It has been 245 years today since the "mutiny of the Pennsylvanian line," an important though now often overlooked moment in the history of our war for independence. It happened on the first day for a new year, 1781. The year would eventually see Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown and the effective end of the war, but that was not obvious on the first of its days. The "Pennsylvania line," the human contribution of the state of Pennsylvania to the fighting of the war, had hundreds of soldiers who had signed up three years before under contracts in which they offered their service for "three years or during the war." The wording was ambiguous. Did it mean they were enlisted until the first-to-occur of the elapse of three years or the end of the war? or the later-to-occur? Three years having passed, many of the soldiers took the view that they had completed their obligation. Their officers took the view that they were in for the duration. On this day...