The Liberty Archive FREECAPITALISTS.ORG
Companion menu

Conceived in Liberty Companion · Volume IV, chapter 49 · 1 January 1781

The Pennsylvania Line mutinies · the Pennsylvania Line's hut camp at Mount Kemble, in Jockey Hollow, near Morristown, New Jersey

Justice before obedience

How should soldiers’ grievances be weighed against military obedience?

Content note: The narrative describes an officer killed during the mutiny, emissaries executed as spies, and executions after the separate New Jersey mutiny.

At night in the snow a stocky sergeant strides at the head of a long column of ragged soldiers, one fist raised, behind men hauling a small cannon on ropes, torches burning, rows of log huts behind them.
Modern AI-assisted reconstruction. Morristown, New Jersey, January 1781. At night, Sergeant William Bonzar leads six regiments of the Pennsylvania Line out of camp behind the artillery they have seized, bound for Congress. They are paid in worthless paper, and they will not serve past their three years. Rothbard praises them for putting justice and liberty above military obedience. Chapter 49 of Conceived in Liberty.

Before this scene

The Continental Army was the force fighting for American independence. By the winter of 1780–81 its soldiers faced unpaid wages and depreciating paper money, meaning money that bought less as its value fell. Pennsylvania soldiers also disputed how long they were obliged to serve. Rothbard describes men who understood their enlistments as three years, while officers insisted they remain until the war ended. The Pennsylvania Line, a group of regiments, therefore faced a conflict over both material conditions and the terms of service. [1] [2]

Download image

The story, from several sources

This account blends Rothbard’s chapter with the other sources listed below and has not yet been separated into Rothbard’s own account and the fuller story. Read Rothbard’s chapter 49 for his account.

By the winter of 1780, the Continental Army was falling apart. Congress had printed paper money until it was nearly worthless, and the soldiers were paid in it, when they were paid at all, and the states’ price controls only shut off supplies. The Pennsylvania Line, camped in log huts at Morristown, had enlisted for three years, and the officers insisted they stay until the war ended. On the night of New Year’s Day 1781, the men turned out under arms, seized the artillery and left. One officer was killed and two wounded. Six regiments, Rothbard says, set out under Sergeant William Bonzar to march on Congress with their demands for discharge and back pay. Congress sent a committee under Joseph Reed to Princeton and gave way. Everyone who had served three years was discharged and the arrears paid, with an allowance for the paper dollar’s fall. General Clinton sent two emissaries to offer the mutineers pardon and British pay, and they handed the men over to Wayne, who hanged them as spies. Offered a gold reward for their fidelity, Bonzar said the men were not entitled to any other reward but the love of their country. When New Jersey regiments tried the same, Washington crushed them and had two men shot.

Why it matters

Interpretation: Resistance within a revolutionary army tests whether a claim to liberty applies to those ordered to defend it. Evaluating the mutiny also requires weighing its grievances, the violence it involved, and the risks to others. [1] [2]

Examine and discuss

  1. What two kinds of grievance motivated the soldiers?
  2. How did negotiation with the Pennsylvania soldiers differ from the response to the New Jersey mutiny described afterward?
  3. Compare the mutiny with Ipswich’s refusal: which differences in means and consequences affect your judgment?

Where the record differs from Rothbard

Errata notes. Rothbard’s text and his account above are left as he wrote them. Every erratum.

Conceived in Liberty, p. 1397
Rothbard says ‘Led by Sgt. William Bonzar, six full regiments of Pennsylvanians’ mutinied and set out to march on Congress in Philadelphia.
The evidence The name is William Bouzar, who headed the Board of Sergeants at Princeton and spoke to Wayne; the Journal of the American Revolution has John Williams of the 2nd Pennsylvania at its head at Mount Kemble and men of all the regiments at the start, fewer than half the Line at first and about 1,500 of about 2,400 in the end. The men went to Princeton first.
Source the sources named in the evidence column

About the reconstruction

This is an AI-assisted adaptive companion inspired by Murray N. Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty. It draws on sources beyond the book and is not Rothbard’s original text or a condensation of it. Each scene identifies whether its narration combines sources or separates an account of the book from additional context.

The sources establish the event and accounts of it. The painting’s poses, expressions, lighting, and arrangement are artistic choices rather than a surviving visual record.

Suggest a correction to this companion scene. Notes about the original book are recorded separately.

Full sources and reuse information

Sources

  1. Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2011 single-volume ed.), vol. IV, ch. 49, ‘The End of the War in the North’, pp. 1393-1397. CC BY 3.0. Rothbard
  2. ‘Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line’, Journal of the American Revolution (2014; accessed 2026-10-02), through a fetch summary: the camp at Mount Kemble; disturbances about 9 p.m. in the 11th Pennsylvania; a skyrocket; the Board of Sergeants headed by John Williams of the 2nd Pennsylvania; four guns seized; Wayne opening his coat; about 1,500 men leaving ‘in regulation-perfect column of platoons under the command of their sergeants’; Captain Adam Bettin shot dead and two officers wounded. Secondary source
  3. ‘Pennsylvania Line Mutiny’, Wikipedia (accessed 2026-10-02), through fetch and search summaries: the Line of about 2,500 in huts at Jockey Hollow; the mutiny began about 10 p.m. on 1 January 1781; fewer than half at first and about 1,500 in the end; the Board of Sergeants headed by Sergeant William Bouzar, who had served in the British Army, at Princeton. Secondary source
  4. ‘The Pennsylvania Line Mutiny, its Origins and Patriotism’, Penn State University Libraries (accessed 2026-10-02), through a fetch summary: the 11th Regiment’s New Year’s celebration; the artillery dragged away and fired over the heads of the Ninth and Fifth to bring them in; Sergeant William Bouzar answering Wayne on behalf of the mutineers. Secondary source

Download the painting, full size (JPEG)

Painting and companion additions: CC BY 4.0, credit freecapitalists.org. How to credit.

Adapted from Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Mises Institute, 2011), CC BY 3.0. External sources retain their own terms.

Explore this scene in context

Return to browsing · Companion overview