Pennsylvania Line Mutiny The Pennsylvania Line Mutiny began January 1 , 1781 , and ended with negotiated settlement on January 8 , 1781 . The negotiated terms were concluded by January 29 , 1781 . The mutiny was the most successful and consequential insurrection by Continental Army soldiers during the American Revolutionary War . Although the mutineers demanded a change in their conditions , they refused to defect to the British despite enticement by British Army General Sir Henry Clinton . When negotiations with the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania promised satisfactory resolution , many of the soldiers returned to arms for the Continental Army and participated in future campaigns . This mutiny inspired a similar insurrection by the New Jersey Line , but instead of a favorable negotiated settlement , several New Jersey soldiers were executed for treason to bring their units back to order . Background . During the winter of 1780 – 1781 , the Continental Army was dispersed into smaller components to ease the strain of supply . The Pennsylvania Line , comprising about 2 , 400 men , was encamped at Jockey Hollow , New Jersey , near Morristown . Conditions for the army were deplorable , as reported in letters by both General George Washington , commander of the entire Continental Army , and General Anthony Wayne , commander of the Pennsylvania Line . In previous years , both Washington and Wayne had cited corruption and a lack of concern on the part of state governments and the Continental Congress in fostering the poor conditions . Pennsylvania troops had particular cause for discontent , as Pennsylvania was one of the stingiest states in paying its soldiers — many of the Pennsylvania Line had served for three years in exchange for only their initial $ 20 bounty . Other states ' troops were receiving enlistment bounties valued in hundreds of dollars ( New Jersey recruits received a $ 1 , 000 bounty ) , and even new Pennsylvania recruits received large bounties while serving soldiers neither received regular pay nor reenlistment money . By January 1 , 1781 , the soldiers ' dissatisfaction reached a boiling point . Many " three year men " reckoned that their enlistment terms , " for three years or the duration of the war " , had ended with the coming of the new year . However , desperate to maintain the army ' s manpower , the Line ' s officers reckoned the enlistment terms to mean that soldiers were bound to serve for the duration of the war if it lasted more than three years . The Pennsylvania government would later admit that the widely accepted reckoning used by the soldiers was the correct one . Mutiny . On January 1 , 1781 , the Pennsylvania Line held a raucous New Year ' s Day celebration . That evening , soldiers from several regiments armed themselves and prepared to depart the camp without permission . Officers led the remaining orderly regiments to quell the uprising , but after a few warning shots from the mutineers , the rest of the regiments fell into line with them . Captain Adam Bitting , commander of Company D , 4th Pennsylvania Regiment , was fatally shot by a mutineer who was trying to kill a lieutenant colonel . Otherwise , the uprising was relatively bloodless . General Wayne tried to convince the soldiers to return to order peacefully , but while the soldiers promised not to defect to the British , they would not be satisfied until Pennsylvania redressed their grievances . Wayne followed his troops and dispatched letters to Washington and the Pennsylvania government . The Line set up a temporary headquarters in the town of Princeton , New Jersey and selected a Board of Sergeants to speak for them , headed by Sergeant William Bouzar , who had previously served in the British Army . Continental and British negotiations . On January 5 , the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania learned of the mutiny and immediately dispatched Joseph Reed , the council ' s president , to resolve it . That same day , George Washington issued a circular letter to the Continental Congress and the governments of New Hampshire , Massachusetts , Rhode Island , and Connecticut , begging once again for material aid for the army , citing the soldiers ' deplorable conditions that lend to the mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line . Reed spent the night of January 6 in Trenton where he met with delegates from the Continental Congress . Knowing the mutineers would have public sympathy on their side ( including the Pennsylvania militia ) , the government had no choice but to negotiate . On January 7 , Reed arrived in Princeton to meet the Board of Sergeants . Although General Anthony Wayne initially feared his men might not welcome Reed , on the contrary , Wayne and Reed were forced to dissuade the soldiers from honoring them with a cannon salute out of fear that it might alarm the locals . Also on January 7 , an emissary from General Sir Henry Clinton , British commander in New York City , arrived with a guide he had acquired in New Jersey . The agent brought a letter from Clinton offering the Pennsylvanians their back pay from British coffers if they gave up the rebel cause . Clinton had misjudged the nature of the Pennsylvanians ' mutiny — the sentries seized both the agent and his guide . Although the mutineers refused to turn Clinton ' s emissaries over immediately to Wayne and Reed , they showed good faith by informing them of the British offer and their refusal to accept it . Negotiations went quickly , as the soldiers distilled their grievances to one issue : that men enlisted in 1776 and 1777 for $ 20 bounty be discharged and then given the opportunity to reenlist for a new bounty if they wished . Reed heard testimony to the effect that officers had coerced soldiers to stay in the army or reenlist with unfavorable terms , even employing corporal punishment to that end . He found the testimony compelling and agreed to their terms , even allowing that the many soldiers whose enlistment papers were unavailable could simply swear an oath that they were " twenty dollar men " and be discharged . Aftermath . Reed made arrangements in Trenton , where the Pennsylvanians marched to begin the discharge process on January 12 . Approximately 1 , 250 infantrymen and 67 artillerymen were discharged . When the proceedings ended on January 29 , only 1 , 150 out of 2 , 400 men remained in the Pennsylvania Line . However , many discharged men later reenlisted and the remaining regiments accepted their old officers . In the aftermath of the mutiny , the Pennsylvania Line underwent a reorganization . The 7th , 8th , 9th , 10th , and 11th Pennsylvania Regiment s were disbanded and their remaining soldiers reassigned to the senior units . The 1st Pennsylvania Regiment reorganized at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania under Colonel Daniel Brodhead IV . The 2nd also regrouped at Philadelphia under Colonel Walter Stewart . The 3rd was posted to Reading with Colonel Thomas Craig in command ; the 4th under Colonel William Butler went to Carlisle ; the 5th under Colonel Richard Butler went to York ; and the 6th under Colonel Richard Humpton went to Lancaster . The rank and file , though not the sergeants and musicians , were all furloughed until 15 March . On that date the regiments reassembled at their respective towns . In May , Wayne led the 2nd , 5th , and 6th Pennsylvania south to join operations against the British in Virginia . In literature . One of Howard Fast ' s historical novels , The Proud and the Free ( 1950 ) , tells this story from the enlisted man ' s point of view . Additionally , Ann Rinaldi ' s historical fiction novel " A Ride Into Morning " includes the mutiny .