George Washington: Winter Soldier

Katie Blizzard October 15, 2021
George Washington (porthole portrait), Rembrandt Peale.
TOPICS: George Washington, Featured Document(s), Revolutionary War

by Benjamin L. Huggins, Associate Editor
October 15, 2021

George Washington (porthole portrait), Rembrandt Peale.
George Washington (ca. 1846), oil painting by Rembrandt Peale. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

At the height of the Revolutionary War in 1779, a large part of Gen. George Washington’s responsibilities, which he shared with the Continental Congress, consisted in clothing and supplying the Continental army, providing transportation to move the supplies, and maintaining manpower. Without these his army could not fight, and his indefatigable effort to supply these things for his soldiers was impressive. His perseverance in this area was a key facet of his generalship. At the same time that he had to deal with these issues, however, Washington detected among his countrymen an apparent decline in patriotic zeal, which he held responsible for the lack of effort by some states in providing manpower and provisions for the army.

At the end of 1778 and in 1779, Washington wrote several private letters to trusted friends that set out his candid views of the country’s situation. These letters reveal insights about his attitude regarding the state of the nation rarely conveyed in his public letters. In a two-part letter of December 1778, penned immediately before and after his journey to Philadelphia to confer with a committee of the Continental Congress, Washington laid out his thoughts to his friend Benjamin Harrison. The first portion of the letter reads in part:

I can assign but two causes for the enemys continuance among us, and these balance so equally in my Mind, that I scarce know which of the two preponderates—The one is, that they are waiting the ultimate determination of Parliament—the other, that of our distresses . . . What may be the effect of such large & frequent emissions [of money] of the dissentions—Parties—extravigance—and a general lax of public virtue Heaven alone can tell! I am affraid even to think of It but it appears as clear to me as ever the Sun did in its meredian brightness, that America never Stood in more eminent need of the wise—patriotic—and Spirited exertions of her Sons than at this period.

In a postscript, written after his arrival in Philadelphia and after having his first meetings with the committee, Washington added:

I have seen nothing since I came here . . . to change my opinion of Men or Measures but abundant reason to be convinced, that our Affairs are in a more distressed, ruinous—& deplorable condition than they have been in Since the commencement of the War—By a faithful labourer then in the cause. By a Man who is daily injuring his private Estate without even the smallest earthly advantage not common to all, in case of a favourable Issue to the dispute—By one who wishes the prosperity of America most devoutly and sees or thinks he sees it, on the brink of ruin, you are beseeched most earnestly my dear Colo. Harrison to exert yourself in endeavouring to rescue your Country by (let me add) sending your ablest & best Men to Congress—these characters must not slumber, nor sleep at home, in such times of pressing danger—they must not content themselves in the enjoyment of places of honor or profit in their own Country while the common interests of America are mouldering & sinking into irretrievable (if a remedy is not soon applied) ruin, in which theirs also must ultimately be involved. If I was to be called upon to draw A picture of the times—& of Men—from what I have Seen, heard, & in part know I should in one word say that idleness, dissipation & extravagance seems to have laid fast hold of most of them. That speculation—peculation—& an insatiable thirst for rishes seems to have got the better of every other consideration and almost of every order of Men. That party disputes & personal quarrels are the great business of the day whilst the momentous concerns of an empire—a great & accumulated debt—ruined finances—depreciated money—& want of credit . . . are but secondary considerations & postponed from day to day—from week to week as if our affairs wore the most promising aspect—after drawing this picture, which from my Soul I believe to be a true one I need not repeat to you that I am alarmed and wish to see my Country men roused.1

Three months later, Washington commented to his friend James Warren:

Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good Man would wish. The measure of inequity is not yet filled—and unless we can return a little more to first principles, & act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will—or—what may be the issue of the contest—Speculation—peculation—engrossing—forestalling—with all their concomitants, afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public virtue; and too glaring instances of its being the interest & desire of too many who would wish to be thought friends, to continue the War.2

