Newburgh

Newburgh, New York: Where the Revolution Was Saved from Itself

The American Revolution was won not once but twice — first on the battlefield, and then in a cramped stone farmhouse overlooking the Hudson River, where George Washington stood before his own officers and, with a single quiet gesture, preserved the republic that their sacrifices had made possible. That farmhouse was the Hasbrouck House in Newburgh, New York, and the crisis that unfolded there in March 1783 may have been the most dangerous moment the young nation ever faced — not from British arms, but from the frustrations and fury of the very army that had secured American independence. Newburgh's place in the Revolution is not defined by a dramatic battle or a famous siege. It is defined by something rarer and more consequential: the moment when military power voluntarily submitted to civilian authority, establishing a precedent without which the United States as we know it could never have existed.

To understand why Newburgh mattered, one must understand the condition of the Continental Army in the final years of the war. By the autumn of 1782, the military situation had shifted decisively in America's favor. Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown more than a year earlier, and peace negotiations were underway in Paris. Yet the Continental Congress, operating under the weak Articles of Confederation, was nearly bankrupt. It had no power to tax and relied on requisitions from the states — requisitions that went largely ignored. Congress had, in 1780, promised Continental officers a lifetime pension of half their pay when they were discharged.

Financier Robert Morris had in early 1782 stopped army pay as a cost-saving measure, arguing that when the war finally ended the arrears would be made up. Officers who had served for years, often at great personal cost, had not been paid. Many had been promised half-pay pensions for life, a commitment Congress now seemed unable or unwilling to honor. Enlisted soldiers were in even worse condition, ragged and hungry, held together by discipline and by the force of Washington's personal example. The army was encamped in and around Newburgh and the nearby cantonment at New Windsor, positioned along the Hudson to keep watch over the remaining British garrison in New York City. By the end of 1782, the British army's largest stronghold in North America was New York City, and the Continental Army set up its quarters for the winter in New Windsor — approximately fifty miles north of New York City on the Hudson River. The soldiers constructed nearly 600 log huts aligned in rows, making the cantonment the second largest city in New York State at the time. With some officers staying in nearby homes, the cantonment encompassed 1,600 acres.

The nearby Edmonston House, built in 1755, was used as a headquarters for Continental Generals Horatio Gates and Arthur St. Clair during the 1782–1783 encampment.

Over 7,000 soldiers and some 500 of their wives and children remained there through June 1783. It was here, in this uneasy limbo between war and peace, that the crisis gathered.

Washington established his headquarters at the Hasbrouck House, a modest Dutch fieldstone dwelling built in 1750 by Jonathan and Tryntje Hasbrouck, on April 1, 1782. Washington chose the Hasbrouck house because of a key ferry crossing and its proximity to the nearby American army encampment at Vails Gate (New Windsor Cantonment). It was also chosen for its comparatively safe location north of the strategically important West Point. His wife Martha accompanied him, along with officers and enslaved people who attended the household. At sixteen months and nineteen days, it was Washington's longest tenure at any of his headquarters during the war.

Even before the larger conspiracy took shape, the dangers of military discontent had already surfaced at Newburgh. On May 22, 1782, Colonel Lewis Nicola sent a letter to Washington proposing that the general should become King of the United States.

Washington reacted very strongly against the suggestion, and was greatly troubled by it. In his reply, written that same day, he told Nicola that no occurrence during the course of the war had given him more painful feelings than learning that such ideas were circulating in the army. Washington firmly rejected the suggestion to institute an American monarchy. The episode was a harbinger of the deeper unrest to come.

That summer, however, Washington also turned his attention to honoring the men who had served so faithfully. On August 7, 1782, from his headquarters at the Hasbrouck House, he created two awards with which to recognize the service of those in the Continental Army. The first was the Honorary Badge of Distinction, a chevron for faithful service. The second, the Badge of Military Merit, was designed by Washington in the form of a purple heart and was intended to recognize "not only instances of unusual gallantry in battle, but also extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way."

This was the first time that soldiers below the rank of officer were so honored.

Only three men are known to have received the Badge of Military Merit during the Revolutionary War: Sergeant Elijah Churchill of the 2nd Continental Dragoons, Sergeant William Brown of the 5th Connecticut Regiment, and Sergeant Daniel Bissell of the 2nd Connecticut Line Infantry. The Badge of Military Merit fell into disuse after the Revolution but was revived in 1932 as the Purple Heart — a medal that to this day bears Washington's image. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor now stands in New Windsor, less than two miles from the Newburgh line.

But the central crisis at Newburgh was still to come. A petition to Congress from the officers for pay for the men and assurances of pensions for the officers had been met in January 1783 with more promises but no concrete action.

By January 6, 1783, a Congressional committee was created to address the officers and the memorandum.

Committee members argued for a lump sum of funds rather than half-pay-for-life payments, but committee meetings were fruitless.

On March 10, 1783, General Washington learned that his officers planned to meet the following day at the Temple of Virtue, a large hall at the New Windsor Cantonment near his headquarters. At the meeting they were to discuss a fiery petition, most likely written by John Armstrong Jr., an aide-de-camp of Horatio Gates.

Officers planned to mutiny if the Confederation Congress did not provide them back pay and pensions. If the war continued, they threatened to abandon their posts and let the American people fend for themselves against the British. If the war was over, they would march on Congress and demand their pay.

Washington banned the unsanctioned March 11 meeting and ordered his men to meet instead at noon on March 15.

On that day, as his officers crowded into the Temple of Virtue, Washington slipped in through a side door unnoticed. His men were surprised when he suddenly stood before them and read a passionate nine-page speech, known as the Newburgh Address. He sympathized with their demands but denounced the methods they now contemplated to achieve them.

In his March 12 letter to Alexander Hamilton, Washington had described himself as needing "to prevent the officers from being taken by surprise while the passions were all inflamed." The speech contained important themes that