From Diary of the American Revolution, Vol II. Compiled by Frank Moore and published in 1859.
April 17.—By a person who was, like many others, forced into the rebel army against his consent, and yesterday escaped from Newark, we are assured that the rebel troops, being served with salt beef, (which is exceedingly putrid from bad salt and ill curing,) and being only allowed a small proportion of wretched whiskey every other day, are uncommonly sickly and discontented; that two regiments in the neighborhood of Washington’s quarters had mutinied, and that the most part of the men only wanted an opportunity either of deserting to the British, or of turning their arms against those who have inveigled them into a service which they despise and detest, and who, after having long crammed them with promises and lies, are now carrying the experiment beyond sufferance by refusing them wholesome food.1
1 Rivington’s Gazette, April 17.