as the commander of the army at newburgh without washington s consent. the congress simply appointed him and sent him to newburgh telling general washington, you may use him as you please. so general gates arrived to be the actual commander of the army. washington, of course, commander in chief. but gates being the general in charge at the encampment. the men in the encampment, of course, bored, not much to do. about 7,000 soldiers. there they began to build their huts at a place called new windsor. the new windsor encampment. they built about 700 wooden huts, neatly laid out for the winter encampment. and there they took up their quarters. what do you do with an army, this kind of situation? you drill and drill and then you drill some more, you build more huts, you build roads, you have to keep them busy but it wasn t working very well. so chaplain evans decided, let us build a temple of virtue. so in the middle of this encampment the soldiers went to work to build a temple
there were rumors in congress, as well as in the army, that his soldiers were disappointed with him. they accused the commander in chief of not doing enough for them in articulating their demands and their grievances. washington found that particularly hurtful. hamilton then suggested that washington talk with general knox. a very, very dangerous game now was underway. both knox and washington had an inkling of what was going on in philadelphia, and now they were being drawn in. it seems to me entirely likely, probable, that general knox and general washington did, in fact, talk. their headquarters were about 12 miles apart. washington was in newburgh, knox was at west point. i m sure they did. they probably shared letters. the one from knox the one from morris to knox, the one from hamilton to washington. these two men then replied to the men from philadelphia. knox replied first to governor morris. he told governor morris, i consider the reputation of the american army as
he told governor morris i consider the reputation of the american army as one of the most immaculate things on earth. we should even suffer wrongs and injuries to the utmost verge of toler ration rather than sully it in the least degree. i hope to god that the army will never be directed that against the enemies of the liberties of america. a few days later, washington replied to hamilton the fatal tendency to involve the army in political matters would be productive of civil commotions and end in blood. i stand as citizen and soldier. citizen and soldier. well, the nationalists had been rebuffed by knox and washington and so they quite naturally turned to a man with whom they knew they could deal. general gates. general gates at his headquarters at ellison house, very near the encampment was surrounded by a young staff of majors, lieutenant colonels. an interesting sidelight, in talking about the events at newbergh it has been suggested general gates was unaware of what