Chapter XXIV: "How suddenly that straight and glittering shaft (3)

The term of enlistment of many of the troops was now drawing to a close, and Washington felt great apprehensions for the result. Nearly six months had elapsed since the battle of Bunker Hill, yet nothing had been done, decisively, to alter the relations in which the belligerents stood toward each other. The people began to murmur, and the general Congress fretted. New enlistments were accomplished tardily, and in December not more than five thousand recruits had joined the army. It became excessively weakened in numbers and spirit, and as the cold increased, want of comfortable clothing and fuel became an almost insupportable hardship. Many regiments were obliged to eat their provisions raw, for the want of wood to cook them. Fences, and the fruit and shade trees for more than a mile around the camp, were used for fuel. The various privations in the camp produced frequent desertions. The Connecticut troops demanded a bounty, and being refused, resolved to leave the camp in a body on the 6th of December. Measures were taken to prevent the movement, yet many went off and never returned. The commander-in-chief was filled with the greatest anxiety. Still, he hopefully worked on in preparation for action, either offensive or defensive. A strong detachment under Putnam broke ground at Cobble Hill (now M'Lean Asylum); the works on Lechmere's Point were strengthened, and a call that was made upon the New England militia to supply the places of the troops that left the army in its hour of peril, was nobly responded to.

At the close of the year most of the regiments were full; and about ten thousand minute men, chiefly in Massachusetts, were held in ready reserve to march when called upon. The camp was well supplied with provisions; ** order was generally observed, and in the course of a fortnight a wonderful change for the better was wrought. The ladies of several of the officers arrived in camp; and the Christmas holidays were spent at Cambridge quite agreeably, for hope gave joy to the occasion. ***

* Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, iii., 516.

** The rations for the soldiers were as follows: corned beef and pork four days in the week, salt fish one day, and fresh beef two days. Each man had a pound and a half of beef, or eighteen ounces of pork a day; one quart of strong beer, or nine gallons of molasses, to one hundred men per week; six pounds of candles to one hundred men per week; six ounces of butter, or nine ounces of hogs' lard per week; three pints of beans or pease, per man, a week, or vegetables equivalent; one pound of flour per day, and hard bread to be dealt out one day in the week.

*** Mrs. Washington arrived on the 11th of December, accompanied by her son, John Parke Custis, and his wife. Some persons thought her in danger at Mount Vernon, as Lord Dunmore was making the most determined hostile movements against republicanism in Virginia. It was feared that he might attempt to seize the person of Lady Washington, to be held as a hostage. As the commander-in-chief could not leave the army, she was requested to pass the winter with him at Cambridge. The expenses incurred by the occasional visits of Mrs. Washington to the camp during the war were charged to the government. Washington was careful to call attention to this fact, and in the rendition of his accounts for settlement he refers to it, and expresses a hope that the charges will be considered right, inasmuch as he had not visited his home during his time of service, a privilege which he was allowed by the terms of his appointment.

First unfurling of the Union flag.--Return of Colonel Knox, with heavy artillery.

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