Mutiny was not a new concept for George Washington.
During his service in the French and Indian War he had tried men under his command for the offense and he knew that disaffection and lack of morale in an army was a greater danger than an armed enemy.
During the Revolutionary war, the Patriots among the colonists were often taunted :
“They would speak to the colonists and say ‘why are you revolting?’ You’re trading in one King George for another,” or “Revolutions always make for a dictatorship, they would say.”
But Washington was a great leader and speaker, able keep command of his army in the direst of situation.
While the threat of mutiny was imminent, Washington was often able to prevent discord and save the republic.
Even before the nation was founded in 1776, debt existed, but paying for the American Revolutionary War was almost impossible.
After the Seven Years’ War , The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ratified Britain’s undisputed control of the seas and shipping trade, as well as its sovereignty over much of the North American continent east of the Mississippi River (including French Canada).
Given Britain’s exertions on the North American continent for the sake of colonial security, both ministers and members of Parliament determined that the colonies were obligated to share the costs of empire.
But the war exposed the weakness of British administrative control in the colonies on various fronts.
British merchants, in the throes of the Industrial Revolution, responded by extending credit to their American customers.
Accordingly, extended consumer debt became a common phenomenon in the colonies and only grew until the revolt of the colonies.
The American ranks grew frustrated, as the country’s debt mounted, inflated currency became worthless, and soldiers’ pay simply stopped.
In 1777, the British Army successfully captured Philadelphia, the seat of the Second Continental Congress, which was forced to relocate to York, Pennsylvania.
The series of military setbacks (principally the losses at Brandywine in September and Germantown in October) caused many in the Continental Army and Congress to question George Washington’s leadership of the war effort which lead to the Conway Cabal.
The plot of the Conway Cabal would basically install Gen. Horatio “Granny” Gates as strongman American Cromwell type to challenge the authority of the Confederation Congress, arising from their frustration with Congress’s long-standing inability to meet obligations to the military.
The cabal failed, but even if it hadn’t, Gates would not be able to have received the pay and provisions, because America’s coffers were essentially empty.
To manage the new country’s money, the Department of Finance was created in 1781.
The next year, Government debt was reported to the public for the first time.
By 1783, the U.S. debt totaled $43 million.
That year, Congress was given the power to raise taxes to cover the Government’s costs. However, even then the taxes did not bring in enough money.
Congress stood by Washington, but needless to say it did not leave he and Gates on the best of Terms.
By 1781, the final battles of the American Revolution would be fought, though mutiny broke out within the American camps of the Pennsylvania Line. – mutiny of the New Jersey line followed.
After Gates lost his command, Continental Congress in its infinite wisdom sent Conway Cabal stained Gates to Newburgh, where he will be second only to Gen George Washington in October 1782.
Washington and Gates hold a hush-hush conference. There is no record of what was discussed, but most likely, it went like this :
Washington says to Gates, look I’m in charge you’re number two. You are in charge of the camp; I’m in charge of the Continental Army.
But is this a time to trust Granny Gates, you can bet it probably wasn’t.
Time passes, British losses have mounted, so General Cornwallis occupied the town of Yorktown in order to establish a defensible deep-water port.
General George Washington is moves the Continental Army to Newburgh, New York, to establish winter quarters and monitor British-occupied New York City.
Some 7,500 soldiers and 500 women and children civilian refugees encamped and by late December 1782, they had erected nearly 600 log huts into a “cantonment,” a military enclave.
The French took the positions on the left while the Americans took the position of honor on the right.
September 28, 1781, Washington led the army out of Williamsburg to surround Yorktown.
The Americans and the French spent the night of the 28th sleeping out in the open, while work parties built bridges over the marsh. Some of the American soldiers hunted down wild hogs to eat.
On September 29, Washington moved the army closer to Yorktown and British gunners opened fire on the infantry.
Throughout the day, several British cannon fired on the Americans but there were few casualties.
