My heart tells me it has been my unremitted aim to do the best which circumstances would permit.

Yet I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means, and may in many instances deserve the imputation of error."[98] [Footnote 98: See note No.XII.at the end of the volume.] Fortunately for America, these combinations only excited resentment against those who were believed to be engaged in them.
{December.} {December 23.} Soon after being informed of the unfavourable disposition of some members of congress towards him, and receiving the memorial of the legislature of Pennsylvania against his going into winter quarters, the General also discovered the failure already mentioned in the commissary department.

On this occasion, he addressed congress in terms of energy and plainness which he had used on no former occasion.
In his letter to that body he said, "Full as I was in my representation of the matters in the commissary's department yesterday, fresh and more powerful reasons oblige me to add that I am now convinced beyond a doubt that, unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place in that line, this army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things--to starve, dissolve, or disperse in order to obtain subsistence.

Rest assured, sir, that this is not an exaggerated picture, and that I have abundant reason to suppose what I say.
"Saturday afternoon, receiving information that the enemy, in force, had left the city, and were advancing towards Derby with apparent design to forage, and draw subsistence from that part of the country, I ordered the troops to be in readiness, that I might give every opposition in my power; when, to my great mortification, I was not only informed, but convinced, that the men were unable to stir on account of a want of provisions; and that a dangerous mutiny, begun the night before, and which with difficulty was suppressed by the spirited exertions of some officers, was still much to be apprehended from the want of this article.
"This brought forth the only commissary in the purchasing line in this camp, and with him this melancholy and alarming truth, that he had not a single hoof of any kind to slaughter, and not more than twenty-five barrels of flour! From hence, form an opinion of our situation, when I add that he could not tell when to expect any.
[Sidenote: Distress of the American army for clothes.] "All I could do under these circumstances, was to send out a few light parties to watch and harass the enemy, whilst other parties were instantly detached different ways to collect, if possible, as much provision as would satisfy the present pressing wants of the soldiers; but will this answer?
No, sir.

Three or four days of bad weather would prove our destruction.