Congress have received such unexpected & distressing Accounts from the General relative to the Situation of the Army that they have appointed a Comittee to fall upon immediate Methods for Supplying them with Provisions.(1) They are so much in Want of an instant Supply owing to Delays & Embarassments in the Commissary's Department & other unexpected Causes that however plenty we shall have them in future, at present at least a Removal out of this State must be the immediate Consequence of even a short Continuance of their present Circumstances. An instant Supply must be procured from this State for the Support of the Army until the Supplies expected from the neighbouring States arrive.(2) As it may give Umbrage to the Inhabitants the Comittee deplore the Necessity they are under of sending Officers with Parties to collect such Cattle, Flour & Grain as the Army wants without the least Delay as the Crisis is too alarming to admit of the Business being postponed on any Consideration. It will be improper to communicate the real Situation of the Army but with the Utmost Prudence & Caution. Your Excellency will therefore judge in what Manner the Concurrence of this State is to be procured as their vigorous Exertions are necessary in Cooperation with those of the Comittee who will, at least 'till they see the Business properly conducted as doubtless it will be by the Government of this State, be obliged to give Orders for the taking, conveying & driving all Cattle, Hogs, Pork, Flour & Grain fit for their Consumption to the Army the Persons employed for this Purpose giving Certificates to the Owners expressing as nearly as possible the Weight & Quality of them & agreeing to pay for them at such Prices as shall be settled by the Convention of Comittees from the several States who are to meet at New Haven the l5th of Jany next agreeable to a Resolution of Congress of the 22d Novr last.
1 On December 29 Congress authorized a committee composed of the Board of War plus three delegates to take immediate measures to supply the urgent needs of the army, which had been graphically described in Washington's letters of December 22 and 23. However, the emergency measures ordered by the committee fell short of alleviating the army's distress, which had reached crisis proportions because of the virtual collapse of the entire system for collecting and distributing supplies to the army. JCC, 9:1065.
Although the source of many complaints since its creation in 1775, the commissary system had functioned reasonably well until Commissary General Joseph Trumbull had resigned and returned home in August 1777. His successor, William Buchanan, deprived of many of Trumbull's most capable and experienced assistants, who had resigned over Congress' refusal to base their compensation on a commission basis, struggled on with the system he had inherited, but it was clear by early autumn that sweeping changes were needed. The inherent difficulties in provisioning large numbers of troops were compounded by General Howe's capture of Philadelphia, Congress' flight to York, and the British army's competition for provisions from the region. Commissary reform and the general reorganization of army administration were delayed by Congress' slowness in installing new members of the reorganized Board of War. Expectations that the new board would play a large role in the solution of supply problems-visible in Congress' appointment of both former Quartermaster General Thomas Mifflin and Commissary General Trumbull to the new board in November-were ultimately disappointed because Trumbull's health prevented him from filling his post and Mifflin refused to respond to a call to join the congressional committee sent to Valley Forge in January to study the most pressing issues threatening army morale. Therefore, it was the old Board of War, which had been authorized on November 22 to continue the work of the War Office until the new commissioners arrived, that continued the struggle against the army's problems, acting either in its traditional capacity or as the nucleus of ad hoc committees like the Committee on Emergency Provisions. Although Gates and the new commissioners finally assumed leadership of the new board in late January 1778, clashes between Continental officials and Pennsylvania authorities further delayed new measures for effective provisioning of the army. See JCC, 9:953, 963, 10:47; Daniel Roberdeau to Thomas Wharton, February 17, note 2; and William Duer to Francis Lightfoot Lee, February 19, 1778. For the general breakdown of the commissary and quartermaster systems and background material on Congress' struggles to bring relief to Washington's beleaguered troops during their difficult winter at Valley Forge, see Victor L. Johnson, The Administration of the American Commissariat during the Revolutionary War (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1941), pp. 85-109; and Erna Risch, Quartermaster Support of the Army: A History of the Corps, 1775-1939 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1962), pp. 29 37.
2 In a letter to New York Governor George Clinton written at about this time, Lee, on behalf of the committee, requested that "all the cattle which can possibly be collected within your State forthwith [be] . . . sent forward under proper conductors to General Washington's Army without Delay, paying to the persons from whom the cattle are so taken as yourself and the Council of Safety shall deem reasonable, and drawing upon Congress for the necessary sums or giving them certificates expressing the quality, age and weight so taken as nearly as possible, which certificates will be hereafter paid at such prices as shall be fixed on by the Convention of the Committees of the States to be held agreeably to the Recommendation of Congress of the 22d Nov' last.
"The Committee have likewise to request that you will give your utmost assistance to Mr. J. Cuyler, Commissary of Northern Department in laying up plentiful magazines of Flour and Pork in such parts of the State as shall be thought best adapted for that purpose, and that you will likewise be pleased to co-operate for the same purposes with the Govenor and Council of Connecticut who are desired to superintend the Commissary Department on the East side of Hudson's River.
"The Middle Department is exhausted of Cattle fit for the use of the Army, & the obstruction which have been met with in removing a timely and sufficient supply of Salt from the Eastern States have baffled all Prospects of laying in any large Quantities of Pork in the States of Pennsylvania & Maryland. Without
"The vigorous Exertions made by the State of New York at a period when the affairs of America wore the most alarming aspect, afford us the most pleasing assurances that at this Crisis their Exertions in the Great Cause will not be exceeded by any State in the Union which has been wrote to on this occasion by the Committee." Calendar of Historical Manuscripts relating to the War of the Revolution, in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N.Y., 2 vols. (Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Co., 1868), 2:308-9. See also the committee's December 31 letter to Thomas Johnson.