CHAPTER XXXV. The Mutinies of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Lines in 1781 The French Army in Somerset on the Way to Virginia The Hanging of Captain Joshua Huddy and the Case of The next twelve months will see the end of campaigning in Somerset county, and we shall then be able to turn our attention in other directions than in that of following the line of march of columns of soldiers. Wherever the continentals may drift before finally disbanding we may be sure that their route will lay amid no pleasanter bits of landscape that when they were trailing along the highways and by-ways of Morris and Bedminster. At the end of November the army was in winter quarters, Washington establishing himself at New Windsor on the Hudson, where the eastern troops were cantoned. The French continued at Newport, excepting Lauzun's legion which was stationed at Lebanon, Connecticut. The New Jersey and Pennsylvania lines were in our state; the former at Pompton, the latter on Kimball Hill, near Morristown, both being under the command of General Anthony Wayne. This officer, in writing on the sixth of December from "Mount Kemble" to General Irvine, says: We arrived here the 30th ultimo and found a very great proportion of the Hutts destroyed, but by collecting the materials still left on the ground occupied by Gen. Hand's Brigade and improving those of his yet standing, we shall get under cover during the week. In another letter Wayne writes : The men are poorly clothed, badly fed, and worse paid, some of them not having received a paper dollar for near twelve months; exposed to winter's piercing cold, to drifting snows, and chilling blasts, with no protection but old wornout coats, tattered linen overalls, and but one blanket between three men. THE MUTINY ON KIMBALL HILL. 529 What wonder that such sufferings should have fomented in the troops a feeling of discontent and bitterness? Another cause for dissatisfaction was a disagreement that had arisen between the officers and men as to the true interpretation of the phraseology of the enlistment papers. By them the men were bound to serve for "three years or during the war." Those who had been in the army over three years claimed that their services were being prolonged beyond the term of enlistment-contending that the election was with them whether to remain at the end of that time. The officers maintained that the alternative was with the government, and that the war not having ended the men could be held until the cessation of hostilities. The feeling of discontent bred by such a condition of affairs rapidly increased, until on the night of the first of January it resulted in an open revolt. The men of several regiments refused longer to obey their officers, and declared the intention of marching at once to Philadelphia to demand of congress the redress of their grievances. A vain attempt was made to arrest their departure; coercion only resulted in a spread of the mutiny. Shots were fired on both sides, wounds inflicted, and several of the insurgents killed. They in their turn gave a death-wound to a Captain Billings, who was endeavoring to bring them under subjection. A black-oak tree on the side of the Jockey Hollow road, which runs over Kimball Hill east of the Wick's house, is still pointed out as the spot where this officer was shot by the rebels. He was buried where he fell. General Wayne found himself powerless to quell the mutiny. With a cocked pistol in his hand he exhorted his men to return to their duty, threatening that a failure to do so would entail the direst punishments. They replied through their spokesman with great firmness, saying:-"We love and respect you, but you are a dead man if you fire. Do not mistake us; we are not going to the enemy; were they now to come out you would see us fight under your orders with as much resolution and alacrity as ever." Just before midnight the mutineers, thirteen hundred strong, armed and under command of their non-commissioned officers, set off in good order from camp taking with them six field pieces and an adequate number of artillery horses. Bad news travels quickly. By the next morning the people of Bedminster and the surrounding country knew that the army was in revolt, and much anxiety was felt lest the soldiers should commit excesses during their march southward. Nor were their fears without reason, but happily this danger was averted by the sagacity of Wayne. This general, upon consultation with his officers after the rebels had started, determined that if he could not command his men he would at least follow in their wake, and by judicious management and by seeing that they were supplied with provisions prevent plundering and depredation. In the morning, accompanied by regimental Colonels Stewart and Butler, he overtook the insurgents bivouacked at Vealtown and immediately had an interview with the non-commissioned offiThis resulted in a committee of the sergeants being appointed, who drew up a specification of grievances and who made the most solemn promises to preserve good order during the march. Wayne dispatched couriers to Philadelphia announcing the unfortunate condition of affairs, and urging that congress be prepared to treat with the men. Whereupon a committee from that body was appointed, which with President Reed at its head proceeded to Princeton, where the insurgents were met and negotiations were at once entered into for an accommodation of all differences. cers. The tories were prompt to carry intelligence of this insurrection to the enemy, who falsely concluded that it would be the desire of the insurgents to make their way to the British lines. Acting on this