THE MUTINY AT MORRISTOWN.


"I can tell you what was told me by men who engaged in it," said
Kinnison. "For myself, I was at that time, with the Massachusetts troops
at Middlebrook. The Pennsylvania line, numbering about two thousand men,
was stationed at the old camp ground at Morristown. Most of these men
believed that their term of service expired at the end of the year 1779,
though Congress and some of the generals thought otherwise, or that the
men were enlisted to serve until the end of the war. This difficulty
about the term of enlistment was the seed of the mutiny. But there were
many other things that would have roused any other men to revolt. The
Pennsylvanians had not received any pay for twelve months, and during
the severest part of the fall, they suffered for the want of food and
clothing. To expect men to bear such treatment and remain in the army
when there was the slightest pretext for leaving, it was building on a
sandy foundation. Patriotism and starvation were not as agreeable to
common soldiers as they were to some members of Congress. Even some of
the officers--men who depended upon their pay to support their families
while fighting for liberty--grumbled at the conduct of those who
should have supplied them. This gave the men courage, and they
determined to act boldly. They appointed a serjeant-major their
major-general, and at a given signal on the morning of the 1st of
January, the whole line, except a part of three regiments, paraded under
arms, and without their regular officers, marched to the magazines,
supplied themselves with provisions and ammunition, and secured six
field-pieces, to which they attached horses from General Wayne's
stables. The regular officers collected those who had not joined the
mutineers, and tried to restore order; but some of the mutineers fired,