The soldiers were perpetually on the point of starving, were often entirely without food; were exposed without proper clothing to the rigours of the season, and had now served almost twelve months without pay.
This state of things had been of such long continuance that scarcely the hope of a change could be indulged.

It produced, unavoidably, some relaxation of discipline; and the murmurs, occasionally escaping the officers, sometimes heard by the soldiers, were not without their influence.
In addition to the general causes of dissatisfaction, the Pennsylvania line complained of a grievance almost peculiar to itself.
When congress directed enlistments to be made for three years, or during the war, the recruiting officers of Pennsylvania, in some instances, instead of engaging their men, definitively, for the one period or the other, engaged them generally for three years, or the war.

This ambiguity in the terms of enlistment produced its natural effect.

The soldier claimed his discharge at the expiration of three years, and the officer insisted on retaining him in service during the war.

The soldier submitted with the more reluctance to the supposed imposition, as he constantly witnessed the immense bounties given to those who were not bound by a former enlistment.
[Sidenote: Mutiny in the Pennsylvania line.] The discontents which these various causes had been long fomenting, broke out on the night of the 1st of January, in an open and almost universal revolt of the line.
On a signal given, the great body of the non-commissioned officers and privates paraded under arms, avowing the determination to march to the seat of congress, and either obtain redress of their complicated grievances, or serve no longer.