In April, Washington complained to several correspondents about what he perceived as a lack of virtue that had taken hold in the country. Early in the month, he wrote to a friend in Maryland:

It is no easy matter to develop the enemys designs—one would think it scarcely possible that they should keep a large force in america another campaign merely to hold possession of New York and Rhode Island, and yet I should not be much surprized if this is the case, as they seem to entertain great hopes from the depreciated, & depreciating state of our currency & other causes, towards which too many among ourselves who wish to be thought friends, contribute not a little.3

It was, he continued, “a melancholy thing” to witness “such a decay of public virtue, and the fairest prospects overcast & clouded by a host of infamous harpies, who to acquire a little pelf would involve this great Continent in inextricable ruin.” He agreed with his friend’s suspicion that the British had sent “emissaries among us to promote the business of speculation in the article of provisions, & to engross what ever is found necessary to the existance of our Army.” In Washington’s view, it was “true beyond a doubt—for the enemy do not scruple to acknowledge that their Arms are unequal to the conquest—What else can they substitute (if they mean to persist) but their money & their arts?”4 Washington further opined to a relative in Virginia whom he wrote later that month:

It is most devoutly to be wished that the several States would adopt some vigorous measures for the purpose of giving credit to the paper currency and punishment of speculators, forestallers and others who are preying upon the vitals of this great Country and putting every thing to the utmost hazard—Alas what is virtue come to—what a miserable change has four years produced in the temper & dispositions of the Sons of America! It really shocks me to think of it!5

Given all that he had to face as commander in chief—a formidable enemy, shortages of supplies and manpower, a failing currency, and (in his view, the worst) declining virtue—how, one might ask, did Washington manage to sustain himself through this myriad of difficulties? Two letters provide an answer. “It is much to be wished that Mankind in general were more disposed to accomodate difficulties than they are,” he wrote to the Board of War in August 1779. “In the circumstances of our present Warfare such a disposition is peculiarly necessary—and according to my ideas the Man who endeavours to do this—whether Civil or Military, consults well the interest of his Country. The Obstacles and difficulties which unavoidably occur are more than sufficient of themselves—and should prohibit any measures to encrease them.”6 A letter he wrote to his cousin Lund Washington in the spring of the next year gives an even stronger indication. It is one of his most revealing letters.

New scenes are beginning to unfold themselves, which will by no means lessen my present trouble, or attention,” he wrote. “You ask how I am to be rewarded for all this? There is one reward that nothing can deprive me of, & that is, the consciousness of having done My duty with the strictest rectitude, and most scrupulous exactness—and the certain knowledge, that if we should—ultimately—fail in the present contest, it is not owing to the want of exertion in me, or the application of every means that Congress and the United States, or the States individually, have put into my hands. [. . . Provi]dence—to whom we are infinitely more indebted than we are to our own wisdom—or our own exertions—has always displayed its power & goodness, when clouds and thick darkness seemed ready to overwhelm us.7

In December 1776, in the first installment of The American Crisis, Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”8 Washington was a winter soldier.

 

  1. “From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, December 18–30, 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-18-02-0510. Also available in print: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 18:447–52.
  2. “From George Washington to James Warren, March 31, 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-19-02-0651. Also available in print: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 19: 673–675.
  3. “From George Washington to William Fitzhugh, April 10, 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-20-02-0031. Also available in print: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 20:30–32.
  4. Ibid.
  5. “From George Washington to Burwell Bassett, April 22, 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-20-02-0140. Also available in print: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 20:160–161.
  6. “From George Washington to the Board of War, August 21, 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-22-02-0164. Also available in print: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 22:196–200.
  7. “From George Washington to Lund Washington, May 19, 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-26-02-0075. Also available in print: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 26:100–101.
  8. Eric Foner, ed., Thomas Paine: Collected Writings (New York: The Library of America, 1995), 91–99; quote on 91.