CHAPTER V. CAMPAIGN OF 1779. TROOPS REQUIRED AND FURNISHED. The beginning of the year found the Army stretched out in winter quarters from Newport to the Delaware, and too feeble in numbers to take the offensive. During the campaign, our movements in the North were limited to an almost passive defense, while the British contented themselves with sending two marauding expeditions of about 2,500 men each to Connecticut and Virginia. These expeditions, though unopposed, were offset in July by the surprise and capture of Stony Point and Paulus Hook. In the South the only event of importance was the failure, in October, of a combined attack with the French upon Savannah. Leaving a strong garrison in New York, Clinton sailed for Savannah in December with some 9,000 troops. To counteract his designs the Virginia and North Carolina troops of the Continental Army were ordered to the South, while the rest of the Army went into winter quarters, mostly in New Jersey. The Continental establishment as constituted by the law of March 29, 1779, consisted of 80 battalions, distributed as follows: Writing from West Point, on the 18th of November, to the President of Congress, Washington states the condition of his army at the time when the British troops, nearly double his own in effective strength, were concentrated in New York before their expedition southward. The return I have the honor to enclose is an abstract taken from the muster-rolls of the troops of each State in October (South Carolina and Georgia excepted), and contains a complete view, not only of the whole strength of the forces of each and of the independent corps at that time, but of the different periods for which they stood engaged. I conceived a return of this sort might be material, and accordingly directed it to be made, the better to enable Congress to govern their views and requisitions as to the several States. They will perceive by this that our whole force, including all sorts of troops, noncommissioned officers, privates, drummers, and fifers, supposing every man to have existed and to have been in service at that timea point, however, totally inadmissible-amounted to twenty-seven thousand and ninety-nine; that of this number, comprehending four hundred and ten invalids, fourteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight are stated as engaged for the war; that the remainder, by the expiration of enlistments, will be decreased by 31st of December, two thousand and fifty-one; by the last of March, six thousand four hun dred and twenty-six; by the last of April (including the lines), eight thousand one hundred and eighty-one; by the last of June, ten thousand one hundred and fiftyeight; by the last of September, ten thousand seven hundred and nine; and by different periods, I believe shortly after, twelve thousand one hundred and fifty-seven. a The following table' gives the quotas assigned to the different States in 1779, and the total number of troops furnished: Conjectural estimate of militia employed in addition to the above.c We see from the table that only two-thirds of the quotas required for the Continental Army were supplied, and that, compared with the previous year, there was a decrease in military strength of 10,000 men. BOUNTY. As the war went on the increasing difficulty of procuring recruits necessitated the payment of larger bounties. In addition to the bounty of clothing, of land, and of money already voted, Congress, on the 23d of January, authorized Washington to grant a bounty not exceeding $200 to each able-bodied veteran or new recruit who would reenlist or enlist for the war. With a view to transferring the recruiting to the several States, Congress, March 9, repeated the resolution of January 23, and recommended the States to fill their quotas by draft, and further resolved: a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, p. 401. American State Papers, vol. 12, p. 17. Exact returns of the militia were at this period not rendered. See report of General Knox, Secretary of War, American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. I. That a bounty of two hundred dollars out of the Continental Treasury shall be granted to each recruit who after January 23d hath enlisted or shall enlist during the war, or in case the State shall have granted as great or greater bounty the said two hundred dollars for each such recruit shall be passed to the credit of the State for whose quota he shall be raised. March 29, Congress recommended Virginia and North Carolina to raise as many battalions of regular troops for the particular defense of the Southern States as their circumstances would admit, the troops to be engaged only for one year and not to be compelled to serve in any enterprise or in any State north of Virginia. To these one year troops, a bounty was given not to exceed two hundred dollars. Large for the time as were the bounties granted by Congress, those offered by the States were still greater. The legislature of New Jersey, to fill the quota for its three battalions, offered two hundred and fifty dollars to each recruit, in addition to the clothing, land, and two hundred dollars allowed by Congress, while the legislature of Virginia, on the 3d of May, offered to every recruit for the war seven hundred and fifty dollars, a suit of clothes once a year, and one hundred acres of land. From this amount the bounty and clothing given by Congress were reserved by the State. The sum tendered by Virginia, when compared with the $4 offered by Congress in January, 1776, "for further encouraging the men more cheerfully to enlist in the service of their country," shows that in three years the price of bounties increased more than two hundredfold. The effect of these large bounties on the men already enlisted for the war, is thus described in Washington's letter of June 9 to the board of war: The enormous bounties given by the States, towns, and by individuals to men for very short temporary services are the source of the present discontents and of a thousand evils among the soldiers, and as long as they continue to be given so long will they excite dissatisfaction. They induce the soldier, who has undergone a long service, and who engaged for the war in the first instance on a very moderate bounty, to reason upon his situation, and to draw a comparison between what he receives and the great emoluments others get, and put him upon inventing means from which he will be able to derive the same advantage. And from this comparison and these considerations it is, I am convinced, that most of our desertions proceed, especially where the men do not go to the enemy. In consideration of the services of the soldiers who engaged at an early period to serve during the war, and the great disproportion between the bounties they received and those given to others for the service of a few months or perhaps not more than a year at most, I have sometimes thought it might not be improper to give them, by way of gratuity and as an acknowledgment, $100, which, besides operating as a reward, might have a good effect and quiet their discontent." In response to this letter it was resolved June 22— That Congress entertain a grateful sense of the virtue and services of those faithful and zealous soldiers who at an early period engaged in the armies of the States during the war, and to encourage a continuance of their exertions, and as far as