CHAP. VI. convince their judgments that those hardships were not imposed on them by unfeeling caprice, but were necessary for the public good.

General

Washington goes into winter

at

The winter had for some time set in with great severity, and the sufferings of the army were extreme. In a very few days, however, these sufferings were considerably diminished by the erection of huts made of logs and filled in with Valley Forge, mortar, which, after being dried with fires, formed comfortable habitations, and gave content to men long unused to the conveniencies of life. The order of a regular encampment was observed, and nothing evidenced the army to be in winter quarters, but the substitution of huts for tents.

The same care to cut off all communication between the enemy and the country was manifested, and the same means employed to effect that object, which had been used in the most active part of the campaign. One division commanded by general Smallwood, was detached to Wilmington, and directed, with the aid of the militia, to guard that part of the Delaware; colonel Morgan was placed on the lines on the west side of the Schuylkill, to prevent the people of the country from carrying provisions to the market in Philadelphia; and general Armstrong, with the Pennsylvania militia, was stationed near the old camp at White marsh, for the same object. To assist in these duties, major Jameson, with two troops of cavalry, was

directed to guard the east, and captain Lee CHAP. VI. with his troop, the west side of the river. Ge. 1777. neral count Pulaski, a Polish nobleman who had been appointed to command the horse, repaired with the residue of the brigade of cavalry to Trenton, where his duty was to instruct and fit them for the next campaign. The vast importance of cavalry to an army became every day more visible, and the commander in chief determined to make great efforts to render that part of his force more efficient.

While these dispositions were made to render Philadelphia an inconvenient station to the enemy, the main army was so situated as to receive regular and prompt intelligence of any movements which might be made in force, and a bridge was, thrown over the Schuylkill to facilitate its operations on the east side of that river.

The islands above the mouth of Derby creek produce an immense quantity of hay, great part of which still remained on them. While the army lay on the east side of the Schuylkill, this forage seems to have been considered by the enemy as entirely secure. To destroy it, since it was impossible to remove it to a place of safety, and thereby compel the enemy to forage at a distance in the country, was the first object with general Washington after crossing the river; and while the troops were yet hutting he directed general Potter, then on

Dec. 21.

Dec. 22.

CHAP. VI. the west side of the Schuylkill, and colonel 1777. Morgan, to effect it. Very early in the morning after these orders had been given, sir William Howe marched out in full force, and encamped between Derby and the middle ferry, so as completely to cover the islands, while a foraging party took possession of the hay and removed it.

It was intended to disturb this operation, and orders were given to put the army in motion for that purpose, when the alarming fact was disclosed, that the commissary's stores. were entirely exhausted, and that the last ration had been delivered and consumed.

Accustomed as were the Continental troops to privations of every sort, this was not a time to move them against the enemy. In a desert which supplies not the means of subsistence, or in a garrison where food. is unattainable, courage, patriotism, and habits of discipline, enable the soldier, in a degree which astonishes the world, to conquer wants which would be deemed invincible. But to perish in a country abounding with provisions, requires something more than fortitude; nor can soldiers readily comprehend any combination of causes, unless there be some sudden and apparent accident, which in such a situation may withhold from them their usual supplies. It is not, therefore, surprising, that among a few of the troops, some indications of a mutiny appeared. It is

1777.

perhaps much more astonishing, that the great CHAP. VI. body of the army bore without a murmur, this stoppage of their food, to them so unaccountable.

On receiving intelligence of the fact, general Washington immediately ordered the country to be scoured, and provisions to be seized wherever found, to supply the pressing wants of the moment. In the mean-time, only light

parties could be detached to harass the enemy about Derby, where sir William Howe, with his accustomed circumspection, kept his army so compact, and his troops so within the lines, that an opportunity was very seldom afforded, even to the vigilance of Morgan and Lee, in any degree to annoy him; and after completing his forage, he returned, with very inconsiderable loss, into Philadelphia.

That the American army, while the value still retained by paper money placed ample funds in the hands of government, should, in the midst of a state so abounding with provisions as Pennsylvania, be disabled by the absolute want of food, from performing any of its duties, is one of those extraordinary facts, which cannot fail to excite some degree of attention.

Very early in the war, the office of commissary general had been conferred on colonel Trumbull of Connecticut, a gentleman whose talents, activity, and zeal, fitted him well for that important station. Yet, from the difficulty

CHAP. VI. perhaps of arranging in its commencement, 1777. without the advantages of experience, so complicated a department, complaints were repeatedly made of the insufficiency of the supplies. Defects in the It was often alleged that the army was on the department. point of suffering for provisions, that its move

commisary

ments were embarrassed by that cause, and it was, in particular, believed that to the want of salt meat, of vinegar, and of vegetables, was, in a very great degree, to be attributed that uncommon mortality, which, much more than the sword of the enemy, had thinned its ranks.

The subject was taken up by congress, but unfortunately the remedy they administered, from the time of its application, as well as from the ingredients of which it was composed, served only to increase the disease.

They indeed directed vegetables and vinegar to be purchased, but their system was not completed until near midsummer; and then its arrangements were such, that colonel Trumbull refused to accept the office assigned to him, and new men were to be called into service, at a time when the strongest necessity existed for retaining in the department those who understood, in all its modifications, the plan of supplies for the campaign. The principle adopted in the new arrangement, which expelled colonel Trumbull from the service, if an error, is one which an assembly, without that practical knowledge which is drawn from experience,