SIDELIGHTS ON THE PATTERN OF ARMY LIFE.
Except on rare occasions, such as participation in an occasional public celebration might afford, the average soldier found camp life at Morristown hard, unexciting, and often monotonous. Sometimes his whole existence seemed like an endless round of drill, guard duty, and “fatigue” assignments, the latter including such unpleasant chores as burying the “Dead carcases in and about camp.” What little recreation the line troops could find was largely unorganized and incidental. Washington proclaimed a holiday from work on St. Patrick’s Day 1780, which the Pennsylvania Division observed by sharing a hogshead of rum purchased for that purpose by Col. Francis Johnston, its then commander. Regulations prohibited gambling and drunkenness, however, and the prankster who strayed too far from military discipline “paid the piper” if caught. One soldier, convicted by court martial of “Quitting his Post, and riding Gen. Maxwell’s Horse,” received 150 lashes on his bare back. This war was a stern business; men who enlisted as privates in the Continental Army were not supposed to be looking for amusement.
The officers were somewhat more fortunate. Most of the generals obtained furloughs and went home to their families for part of the winter. Others could escape the tedium of camp life occasionally at least. Writes Lt. Erkuries Beatty, in a letter dated March 13, 1780: “I got leave of absence for three Days to go see Aunt Mills and Uncle Read who lives about 12 Miles from here ... that night Cousin Polly and me set off a Slaying with a number more young People and had a pretty Clever Kick-up, the next Day Polly and I went to Uncle Reads who lives about 4 Miles from Aunts, here I found Aunt Read and two great Bouncing female cousins and a house full of smaller ones, here we spent the Day very agreeably Romping with the girls who was exceeding Clever & Sociable.” Almost at the same time, “the lovely Maria and her amiable sister” were entertaining Capt. Samuel Shaw, of the 3d Artillery Regiment, at Mount Hope. “By heavens,” Shaw confidentially informed a fellow officer on February 29, “the more I know of that charming girl, the better I like her; every visit serves to confirm my attachment, and I feel myself gone past recovery.”
Dancing was another popular diversion among the officers that winter. At least two balls were held in Morristown by subscription, one on February 23 and the other on March 3. Lieutenant Beatty mentioned attending “two or three Dances in Morristown,” and also “a Couple of Dances at my Brother John’s Quarters at Battle [Bottle] Hill.” Many of these events were lively affairs patronized by a goodly proportion of the fair sex. Indeed, the energy displayed by “some of the dear creatures in this quarter” nearly exhausted Captain Shaw, who complained that “three nights going till after two o’clock have they made us keep it up.”
But for all such pleasurable excursions, the average Continental officer had adversities with which to deal. Frequently, he shared the greatest hardships of his men, and from day to day worked unremittingly to improve their lot along with his own. Nor must it be forgotten that, unlike a private, an officer was expected to support and clothe himself largely from his pay or private means, and that he paid for recreation out of his own pocket. Sometimes officers were so deficient in clothing that they could not appear upon parade, much less enjoy visits with the ladies. Even Washington, at his headquarters in the Ford Mansion, often lacked necessities for his table, or experienced some other inconvenience. “I have been at my prest. quarters since the 1st day of Decr.,” he observed to General Greene on January 22, 1780, “and have not a Kitchen to Cook a Dinner in, altho’ the Logs have been put together some considerable time by my own Guard; nor is there a place at this moment in which a servant can lodge with the smallest degree of comfort. Eighteen belonging to my family and all Mrs. Fords are crouded together in her Kitchen and scarce one of them able to speak for the colds they have caught.”