Trapped behind hastily constructed redoubts, without cannon heavy enough to match the French big guns, Cornwallis’s army crumbled under night and day bombardment.
On October 1, the allies learned from British deserters that, to preserve their food, the British had slaughtered hundreds of horses and thrown them on the beach.
On October 14, two key redoubts were carried, in a night assault.
Three days later, on the morning of October 17, a drummer appeared, followed by an officer waving a white handkerchief.
Cornwallis surrendered.
As his men marched out to stack their guns, their bands played
“The World Turned Upside Down.” In London, when Prime Minister Lord North heard the news, he cried: “Oh God, it is all over.” ….. So it was.
The articles of capitulation were signed on October 19, 1781.
After the euphoria of victory over the British at Yorktown ended, many of the Continental soldiers grew disillusioned with the new American government, as they had not been paid in years, but it wasn’t just because the soldiers lacked resolve to overturn British rule or had a lack of faith in their commanders.
It was the scarcity of food—during winter months it was not uncommon for soldiers to subsist on a soup of melted snow, a few peas, and a scrap of fat—money, clothing, and proper shelter, that forced soldiers to desert or organize resistance.
Formerly, in 1780, Congress promised Continental officers a lifetime pension of half their pay when they were discharged.
As the British threat receded following the war’s last major engagement, the States became even more reluctant to fulfill Congress’s requisitions for the Army.
The soldiers knew it -many at Newburgh , feeling unheard and disregarded, further feared Congress would never meet its obligations.
By early 1782 financier Robert Morris had stopped army pay as a “cost-saving measure”, arguing – when the war finally ended the arrears would be made up.
As the good author says, there is nothing new under the sun.
The men were restless, anxious to go home, and increasingly angry about delays in pay and lack of provisions.
The following year, a group of nationalists led by the Superintendent of Finance of the United States, Robert Morris, his assistant Gouverneur Morris, and Washington’s former aide-de-camp Alexander Hamilton, supported an amendment to the Articles of Confederation which would allow Congress to raise revenue through taxes, to support the army and pay its foreign loans.
However, the State legislatures rejected the impost amendment.
Without the power to tax, under the Articles of Confederation ,Congress relied on irregular, voluntary payments from the States -known as requisitions to raise revenue.
Officers and soldiers alike, were not being paid regularly, and often forced to requisition supplies from citizens, which felt dishonorable, as opposed to States.
The states’ slipshod record of compliance forced Congress to struggle to support the army, throughout the war.
Salted and dried foods were necessary because there were no other practical means of food preservation.
Often soldiers boiled their dried beans or peas with the meat to make a makeshift stew and many soldiers resorted to soaking their hardtack in warm water or stew to soften it.
While it was the intent of the Continental Congress to provide ample rations for soldiers, good intentions were not enough to keep the army fed.
Soldiers were lucky to receive even half their rations, and this did not provide them with a balanced diet- vegetables were often in short supply.
Vinegar was later added to the rations to prevent scurvy, but again, it often was not available.
Transportation of supplies was the most serious problem, not only for the Continental Army, but more significantly for the British Army.
Soldiers often relied on local purchases, food donations, and food sent by their families. Although , they also hunted game and gathered wild herbs along the way.
General George Washington authorized local farmers to sell their products at camp markets, but most soldiers had little money to buy food. Justifying their actions by necessity of war, soldiers learned to “liberate” provisions
With the end of the war and dissolution of the Continental Army approaching, soldiers , who’ve long been unpaid, feared that the Confederation Congress would not meet previous promises – Ever.
With mutinies threat being ever present George Washington to writes to a friend, ” The patience of this long suffering army is almost exhausted.” -October 1782,
The debt continued to grow and supplies dwindling where they formally existed.
Any further experiments on the army’s patience triggers action -fatal effects from the young Republic that was struggling in 1782.
Mutiny has always been a threat to the integrity of armies, particularly under trying circumstances, and since Concord and Lexington, mutiny had been the Continental Army’s constant traveling companion.
