INSTABILITY OF THE ARMY.
However the troops were sheltered, it was not long before the army which had fought at Trenton and Princeton began to melt away. Deplorable health conditions, lack of proper clothing, insufficient pay to meet rising living costs, and many other instances of neglect had discouraged the soldiery all through the 1776 campaign. The volunteer militiamen were particularly dissatisfied. Some troops were just plain homesick, and nearly all had already served beyond their original or emergency terms of enlistment. They had little desire for another round of hard military life.
Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene.
Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne.
Washington described his situation along this line in a letter of January 19 addressed to the President of Congress: “The fluctuating state of an Army, composed Chiefly of Militia, bids fair to reduce us to the Situation in which we were some little time ago, that is, of scarce having any Army at all, except Reinforcements speedily arrive. One of the Battalions from the City of Philadelphia goes home to day, and the other two only remain a few days longer upon Courtesy. The time, for which a County Brigade under Genl. Mifflin came out, is expired, and they stay from day to day, by dint of Solicitation. Their Numbers much reduced by desertions. We have about Eight hundred of the Eastern Continental Troops remaining, of twelve or fourteen hundred who at first agreed to stay, part engaged to the last of this Month and part to the middle of next. The five Virginia Regts. are reduced to a handful of Men, as is Col Hand’s, Smallwood’s, and the German Battalion. A few days ago, Genl Warner arrived, with about seven hundred Massachusetts Militia engaged to the 15th [of] March. Thus, you have a Sketch of our present Army, with which we are obliged to keep up Appearances, before an Enemy already double to us in Numbers.”
FOOD AND CLOTHING SHORTAGES.
Meanwhile, as the Commander in Chief noted in another letter of nearly the same date, his few remaining troops were “absolutely perishing” for want of clothing, “Marching over Frost and Snow, many without a Shoe, Stocking or Blanket.” Nor, due to certain inefficiencies in the supply services, was the food situation any better. “The Cry of want of Provisions come to me from every Quarter,” Washington stormed angrily on February 22 to Matthew Irwin, a Deputy Commissary of Issues: “Gen. Maxwell writes word that his People are starving; Gen. Johnston, of Maryland, yesterday inform’d me, that his People could draw none; this difficulty I understand prevails also at Chatham! What Sir is the meaning of this? and why were you so desirous of excluding others from this business when you are unable to accomplish it yourself? Consider, I beseech you, the consequences of this neglect, and exert yourself to remove the Evil.” Even in May, near the end of the 1777 encampment, there was an acute shortage of food.