On New Year’s Day, January 1, 1781, the Pennsylvania line (Continentals) revolted, and Captain Billings was killed in the effort to suppress the outbreak. Thirteen hundred men, with six guns, started for Philadelphia. Wayne was powerless to control even his own command; and so advised Washington. The Commander-in-Chief was at first impelled to leave New Windsor and go in person to the camps; but knowing that he had troops who would obey him, whatever conditions might arise, he addressed himself to this state of affairs with a dignity, deliberation, and sympathy, so calm and yet so impressive, that he both retained the full prestige of his position, and secured full control of the disaffection. He allowed passion to subside; and then resolved to execute his own will, at all hazards. The details of his mental struggle, and the precautionary measures taken by him to master the situation, with eager and excited veterans at his back to enforce his will, would fill a volume. Recognizing the neglect of State authorities to furnish their own respective regiments with food, clothing, and money, he proudly, sublimely, and with a dignity beyond any heroic act of the battlefield, called upon the Governors of the Northern States to send their militia, at once, _to take care of Clinton’s army in New York_, if they wished to prevent the invasion and waste of their own peaceful homes. In other words, as plainly as he could do it, he made the “stay-at-homes” responsible for their own further immunity from battle scenes and battle waste.