Mutiny of Pennsylvania line

Jan 1, 1781

Mutiny of Pennsylvania line

On this day in 1781, 1500 soldiers from the Pennsylvania line (all 11 regiments under general Anthony Wayne's command) insist that their three year enlistments are expired, kill three officers in a drunken rage and abandon the continental army's winter camp at Morristown, New Jersey.

The official story is that the mutiny lasted till the 7th of January with the mutineers working against the continental army and the mutiny then turning down a offer to join the redcoats from General Henry Clinton. Turning down to Princeton and capturing it on the 3rd of January they send an envoy to meet General Wayne to air their grievances and handed over Clinton men for execution.

On the 10th of January after three days of  negotiations with congress, General Wayne and the congressional President Reed, half of the men accepted discharges and the other half took furlough coupled with bonuses for reinstatement and formed the Pennsylvania Battalion.

The truth which has been found in the archive of the Miskatonic University is that the 1500 solders did not in fact mutiny but were controlled by an evil force in which they looked out of control and where behaving with pack mentality (i.e. Drunk).

What was also missing from the story was that the three officers where not stationed with these men but were part of a group that were charged with the order to transport a copy of a book stolen from the redcoats and due to bad weather had to stay with the camp for a couple of weeks.

Over the weeks the group saw what the effect the book has on the soldiers and were looking for a break in the weather so they can travel.  Unfortunately, with the murder of three of the party and with the rest of the party escaping south, the 1500 soldiers followed suit.

With the book wearing off, the soldiers started to come to there senses and were contacted by both sides of the war to try and secure the book.

The soldiers that remembered what had happened were turned in to the Pennsylvania Battalion, as the exposure made them less susceptible to the effects of these artefacts in the future and the others were paid off and given land but watched by the authorities until their deaths.