What brought the American army to the brink of mutiny and a coup d’état in 1783?

Once the army had won its final battle, the Continental Congress asked the soldiers to wait for the army to be formally disbanded before they went home. For a year and a half the army waited, but by the spring of 1783, the soldiers and officers had many reasons for complaint. The northern army was in barracks in Newburgh, New York. They were bored. By December 1782, they had not been paid for months. Pensions that the Congress had promised looked like they might never be paid. Under these conditions, army officers threatened to topple the government by force if their demands were not met.