Even though American victory at Yorktown virtually ended combat, the Continentals needed to remain vigilant, in case the British still occupying some areas, changed their minds and loaded their muskets.
With British troops remaining on American soil, any show of disunity could easily renew the war – still the Continental Army, awaits word of peace negotiations between Great Britain and the United States, but a number of officers organized under the leadership of General Henry Knox and drafted a memorandum to Congress.
Signed by enough general officers, so it would not be readily dismissed as the work of a few malcontents.
The memo was delivered to Congress by a delegation consisting of General Alexander McDougall and Colonels John Brooks and Matthias Ogden in late December 1782.
It expressed unhappiness over pay that was months in arrears, and concern over the possibility that the half pay pension would not be forthcoming.
Then in March of 1783, George Washington faced a serious threat to his authority and to the civil government of the new nation.
A disgruntled group of Continental Army officers in New York, formed the Newburgh Conspiracy – a plot to challenge the authority of the Confederation Congress, arising from their frustration of the long-standing inability to meet obligations to the military.
Hoping to intimidate Congress into meeting those requirements, the nationalists in Philadelphia attempted to stoke the army’s unrest.
The situation came to a head with a call on March 10 for a meeting of officers the next day.
It was accompanied by the so-called First Newburgh Address by “a fellow soldier.”
In the memo they offered to accept a lump sum payment instead of the lifetime half pay pension.
It also contained the vague threat that “any further experiments on their [the army’s] patience may have fatal effects.”
Published at the same time was an anonymous call for a meeting of all field officers for 11 a.m. the next day.
An inflammatory address written by Major John Armstrong, aide-de-camp to General Gates, also circulated.
The document accuses America of trampling on the soldiers’ rights and suggests that,
If Congress did not comply, the army should either disband—leaving the country unprotected , handing it over to the British!
—or If peace was declared the soldiers should refuse to disband- a thinly veiled threat of a military takeover.
The address implored the men to abandon the moderate tone of Washington’s entreaties to Congress in favor of a forceful ultimatum – the idea was to take over the Continental Congress
. Worst of all, these plans were being directed by the Army’s senior officers. The address electrified the camp. It seemed impossible to counterbalance such ire.
He then reacted with dispatch. On the morning of the 11th in his general orders he objected to the “disorderly” and “irregular” nature of the anonymously called meeting, said mature communication was needed and announced a meeting of the officers on the 15th instead.
Washington understanding the meeting would be subversive, communicates :
I know you have grievances, I know you’re upset about pay, I know you think the civilians don’t appreciate you, ( grievances of most soldiers in any war)
I want you to meet Saturday March 15th, 1783 the Ides of March, High Noon, if you will.
His meeting place is the Temple of Virtue – the theme it’s all about – that is being willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good.
The seriousness of the situation was also communicated to Congress by Secretary at War Benjamin Lincoln
Washington had initially thought the first letter to be the work of individuals outside the camp (specifically citing Gouverneur Morris, as a likely candidate), was compelled to admit this was unlikely given the speed at which the second letter appeared.
Meanwhile, on the morning of the 12 th, a second missive from the “anonymous soldier”, later revealed as Maj. John Armstrong Jr., an aide to top Gen. Horatio Gates.
Armstrong urged the troops, while still in arms, to either disengage from British troops, move out West and “mock” the Congress, or march on Philadelphia and seize the government and even claimed.
Washington’s agreement to a meeting as an endorsement of the conspirators’ position.
Further angered by the second letter, Washington said, the meeting would be presided over by senior officer General Gates and asked for a report, implying that he would not attend, and giving the impression that a friend of the instigators would run the show.
He in fact, intended to be there, to confront the officers to try to bring them back to the reality of what is going on here :
if Gates succeeds – if Gates is in charge and the army – who knows what can happen?
Should Gates march on Philadelphia as threatened, the Continental Congress wouldn’t be able to defend itself.
