In the month of June, when the army took the field, and encamped at Peekskill, its effective numbers did not exceed five thousand men.
Such was the American force in the north, with which the campaign of 1781 was opened.

It fell so far short of that on which the calculations had been made at Weathersfield, as to excite serious doubts respecting the propriety of adhering to the plan there concerted, although some compensation was made for this deficiency on the part of the states by the arrival of a reinforcement of fifteen hundred men to the army of Rochambeau under convoy of a fifty gun frigate.
To supply even this army with provisions, required much greater exertions than had ever been made since the system of requisitions had been substituted for that of purchasing.

The hope of terminating the war produced these exertions.

The legislatures of the New England states took up the subject in earnest, and passed resolutions for raising the necessary supplies.

But until these resolutions could be executed, the embarrassments of the army continued; and, for some time after the troops had taken the field, there was reason to apprehend, either that the great objects of the campaign must be relinquished for want of provisions, or that coercive means must still be used.
New England not furnishing flour, this important article was to be drawn from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.