Excerpt from Family Letters of Samuel Blachley Webb: 1764 1807

Penalties without the rewards of bravery and devotion to duty. Webb's own regiment came to speak of the hated Highlands, the most important military position of the North, but where a regiment grew rusty in garrison, and neither saw nor felt the stimulating service that marches and fighting give. Discipline was maintained, but it was a tiresome routine, offering little variety and broken only by a court martial or a foraging expedition. Besides, pay was low, was not regular, and often stood in heavy arrears; but expenses continued and the situation of the officers became worse each year. Even with the main army, where the heaviest demands were made upon the troops, victories were few and of little importance, the regular duties were exacting, and the Spirit of the men was kept at a low ebb because of the uncertainty of the future. The private no longer came into service flushed with patri otic ardor for the cause and intent upon redressing Wrongs which he felt and against which he had taken arms. He came under the bribe of a bounty and had only a little in terest in doing more than the army regulations required. This was as true of the New England troops as of those from other States. In a few years the tone of the army had changed for the worse; it required a few more years of hardship and intense suffering and sacrifice to produce the army that closed the war, an army of which any people could be proud, and a body of officers and men that in peace proved their high ideals and their worth to the Union as fully as they had proved their qualities in war.

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