=222. Spirit of Mutiny.=—On New Year’s Day, 1781, thirteen hundred Pennsylvania troops claimed that their time had expired, and, seizing six field-pieces, set out for Philadelphia to secure their rights from Congress. After much parleying, Congress, through its president, promised to give them certificates of indebtedness and their formal discharge. Thus it was settled that the men who had enlisted on the ambiguous terms might go when the three years had expired. By this decision Washington’s army not only lost its best troops, but was agitated by the mutinous spirit of others who were tempted to try the same method. On the 20th of January a part of the New Jersey troops mutinied without any adequate reason, and were not subdued until they were met by a brigade of troops from Massachusetts. The insurgents were soon brought to order, and two of the ringleaders were shot by Washington’s command. Thus came to a close the most discouraging year of the whole war. =223. Discouragements at the Beginning of 1781.=—The disasters that had come to the Americans in 1780 gave the British many reasons to hope for a successful end of the contest in the summer of 1781. After the defeat of Gates at Camden there was a reasonable prospect that Cornwallis, having completely established British authority in the farther South, would be able to overrun Virginia and then unite with Clinton in overwhelming Washington. This feeling received encouragement from the discontented state of the American army, but in their predictions the British greatly underrated the ingenuity and the resources of the American commander in chief. Congress, which had chosen to disregard Washington’s former recommendation by sending Gates to the South, was now, late in 1780, when there was only a forlorn hope of success, quite willing that the commander should designate the general to meet Cornwallis. Washington selected Greene, the man he had recommended the year before. The latter did not reach Charlotte in North Carolina until the 2d of December; but he found that much had already been done by Marion, Sumter, and Morgan to counteract the effects of disaster and to keep alive the patriotic spirit. [Illustration: MAP OF OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTH, 1780–1781] AMERICAN SUCCESSES IN THE SOUTH.