CHAP. VI. ready at any sudden call; yet scarcely any op1777. portunity has ever offered of taking advantage

the American

army for clothes.

of the enemy, that has not been either totally obstructed, or greatly impeded on this account: and this, the great and crying evil, is not all; soap, vinegar, and other articles allowed by congress, we see none of, nor have we seen them, I believe, since the battle of Brandywine. The first, indeed, we have now little occasion for; few men having more than one Distress of shirt, many, only the moiety of one, and some, none at all. In addition to which, as a proof of the little benefit from a clothier general, and, at the same time, as a further proof of the inability of an army under the circumstances of this, to perform the common duties of soldiers (besides a number of men confined to hospitals for want of shoes, and others in farmers houses on the same account) we have, by a field return this day made, no less than two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men, now in camp, unfit for duty, because they are bare. foot, and otherwise naked. By the same return, it appears that our whole strength in continental troops (including the eastern brigades which have joined us since the surrender of general Burgoyne) exclusive of the Maryland troops sent to Wilmington, amounts to no more than eight thousand two hundred in camp, fit for duty; notwithstanding which, and that since the fourth instant, our number fit

for duty, from the hardships and exposures CHAP. VI. they have undergone, particularly from the 1777. want of blankets, have decreased near two thousand men, we find gentlemen, without knowing whether the army was really going into winter quarters or not, (for I am sure no resolution of mine would warrant the remonstrance) reprobating the measure as much as if they thought the soldiers were made of stocks, or stones, and equally insensible of frost and snow; and moreover, .as if they conceived it easily practicable for an inferior army, under the disadvantages I have described ours to be, which is by no means exaggerated, to confine a superior one, in all respects well appointed, and provided for a winter's campaign, within the city of Philadelphia, and to cover from depredation and waste, the states of Pennsylvania, Jersey, &c. But what makes this matter still more extraordinary in my eye is, that these very gentlemen, who were well apprized of the nakedness of the troops, from ocular demonstration, who thought their own soldiers worse clad than others, and advised me, near a month ago, to postpone the execution of a plan I was about to adopt, in consequence of a resolve of congress, for seizing clothes, under strong assurances, that an ample supply would be collected in ten days, agreeably to a decree of the state, not one article of which, by the by, is yet come to hand, should

CHAP. VI think a winter's campaign, and the covering 1777. these states from the invasion of an enemy, so easy and practicable a business. I can assure those gentlemen, that it is a much easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room, by a good fire side, than to occupy a cold bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow without clothes or blankets: however, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked and distressed soldiers, I fell superabundantly for them, and from my soul, pity those miseries which it is not in my power either to relieve or to prevent."

feel

i

The statement made by the general, in the letter just recited, of the want of clothes and blankets, was by no means highly coloured. Neither the bodies nor the feet of his soldiers, were protected from the frosts and cold of the inclement season into which the campaign had been extended. After being exposed through the day to the rigours of winter, night afforded no relief. A warm blanket was a luxury in which very few participated.

The situation of the army in this respect did not arise from the inattention, or neglect of congress. Measures had been very early taken for the importation of clothes, but, from the variety of accidents to which they were exposed and the great difficulties attending their execution, they had not yet produced the effect which had been expected from them. A clothier

general had also been appointed with deputies CHAP. VI. in the several states, but his collections had 1777. been very inconsiderable. The state governments had been earnestly applied to for an immediate supply, and extensive powers over individual property had been given to the commander in chief; but the exercise of these powers was beyond measure odious, and the subject on which they could act, had been greatly diminished by the unfortunate non-importation agreements which preceded the war; by the immense difficulties attending commerce since its commencement; by the loss of several of the great seaport towns, which were in possession of the enemy; and by the individual consumption of such articles as were in the country...a consumption far exceeding the supply as yet drawn from domestic manufactures.

In the eastern country, where the seacoast was too extensive to be completely guarded, and where the people were more inclined to maritime enterprise, supplies both of arms and clothes were attainable in a much more considerable degree than in the middle states. Their respective governments were not entirely inattentive to the wants of their troops, consequently, the men from New England, though by no means properly clad, did not suffer to the same degree with those from states less fortunately circumstanced. But from the large

CHAP. VI. sums of money expended in that country for 1777. the support of the army, and perhaps in consequence of their more successful commercial operations, depreciation had been much more rapid in New England than in the southern, or even in the middle states, and a consequent high nominal value was placed on imported articles. Whether the real course of depreciation justified the prices at which merchants held their goods, or an augmentation of price had been occasioned by a knowledge of the distresses of the army, congress deemed the terms on which some large contracts had been made by the deputy clothier general, in Massachussetts, so exorbitant, as to forbid their execution. They at the same time addressed a letter to the state government, requesting that the goods should be seized for the use of the army, at prices to be fixed by the state legislature, in pursuance of a resolution of the 22d of November, recommending that mea 'sure.

These recommendations from congress, so far as they exhorted the stores to supply the wants of the soldiers, were strongly supported by the remonstrances of the general. In his letters to the several governors of states, he represented the existence of the army, and the continuance of the contest, as depending on their exertions in this respect. In a circular letter, he says, "no pains, no efforts on the part of the states can be too great for this pur

very