Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/552

520 Americans Lave defended their entrenchments? Besides, to enter the field anew,, in the midst of so rigorous a season, was become for them an absolute impossibility. On the 1st of February, 1778, four thousand of the troops were incapable of any kind of service, for want of clothing. The condition of the rest was very little better. In a word, out of the eleven or twelve thousand men that were in camp, it would have been difficult to muster five thousand fit for duty.

The reader cannot fail to have been surprised, that the army should have been deficient in supplies of food, in a country abounding with provisions. A few words of explanation seem to be needed, to account for such a fact. Early in the war, the office of commissary-general had been conferred on Colonel Trumbull, of Connecticut, a gentleman well fitted for that important station. Yet, from the difficulty of arranging so complicated a department, complaints were repeatedly made of the insufficiency of supplies. The subject was taken up by Congress; but the remedy administered, served only to increase the disease. The system was not completed till near midsummer; and then its arrangements were such, that Colonel Trumbull refused the office assigned to him. The new plan contemplated a number of subordinate officers, all to be appointed by Congress, and neither accountable to, or removable by, the head of the department. This arrangement, which was made in direct opposition to the opinion of the commander-in-chief, drove Colonel Trumbull from the army. Congress, however, persisted in the system; and its effects were not long in unfolding themselves. In every military division of the continent, loud complaints were made of the deficiency of supplies. The armies were greatly embarrassed, and their movements suspended, by the want of provisions. The present total failure of all supply was preceded by issuing meat unfit to be eaten. Representations on this subject had been made to the commander-in-chief, and communicated to Congress. That body had authorized him to seize provisions for the use of his army within seventy miles of head-quarters, and to pay for them in money or in certificates. The odium of this measure was increased by the failure of government to provide funds to take up these certificates when presented. At the same time, the provisions carried into Philadelphia, were paid for in specie at a fair price. The temptation was too great to be resisted. Such was the dexterity employed by the inhabitants in eluding the laws that notwithstanding the vigilance of the troops stationed on the lines, they often succeeded in concealing their provisions from those authorized to impress for the army, and in conveying them to Philadelphia. Washington, urged on by Congress, issued a proclamation, requiring all the farmers within seventy miles of Valley Forge, to thresh out one half of their grain by the 1st of February, and the rest by the 1st of | March, under the penalty of having the whole seized as straw. Many farmers refused, defended their grain and cattle with muskets and rifle, and in some