Neither funds nor credit were possessed for the purchase of others, and the quarter-master-general found himself unable to transport provisions from remote magazines into camp.

This circumstance reduced the Commander-in-chief to the painful necessity of calling on the patriotism of private citizens, under the penalty of a military impressment, should a voluntary contribution be refused, for those means of conveyance which the government could not supply.
The want of food was not the only difficulty to be surmounted.

Others of a serious nature presented themselves.

The pay of an officer was reduced by the depreciation of the currency, to such a miserable pittance as to be unequal to the supply of the most moderate demands.
The pay of a major general would no longer hire an express rider, and that of a captain would not purchase the shoes in which he marched.
The American officers were not rich; and many of them had expended their _little all_ in the service.

If they had exhausted their private funds, or if they possessed none, they could rely only on the state to which they belonged for such clothing as the state might be willing or able to furnish.