supposition Sir Henry Clinton collected a number of boats opposite Perth Amboy, and dispatched five thousand troops to the lower end of Staten Island. He then sent a New Jersey tory named Ogden and a British sergeant to the rebels, telling what arrangements had been made in support of their movement, and offering to discharge all debts due them from the United States without demanding military service in return. The board of sergeants to whom the propositions were made immediately turned the bearers, together with their papers, over to Wayne, and eventually these emissaries were hung as spies. The soldiers were indignant that their loyalty to the government was suspected; "See, comrades," said one of the sergeants, on reading aloud Clinton's message, "he takes us for traitors! Let us show him that the American army can furnish but one Arnold, and that THE JERSEY BRIGADE MUTINY. 531 America has no truer friends than we." Such a spirit on the part of the men had a powerful influence in securing for them a favorable adjustment of their difficulties. A compromise mutually advantageous was effected, whereby some of their just demands were complied with and many of the soldiers were discharged, their places in the Pennsylvania line being filled by recruits in the spring. So most fortunately terminated an affair which, had it been managed on both sides with less discretion, might have led to the disruption of the entire army. So great a breach of discipline was not without its evil effects upon other portions of the continental force. In the middle of January some of the Jersey line at Pompton, encouraged by the success of the Pennsylvanians, refused longer to do duty. Washington fearing further trouble had already taken the precaution of having a trusted command of one thousand men under arms, ready to march from headquarters at a moment's notice. This detachment made a rapid move on the Jersey camp, when the refractory soldiers were forced to parade without arms and deliver up their ringleaders. Three of the latter, who had been at the head of the revolt, were at once tried by drum-head court-martial, sentenced, and two of them executed on the spot, twelve of the most guilty of their associates being obliged to serve as the firing party. In such a terrible but effective manner was this second mutiny throttled at its birth. It seems severe measures to have meted out to our Jersey soldiers when the Pennsylvania line had been dealt with so leniently, but it must be remembered that the latter were in force, that they were in excellent temper, and that the government was taken unawares and obliged to meet the difficulty as best it could. This last insurrection, however, found Washington prepared to cope with the exigency; it was absolutely necessary to nip this second attempt in the bud, for had it prevailed it would have meant the utter destruction of the army. The next incident of interest in the Revolutionary story of Somerset is the memorable march of the allied armies across the county on their way to the triumphant campaign in Virginia. When Sir Henry Clinton returned in June, 1780, from his success at Charleston, he left at that place four thousand men under Lord Cornwallis. After the capture of Lincoln no continental force remained south of Pennsylvania. To fill this void the Maryland and Delaware troops were despatched southward under the command of De Kalb, whose troops also included militia from both the Carolinas; he was soon succeeded by Gates. The latter general's campaign ended with the disaster at Camden, and on the thirtieth of October he retired in favor of Greene, who was transferred from the quartermaster's department to the command of the Southern army. The achievements of this able general produced a marked change in the aspect of affairs, for with an inconsiderable and miserably provided army he successfully contended with a regular British force, his efforts culminating in the brilliant victories of Cowpens and Eutaw Springs. Before the first of April, with alternate marching and fighting, the opposing armies had crossed the two Carolinas, and Cornwallis had entered Virginia. By this time the British general had been largely reinforced and had divided his command. At the Virginia line Greene abandoned the pursuit of Cornwallis and turned back to meet the other division. The Earl continued to Winchester, and to Petersburg where he combined with General Philips, and being there further reinforced by fifteen hundred men from New York he found himself at the head of a formidable army, seven thousand strong. He advanced from Petersburg, opposed guardedly by Lafayette, who in February, 1781, had marched to Virginia with twelve hundred men to operate against Arnold, that traitor having been for some months conducting a predatory warfare in that state. This force of the marquis was formed into three battalions. One of them was composed of light-infantry companies detailed from the New Jersey line, consisting of thirteen officers and one hundred and forty-eight enlisted men, with Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Barber at their head. Lafayette declared his lightinfantry to be the best troops that had ever taken the field, and that an equal number of British never ventured to meet them. Stryker, in his monograph on the Virginia campaign, affirms that this splendid New Jersey command bore a conspicuous and honorable part throughout all the movements that culminated in the fall of Yorktown. Colonel Barber at the outset of the war was the master of an Elizabethtown grammar-school, but his patriotism soon carried him into the army, and being naturally a student he rapidly |