mined to vie in deeds of courage with their veteran comrades. Nor did they shrink from this daring resolve. In every vicissitude of the battle this regiment maintained its ground, and when the reserve under Smallwood, covering our left, relieved its naked flank, forced the enemy to fall back. Colonel Dixon had seen service, having commanded a Continental regiment under Washington. By his precepts and example he infused his own spirit into the breasts of his troops, who, emulating the noble ardor of their leader, demonstrated the wisdom of selecting experienced officers to command raw soldiers.a Years after the Revolution, in alluding to this same regiment, the former commander of the famous Partisan Legion plainly expressed his opinion of our military policy: Here was a splendid instance of self-possession by a single regiment out of two brigades. Dixon had commanded a Continental regiment and, of course, to his example and knowledge much is to be ascribed, yet praise is nevertheless due to the troops. While I record with delight facts which maintain our native and national courage, I feel a horror lest demagogues who flourish in a representative system of government (the best, when virtue rules, the wit of man can devise) shall avail themselves of the occasional testimony to produce a great result. Convinced as I am that a government is the murderer of its citizens which sends them to the field uninformed and untaught, where they are to meet men of the same age and strength, mechanized by education and discipline for battle, I can not withhold my denunciation of its wickedness and folly. b To return to military operations at the North, the situation was materially changed in July by the advent of a French force under Rochambeau. After getting back to New York, Clinton had planned an attack upon the French at Newport, but this was given up on account of a disagreement with the English admiral and of a demonstration against New York made by Washington. No other operations of moment took place during the campaign. Two events favorable to the American cause occurred during the yearthe joining by Spain of the French alliance, and the declaration of war against Great Britain by Holland. On the 1st of May, 1780, there were at New York 15,162 British and German troops and 2,162 Provincials; in South Carolina, 10,059 British and Germans, and 2,758 Provincials, making a total of 30,171 The following table gives the quotas assigned to the different States and the number of troops furnished by each: men. 1 1,777 3,687 1,267 3, 337 2,065 2,486 26, 826 a Lee's Memoirs, p. 97. Lee's Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 186. Conjectural estimate of militia in addition to the above.a [Total conjectural estimate of militia, 16,000. Grand total, 42,826. These errors in addition are here corrected.] We see from the table that the men actually sent to the Continental Army fell short of the quotas required by nearly one-half; that the militia, mostly employed in the South, outnumbered the Continentals; and that the total of troops furnished exceeded that of the previous year by a little over a thousand. BOUNTY. In 1780 the same causes tended to retard enlistments and to stimulate bounties as in former years. The enormous depreciation of the currency also contributed to the apparent increase of the bounty, which in New Jersey reached the large sum of $1,000 in excess of all Continental allowances and bounties. This depreciation caused the greatest distress among the officers, and impelled Washington to repeatedly urge that they be offered half-pay for life to induce them. to remain in service till the end of the war. Congress finally adopted this recommendation on the 21st of October. · REDUCTION OF THE ARMY. On the 3d of October it was resolved that after the 1st of January, 1781, the Army should consist of: Four regiments of cavalry, each of 6 troops of 64 noncommissioned officers and privates. Four regiments of artillery, with 9 companies of 65 noncommissioned officers and privates. Forty-nine regiments of infantry, with 9 companies of 64 noncommissioned officers and privates. One regiment of artificers, with 8 companies of 60 noncommissioned officers and privates. The officers of each company consisted of a captain and 2 lieutenants. The quotas were assigned as follows: New Hampshire: Two regiments of infantry. Massachusetts: Ten regiments of infantry and 1 of artillery. Rhode Island: One regiment of infantry. Connecticut: Five regiments of infantry and 1 of cavalry. New York: Two regiments of infantry and 1 of artillery. New Jersey: Two regiments of infantry. Pennsylvania: Six regiments of infantry and 1 of artillery. Delaware: One regiment of infantry. Virginia: Eight regiments of infantry, 2 of cavalry, and 1 of artillery. North Carolina: Four regiments of infantry. South Carolina: Two regiments of infantry. Georgia: One regiment of infantry. a Exact returns of militia not rendered. See Report of General Knox, Secretary of War, American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. I. Referring to the reduction of the Army, Washington, on the 11th of October, wrote to the President of Congress: I must confess, also, that it would have given me infinite pleasure if Congress had thought proper to take the reduction and incorporation of the regiments under their own direction. The mode of leaving it to the States is contrary to my sentiments, because it is an adherence to the State system, and because I fear it will be productive of great confusion and discontent; and it is requisite the business in contemplation should be conducted with the greatest circumspection. I fear also the professing to select the officers retained in service will give disgust both to those who go and to those who remain. The former will be sent away under the public stigma of inferior merit, and the latter will feel no pleasure in a present preference when they reflect that at some future period they may experience a similar fate. I barely mention this, as I am persuaded Congress did not advert to the operation of the expressions made use of, and will readily alter them." In making