Running the gauntlet of these and other problems, all at the same time,
was discouraging for Washington, to say the least. Few generals have
ever been more skilled, however, in ferreting out their opportunities,
or in making better use of them. Nearly on a par with his remarkable
victories at Trenton and Princeton was the way in which he reasserted
patriot control over most of New Jersey during the winter and spring of
1777, excepting only the immediate neighborhood of New Brunswick and
Perth Amboy. Even there, as time went on, the American pressure became
more or less constant.
Stationing bodies of several hundred light troops at Princeton, Bound
Brook, Elizabethtown, and other outlying posts, the Commander in Chief
inaugurated from the beginning what might be termed a “scorched earth”
policy. First came an order, on January 11, “to collect all the Beef,
Pork, Flour, Spirituous Liquors, &c. &c. not necessary for the
Subsistence of the Inhabitants, in all the parts of East Jersey, lying
below the Road leading from Brunswick to Trenton.” This was followed, on
February 3, by instructions for removing out of enemy reach “all the
Horses, Waggons, and fat Cattle” his generals could lay their hands on.
Payment for these items was to be guaranteed, but they might be taken by
force from Tories and others who refused to sell. Washington likewise
ordered the incessant hampering of all enemy attempts to obtain food and
forage. “I would not suffer a man to stir beyond their Lines,” he wrote
to Col. Joseph Reed, “nor suffer them to have the least Intercourse with
the Country.”
Conditions being what they were, the success with which these orders
were carried into effect is astounding. Gradually, more provisions found
their way to Morristown. On the other hand, hardly an enemy foraging
party could leave its own camp without being set upon by the Americans.
Newspapers, letters, and diaries of the period are filled with accounts
of recurrent clashes between detachments of the two armies, some
involving several thousand men. There were no great casualties on either
side, but the Continentals seldom came off second-best. “Amboy and
Brunswick,” wrote one historian, “were in a manner besieged.” Both enemy
troops and horses grew sickly from want of fresh food, and many of them
died before spring. In New York itself, where Sir William Howe kept
headquarters, all kinds of provisions became “extremely dear” in price.
Firewood was equally scarce in city and camp.
Thus, by enterprise and daring expedients, Washington greatly
discomfited the British Army, reduced still further its waning influence
in New Jersey, and simultaneously maintained his own small force in
action, preventing the men’s minds from yielding to despondence.