The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

AET. 48.] LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 331
regiments and the whole of the Virginia line marched
to the south.
The winter set in with so much severity, that the
channels of transportation were closed, and the troops
were reduced to the greatest distress for the want of
provisions. In this extremity, it was necessary to levy
supplies upon the inhabitants, and send out officers to
collect them. By their instructions, these officers were
first to call on the magistrates, and solicit their aid in
procuring provisions of grain and cattle, and in apportioning to each person such a quantity as he could spare
without injury to his family. Certificates were then to
be given, specifying the quantity, leaving it optional with
the owner to fix the price by a fair valuation on the
spot, or to receive the market price at the time the certificates should be paid. If this plan proved unsuccessful, the officers were to proceed according to the usual
method of military impressments. There was no occasion, however, for this latter measure. By the zeal and
activity of the magistrates, cooperating with the good
disposition of the inhabitants, a sufficient quantity of
voluntary supplies was soon brought to the camp.
A descent upon Staten Island by a party under Lord
Stirling, a retaliatory incursion of the enemy into New
Jersey at Elizabethtown, and a skirmish near White
Plains, were the only military events during the winter.
The army for the campaign in 1780 was nominally
fixed by Congress at thirty-five thousand two hundred
and eleven men. Each State was required to furnish
its quota by the first day of April. No definite plan
was adopted for the campaign, as the operations must
depend on circumstances and the strength and condition of the enemy.
One of the greatest evils which now afflicted the
country, and which threatened the most alarming con