the reduction, Congress provided that the officers made supernumerary, as well as those who remained in service, should receive half-pay for life. DETACHED SERVICE. In the same letter, Washington refers to detached service, an evil from which our Army has suffered since its foundation to the present time. Speaking of the organization of the regiments and of the number of officers needed in each, he writes: I would therefore beg leave to propose that each regiment of infantry should consist of 1 colonel, where the present colonels are continued, or 1 lieutenant-colonel commandant, 2 majors (a first and second), 9 captains, 22 subalterns, 1 surgeon, 1 mate, 1 sergeant-major, 1 quartermaster-sergeant, 45 sergeants, 1 drum major, 1 fife major, 10 drums, 10 fifes, 612 rank and file. Fifty regiments, at 612 rank and file each, will amount to 30,600 rank and file, the force I have stated to be requisite. The number of officers to a regiment by our present establishment has been found insufficient. It is not only inconvenient and productive of irregularities in our formation and maneuvers, but the number taken for the different offices of the staff leaves the regiments defective in field officers, and the companies so unprovided that they are obliged to be intrusted to the care of sergeants and corporals, which soon ruins them. To obviate this, I ask three field officers to a regiment besides a captain and two subalterns, to do the duty of each company, three supernumerary as paymaster, adjutant, and quartermaster, and one to reside in the State as a recruiting officer. * These field officers will be thought necessary when we consider the great proportion employed as adjutant-general, inspectors, brigade majors, wagon master, superintendent of hospitals; in addition to whom I would also propose a field officer to reside in each State, where the number of its regiments exceeds two, and a captain where it does not, to direct the recruiting service and transact with the State all business for the line to which he belongs, which I think would be a very useful institution. * * The provision of an extra field officer to conduct the recruiting service and to transact all business with the State was an approach to the depot system now adopted throughout Europe. To lessen the evil of detaching enlisted men, a resolution was passed in March, 1779, organizing a wagoners' corps, similar in its object to the "military trains" of Europe. This resolution was repealed in April, the commander in chief being authorized to enlist for nine months, or for the next campaign, all the wagoners he might deem necessary. DEPRECIATION OF THE CURRENCY. The military policy during the Revolutionary period was so strongly influenced by the depreciation of the currency that a brief statement of its progress would seem necessary. a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 7, pp. 254, 255. The Continental Congress, without power to raise a dollar by taxation and only able to pledge the public faith for the redemption of its currency, began to emit bills of credit a year before the Declaration of Independence. In June, 1775, it issued $2,000,000; in July a third million, followed by three more in November. Three more issues of five millions each took place in February, May, and July, 1776. The waste, incident to the employment of large bodies of raw troops now began. At the end of 1778 the issues amounted to a hundred millions; in September of 1779 they reached one hundred and sixty millions, and finally overran by a million dollars the two hundred millions which Congress in a pledge to the people had fixed as the limit. After nine millions had been issued, the depreciation was scarcely discernible, but with each subsequent issue, and each reverse to our arms, it steadily increased. In January, 1777, paper currency, as compared with specic, stood one and a quarter for one; in January, 1778, four to one; in January. 1779, seven, eight, and nine to one. From this time till November it advanced to twelve, twenty, thirty, forty, and forty-five for one. April, May, June, and July, 1780, it ranged at sixty, reached one hundred in November, and finally, in May, 1781, ceased entirely to circulate. When this fatal result could no longer be averted, Congress, in March, 1780, tried to set on foot a new scheme of finance, and with five millions of specie sought to redeem, at the rate of forty for one, the two hundred millions of currency which represented the labor and privations of a patriotic people during five years of war. SUPPLY DEPARTMENT. The same confusion of ideas which prevailed in the organization of the line of the Army during the Revolution appears in the legislation pertaining to the supply department. Taking the Quartermaster's Department as an illustration, the Journals of Congress show that the first resolution, on the 16th of June, 1775, looked no further than to the appointment of "one Quartermaster-General for the grand army and one for the separate army.' July 19, by a resolution passed, in all probability after the receipt of a letter from General Washington in regard to this subject, the appointment of the Quartermaster-General, Commissary of Musters, and the necessary officers, was left to his discretion. Under this authority he appointed Major Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, QuartermasterGeneral, and later in the year (December 22) Congress gave him the rank of colonel. In May, 1776, Colonel Mifflin resigned the office of QuartermasterGeneral, having been elected by Congress a brigadier-general of the Army, and on the 5th of June Stephen Moylan was chosen by that body to succeed him. Colonel Moylan having tendered his resignation, Congress by resolution of October 1, 1776, requested General Mifflin to resume the duties of the office, with the continuance of his rank and pay as a brigadier-general. December 26, Washington was authorized to appoint a clothiergeneral, whose duties were entirely distinct from the Quartermaster's Department. 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 sus picion 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. |