The Saber and Scroll
from levying taxes on the states . The nationalists began to play an extremely dangerous game of using the army .
Peace was what the nationalists feared most . They knew that if peace was made , the army would disband and their plans to use them would fall apart . They had not heard anything from the commissioners in Paris , John Adams , John Jay , and Benjamin Franklin , who did not correspond with Philadelphia . Rumors were circulating in Congress that peace was near , and the nationalists would need to act quickly before peace came . Gouverneur Morris wrote to his friend Matthew Ridley , “ not much for the interest of America , that peace should be made at present .” 9 He suggested that it was in the best interests of the nationalists for the war to continue .
Meanwhile at the Newburgh encampment , army officers were grumbling and frustrated when a new general arrived . The newcomer was not much troubled by loyalty or principle . His name was Horatio Gates , and he had distinguished himself as the commander of the Continental Army at the Battle of Saratoga , the great victory of 1777 , where General Burgoyne was defeated . It is interesting to note that the British called 1777 the year of the hangman , the three sevens being gallows . In the same year that Americans celebrated the victory at Saratoga and the accomplishments of General Gates , General Washington had not lost Philadelphia but also retreated from Germantown and Brandywine . These losses sank Washington ’ s reputation fast , and there were those in the Congress , particularly Samuel Adams and other New Englanders , who suggested that General Gates might make a better commander-in-chief . Plans were made to place Gates in Washington ’ s position , which Washington knew , but none of these plans were ever followed through .
General Gates was put in command of the Continental Army ’ s Southern Department , where he fought the Battle of Camden . This was one of the worst defeats the Continental Army ever suffered . After the smoke cleared from the battlefield , General Gates was nowhere to be found . He had retreated nearly 60 miles , supposedly to reorganize his army , then went another 120 miles to Hillsborough before sending his report to Congress . As a result of this embarrassing defeat , he was replaced by General Nathanael Greene . Gates was now in disgrace and Washington deeply disliked him . Nevertheless , Gates was an influential politician , and he convinced Congress to appoint him as the commander of the army encamped at Newburgh without the consent of General Washington . Congress advised Washington to use Gates as he wished .
Washington was still commander-in-chief of the entire Continental Army , while Gates arrived to be the commander only of the army at Newburgh , which consisted of nearly seven thousand soldiers . Gates ordered them to build their huts at nearby New Windsor . There , they built nearly seven hundred wooden huts neatly laid as they prepared for winter quarters . To keep the soldiers busy , Gates had them
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