Mutiny of Gornell

views updated

Mutiny of Gornell

MUTINY OF GORNELL. April 1782. Inadequate supplies and other administrative grievances, combined with a lack of military activity, produced considerable discontent in Major General Nathanael Greene's southern army in October 1781. When these same conditions reappeared in the spring of 1782, the Pennsylvania battalions that had marched south under Brigadier General Anthony Wayne after Yorktown became the most agitated, still feeling lingering resentment from their previous mutiny. Before this trouble could spread to the Maryland troops, Greene determined to crack down, especially as he suspected British agents to be at work. Greene arrested the ringleader, a Sergeant Gornell, and tried him in a court-martial. On 23 April he was executed, ending the disturbance. The historian Carl Van Doren has identified him as George Goznall of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment.

SEE ALSO Southern Campaigns of Nathanael Greene.

                    revised by Robert K. Wright Jr.