f
difficulties. That whenever there was a chance for a fight the men were
very ardent, he was glad to acknowledge. But that when there was nothing
to relieve the monotony of the camp they were indifferent to all
discipline, he knew only too well. They were incorrigible traders of
uniforms and equipment, sticklers for seniority upon but a few months'
service, insistent for furloughs for return to labor on their own
affairs, and troublesome even in demanding pay by lunar instead of
calendar months. In order that their Yankee ingenuity might find less
time to invent more trouble for him and for themselves, Washington very
sensibly worked them hard at his fortifying, "Sundays not
excepted."[122]

There were, however, difficulties which could be got over neither by
work, nor by thought, nor by gradually licking an army into shape.
Powder and arms both were lacking.

Powder was scarcely to be had anywhere. It was little made in the
colonies, especially not in the neighborhood of Boston. Again and again
we find Washington writing for it, and occasionally reporting his exact
situation. More than once the army had but nine rounds to a man. On the
twenty-fourth of August Washington writes: "We have been in a terrible
situation, occasioned by a mistake in a return; we reckoned upon three
hundred quarter casks, and had but thirty-two barrels."[123] A few days
later the situation was better, but still was bad enough, for he writes:
"We have only one hundred and eighty-four barrels of powder in all
(including the late supply from Philadelphia), which is not sufficient
to give twenty-five musket cartridges to each man, and scarcely to serve
the artillery in any brisk action one single day." He sent to Bermuda to
seize a supply, but his vessels arrived too late. Supplies did slowly
dribble in, and sometimes came in encouraging quantities when a
store-ship was captured. But there never was plenty on hand, and too
often not enough, for the powder would deteriorate in bad weather, as
was shown at a skirmish at Lechmere's Point. As the troops formed for
duty, cartridge boxes were examined, "when the melancholy truth
appeared."[124] Further, the men, from whom the lack of powder was
concealed, were fond of amusing themselves by indiscriminate shooting.
We find General Greene, in an order to his troops, threatening severe
punishment to those who shot at geese passing over the camp. And so,
with little acquisitions of powder, and steady dep