Leather and Shoe Supply to The Continental Army

No article of clothing was more important to the soldier than shoes. Two pairs were included in the clothing bounty offered in the fall of 1776. While the troops lay at Boston the problem of supply did not become acute, but thereafter long marches over rough terrain wore out shoes faster than they could be supplied. On the retreat from New York in November 1776, Sgt. John Smith recorded that "our soldiers had no shoes to wair; was obliged to lace on their feet the hide of the cattle we had kill'd the day before." The shortage of shoes first received attention in the Northern Army. Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, then commanding that army, suggested in September 1776 that Congress appoint agents to erect and operate a tanyard wherever materials for tanning could be most readily procured and where hides-from cattle slaughtered to feed both the Northern Army and the main army-could be most easily conveyed. This method, he thought, would be the cheapest way of supplying the Continental Army with leather for shoes. Congress referred his proposal to the Board of War for consideration, but his suggestion apparently produced no results.

A congressional committee was sent to the Northern Department in the fall of 1776 to confer about the problems of the Northern Army. The disposition of the hides of cattle killed during the 1776 campaign was an aspect of operations that interested the committee. Its members soon discovered that agents of the Commissary Department at Ticonderoga, Albany, and elsewhere in the Northern Department had been disposing of hides at prices far below their real value because they would have spoiled during the summer. The committee halted any further sales and directed Commissary General Joseph Trumbull to have all hides dried and transported to Albany, where they could be sold or shipped elsewhere as Congress directed. Information on these low prices also reached the New York delegates in Congress through William Duer. Late in November Congress took action to prevent waste. It directed the commissaries in each military department to employ proper persons to take charge of the hides, cure them to prevent spoilage, and store them for the use of the Continental Army, subject to the orders of Congress. Congress, however, took no steps specifically to provide a better supply of shoes until the summer of 1777. By then shortages were so great, Washington informed Clothier General Mease, who was responsible for shoe procurement, that some corps were "almost entirely incapable of doing duty" for lack of shoes. Such shoes as Mease had supplied were too small and consequently of little use. Imported shoes were "thin french pumps" that tore to pieces whenever they got wet. He urged Mease to procure as many shoes as he could, adding that 50,000 pairs would not be too many.

In June Congress resolved to establish a Hide Department under the direction of a commissary who would receive all rawhides belonging to the United States and exchange them either for tanned leather or for shoes at the customary rate of exchange. He would then deliver the shoes to the Clothier General, who would distribute them to the troops. If such exchanges could not be made on reasonable terms, Congress authorized the Commissary of Hides either to provide tanyards, materials, and workmen himself, or to contract with proper persons for converting the hides into tanned leather. Congress placed the Hide Department under the supervision of the Board of War. At the latter's direction, the Commissary of Hides also made deliveries of leather to the Commissary General of Military Stores for making accouterments. Congress elected Peter Phillips to the office, which carried a monthly salary of 80 dollars. When he declined the post, Congress appointed George Ewing.

Only the exchange of hides for shoes, Washington later informed the Board of War, saved soldiers from being "rendered totally unfit for Service." No immediate improvement in shoe supply was apparent, and three months after Ewing's appointment, Washington demanded to know on what terms he was disposing of hides. If the hides of all cattle consumed by the Continental Army were returned in leather, "they would much more than shoe the soldiers." Commissary Ewing reported that he had received 144,376 pounds of hides since 2 September 1777. He was in the process of exchanging them for leather at the rate of five pounds for one pound of sole leather, and eight pounds per one pound of upper leather. Despite his efforts, the tanned leather was coming in slowly. The poor quality of the shoes procured, including those imported from France, and the continuing shortages led Washington to direct commanding officers to select their most suitable men and set them to work making moccasins for their corps. On the basis of returns by the officers, he directed commissaries to issue them hides. At one point the Commander in Chief offered 10 dollars to any person who produced the "best substitute for shoes, made of raw hides."

Ewing was beset by difficulties in managing the Hide Department. He needed wagons to haul hides but found it impossible to obtain them from the Quartermaster General. To enable him to operate more effectively, Congress authorized the Commissary of Hides or his deputy at any military department to hire or impress one or more wagons for the use of the Hide Department. These wagons were not to be subject to any further impressment by officers of the Continental Army for any other service. Moreover, commanding officers of military departments, posts, or detachments were to supply guards for the wagons at the request of the Commissary of Hides. Since hides were a valuable asset in the market and since the method of exchanging them for tanned leather or shoes was susceptible of much abuse by dishonest agents, Congress soon found it necessary to direct the Board of War to draft regulations for the guidance of the Hide Department. It also gave the board authority to appoint and dismiss personnel in the department.

- from SUPPLYING WASHINGTON'S ARMY, by Erna Risch

 George Ewing, mentioned above, bought supplies on the expectation of reimbursement by the army. After the war he was forced to sell all his real property to pay this debt. Ewing served as Commissary of Hides from August 5, 1777 to April 20, 1779. After his resignation, The Board of War appointed five regional commissioners to replace him, including Robert Lamb for Massachusetts.