circumstances admit, to place them on a footing in pecuniary matters with other soldiers, General Washington be empowered to order a gratuity of one hundred dollars each, to be paid to the men so enlisting during war. Call it by what name we may, it is plain that the bounty equalization authorized by the resolution was extorted from Congress by the dissatisfaction of the soldiery, and this is but one of many instances in which a reliance upon voluntary enlistments and bounties in preference to obligatory military service has proved a menace to freedom. a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, p. 198. It should be carefully noted that this equalization bounty was voted as a largess to allay the discontent of men actually with the colors, if not to prevent the dissolution of the army itself, whereas the millions appropriated to bounty equalization since the War of the Rebellion were voted away after the army was disbanded and the men returned to their homes. Despairing of filling the quotas by enlistments for the war, Washington, on November 18, wrote to the President of Congress: The plan I would propose is that each State be informed by Congress annually of the real deficiency of its troops, and called upon to make it up, or such less specific number as Congress may think proper, by a draft; that men drafted join the Army by the 1st of January, and serve till the 1st of January in the succeeding year; that from the time the drafts join the Army, the officers of the States from which they come, be authorized and directed to use their endeavors to enlist them for the war under the bounties to the officers themselves and the recruits granted by the act of the 23d of January last, namely, $10 to the officers for each recruit and two hundred to the recruits themselves; that all State, county, and town bounties to drafts, if practicable, be entirely abolished, on account of the uneasiness and disorders they create among the soldiers, the desertions they produce, and for other reasons which will readily occur; that on or before the 1st of October annually, an abstract or return similar to the present one be transmitted to Congress, to enable them to make their requisitions to each State with certainty and precision. The advantage of a well-digested, general, and uniform system for levying and bringing them to the Army at a particular time to serve to a fixed period is obvious. We may then form our plans of operation with some degree of certainty, and determine with more propriety and exactness on what we may or may not be able to do; and the periods for joining and serving, which I have taken the liberty to mention, appear to me the most proper for a variety of considerations. It being in January when it is proposed that the recruits shall join, and when the enemy can not operate, they will get seasoned and accustomed in some measure to a camp life before the campaign opens, and will have four or five months to acquire discipline and some knowledge of maneuvers without interruption; and their service being extended to the same time in the succeeding year, the public will have all the benefits that can be derived from their aid for a whole campaign. * * * The levies that have been raised have come to the Army so irregularly, in such a scattered, divided way, and at such late periods generally, that the aid they were intended to give has never been received, or at least but to a very limited and partial extent; and the time for which they were engaged has been spent in gaining a seasoning to the camp and discipline, and a greater part of it in winter quarters when they ought to have been in the field; or they must have been sent there raw and untutored, a circumstance which may lead in some critical moment before an enemy to most fatal consequences. a At the beginning of the year the ill effect of short enlistments became very marked, even in the Continental establishment. This caused Washington to express the opinion that to operate against New York our troops should be double in number to those of the enemy, that "this would be far from giving a certainty of success." OFFICERS. and The rapid depreciation of the currency continued to increase the distress of the officers. During the previous year Congress had voted them half pay for seven years after the close of the war, but as this did not relieve their present wants, Washington wrote to the committee of Congress on the 20th of January— That the officers of the Army are in a very disagreeable situation; that the most unhappy consequences are to be apprehended if they are not speedily placed in a better, and that some provision more adequate than has yet been made is necessary, a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, pp. 404-406. are truths so obvious and so generally acknowledged that it would almost seem superfluous to say anything to enforce them. But it is a point in which, in my opinion, the public safety is so essentially concerned that I can not let slip any opportunity of urging its importance and pressing it upon the public attention. The patience of the officers has been a long time nourished by the hope that some adequate provision was in contemplation. Though nothing satisfactory has hitherto been done, their hopes have been still kept alive; but this can not be much longer the case, and when they come once to fix an opinion that they have nothing to expect, they will no longer combat the necessity that drives them from the service. It is worthy of observation, that the state of inactivity to which we may probably. be compelled the next campaign will give leisure for cherishing their discontents and dwelling upon all the hardships of their situation. When men are employed, and have the incitements of military honor to engage their ambition and pride, they will cheerfully submit to inconveniences which in a state of tranquillity would appear insupportable. Indeed, not to multiply arguments upon a subject so evident, it is a fact not to be controverted, that the officers can not support themselves with their present pay; that necessity will oblige them to leave the service unless better provided for, and that, remaining in it, those who have no fortunes will want the common necessaries of life, and those who have fortunes must ruin them.a Referring to half-pay for life, which he had before recommended, he continues: The difference indeed in point of expense between the present form of the halfpay establishment and one for life would be inconsiderable. Seven years will probably be the period of the lives of the greatest part of the incumbents, and few of the survivors will much exceed it. But the difference in the provision in the estimation of the officer's own mind is very great. In one case he has provision for life, whether it be long or short; in the other, for a limited period, which he can look beyond, and naturally flatters himself he shall outlive. Although these suggestions were not wholly adopted, Congress on the 17th of August recommended that the States grant half-pay for life to officers serving during the war, and proper rewards to soldiers as well. It also recommended the States to give pensions to the widows of officers and soldiers killed in the service. We see, then, that the Government found it necessary, to give bounty in the shape of half-pay. a Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 6, pp. 167–169. |