Washington will spend the next 3 days planning his strategy, lining up allies and preparing for the confrontation with Gates. – so at least once George Washington told the little lie.
The officers gathered on March 15, and Gates stepped forward to chair the proceedings.
However, he was interrupted when Washington entered the room unexpectedly and said he wished to address the meeting to everyone’s surprise.
He asked to speak to the officers, and the stunned Gates relinquished the floor.
He gave a short but impassioned speech counseling patience.
Washington stood before his officers in Newburgh and eloquently and emotionally expressed his disapprobation of the actions proposed in the anonymous soldier’s addresses:
“This dreadful alternative, of either deserting our Country in the extremest hour of her distress, or turning our arms against it !. . . has something so shocking in it, that humanity revolts at the idea!
– My God! what can this writer have in view by recommending such measures? can he be a friend to the army – can he be a friend to this Country?
Rather is he not an insidious foe?”
His message was that they should oppose anyone “who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood.”
Washington could tell by the faces of his officers, who had not been paid for quite some time, that they were quite angry and did not show the respect or deference as they had in the past.
He then produced a letter from a member of Congress to read to the officers, he gazed upon it and fumbled with it, without speaking.
After stumbling through the first paragraph, He took a pair of reading glasses from his pocket, which were new; few men had ever seen him wear them. He then said:
“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.”
This caused the men to realize that Washington had sacrificed a great deal for the Revolution, all of him , health included just as much as any of them.
These, of course, were his fellow officers, most having worked by his side for several years. Looking at him closer, and noticing much in the way children do as they grow older, seeing their parents or grandparents, frailer and more vulnerable than they remember for the first time.
Many of those present were moved to tears, this disarming hint of vulnerability from their otherwise stoic leader so deeply affected the officers that some wept openly.
The conspiracy had collapsed, as he had read the letter.
Washington’s appearance probably lasted less than 15 minutes.
He then left the room, and General Knox and others offered resolutions reaffirming their loyalty, they resolved to present him with “the unanimous thanks of the officers” and added that “the officers reciprocate his affectionate expressions, with the greatest sincerity of which the human heart is capable.”
Knox and Colonel Brooks were then appointed to a committee to draft a suitable resolution. Approved by virtually the entire assembly, the resolution expressed “unshaken confidence” in Congress, and “disdain” and “abhorrence” for the irregular proposals published earlier in the week.
Ironically, Washington scored one of his greatest triumphs as a military general with words rather than bullets or bayonets.
George Washington skillfully quelled the unrest through a speech that acknowledged the men’s grievances, but urged patience and caution.
Documents related to the Newburgh Conspiracy were collected by the Armyand.
According to Washington’s General Orders of March 18, “being too prolix to be inserted into the Records of the Army, will be lodged at the orderly office, to be perused or copied by any Gentleman of the Army, who may think proper.”
The transcript comes from the papers of Henry Knox, George Washington’s Chief of Artillery.
This however, wasn’t the end of the Army’s intransigence: several weeks later, Pennsylvania militiamen marched on Philadelphia and forced Congress to flee to Princeton, N.J.
But with the story from Newburgh fresh in their minds, the mutineers quickly developed second thoughts and went home.
True to his word, Washington pursued the Army’s grievances, though with mixed results — Congress voted a lump-sum pension payment and disbanded the force.
Given Washington’s near universal popularity, word of his speech spread rapidly, and civilian control of the military soon became a central priority in the formation of the young Republic. Six years later the new country adopted a Constitution that implicitly recognized civilian control.
But powerful armies often make their own rules, and many nations have succumbed to military control despite strong constitutions. In the United States, it was the story of Newburgh and Washington’s iconic status in our early years that so firmly established a tradition of civilian control in the minds of both our military and civilians. That tradition continues, a testament to our first, finest and most political general.
I look forward when I have more time to read this and have set it aside on my homepage so that I can as soon as I am able. You are such an enjoyable and good writer. Thank you most kindly.