“AS the year 1780 drew towards a close, Washington wrote, in review: ‘Disappointed of the second division of French troops, but more especially in the expected naval superiority, which was the pivot upon which every thing turned, we have been compelled to spend an inactive campaign, after a flattering prospect at the opening of it, and vigorous struggles to make, it a decisive one on our part.’ The opening of 1781 did not brighten his words. In a letter to Meshech Ware, President of New Hampshire, he says:
‘The aggravated calamities and distresses that have resulted [to the soldiers] from the total want of pay for nearly twelve months, the want of clothing at a severe season, and not unfrequently the want of provisions, are beyond description I give it decidedly as my opinion, that it is vain to think an army can be kept together much longer under such a variety of sufferings as ours has experienced, and that unless some immediate and spirited measures are adopted to furnish at least three months’ pay to the troops in money, which will be of some value to them, and at the same time ways and means are devised to clothe and feed them better (more regularly I mean) than they have been, the worst that can befall us may be expected.’ ”
Reference Data:
Our French Allies: Rochambeau and His Armies, Lafayette and His Devotion, ..., by Edwin Martin Stone, 1884, page 357
