the enlisted men of the Pennsylvania Line should depute three additional commissioners to act with the others in determining what soldiers should be discharged. General Wayne, who commanded the troops at the time of the revolt, wrote as follows in regard to this settlement: But I could wish that the Commissioners had given time for the officers to produce the attestations before they made the oath so common. The papers were collected the soonest possible; the enlistments were generally and expressly for the war. the birds were flown. I will not say that it was not in some degree an act of expediency, in order to get the artillery, spare ammunition, and part of the small arms out of their hands. These I have taken the precaution to forward by water to Philadelphia.b As a consequence of the mutiny, the six regiments composing the quota of Pennsylvania, under the latest resolution of Congress, were a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 7, p. 359. |