The First American Army - Bruce Chadwick [163]
The British retaliated for the raid in early February by attacking both Elizabethtown and the nearby community of Bergen. They burned several buildings in each community, captured more than a dozen officers and, in a bold move, abducted Joseph Hedden, one of the Essex County freeholders.27
By that time, all of the huts at Jockey Hollow were completed, but continual clothing, food, and supply problems continued to plague the soldiers. The currency shortage that drove the price of a horse up to $20,000 eased somewhat when Congress decided to collect and burn existing money and create a new, limited supply to curb inflation.
Several more storms hit the area, delaying shipments of clothing and food. The population that had saved the army in January was reluctant to do so again and throughout February and March merchants and farmers constantly argued with army purchasing agents over prices and credit. At one point General de Kalb wailed, “These are the people who talk about sacrificing their all in the cause of liberty!” And Nathanael Greene lamented that “there was never a darker hour in American politics than this.”28
The Militia Colonel under Arrest
Sylvanus Seely, now a colonel, spent the winter of 1780 as he had spent most of the winters of the war. Since the army was in camp, the militia was not called to join it and Seely’s military business was limited to overseeing the posting of guards around the Morristown area and maintaining the complicated beacon and alarm gun lookout network that Washington had devised three years earlier. He continued to run his small inn, but the dreadful weather curtailed business. The colonel continued to engage in business deals, traveling to purchase items for his store that he would try to sell at a profit. He again entered into small business deals with army officers. They would provide cash for some transaction with him, and he would take care of the business and split whatever profit there was. He became sick from the bad weather from time to time.
His life fell apart in early April. The militia leader had gone out to settle some financial debts in a snowstorm that dumped three inches of snow on the area on Friday, March 31. Seely became ill from exposure and on the following Thursday saw a doctor, who bled him. The bleeding did not hurt as much as what happened to him later that day—he was arrested.
The charges against him were serious—trading with the enemy. It was alleged that as leader of the militia while it was posted in Elizabethtown he permitted local residents to illegally purchase British goods taken by the American army from a captured ship. He was also accused of permitting residents to illegally sell goods to the British, as well as transporting goods from ships to his quarters and later selling them. It was charged that he permitted loyalists to illegally travel back and forth between Elizabethtown and New York. Finally, it was alleged that Seely juggled his militia payroll books to permit friends who were just privates to receive officers’ pay.
The arrest came at a time when illegal colonial–English sales, called “London trade,” had become an epidemic; Governor Livingston called any such transaction “a piece of villainy.”29 American currency was practically worthless and many Americans found it more beneficial to sell goods to the British for their far more valuable pound sterling. It was also difficult to