I was recently informed by New York State Senator Hillary Clinton,
through the local press serving the Hudson Valley and the Catskills,
where Ulster County is in the Catskills, (north of Orange and south of
Greene, I worked in what was once "Fox Hollow" now Allaben, NY one
summer) that there was a so-called "Newburgh Plot" in 1783, within
which officers of the American side conspired to make General George
Washington a monarch, which he refused most strongly, objecting to
turning the streets of the young country into even more bloodshed. I
had been commuting to archaeology work beside the New Windsor
Cantonment (where I once camped in winter), just south of Newburgh,
NY, where after the treaty with Great Britain was signed, American
troops (and families) stayed on, just in case, it was not honored.
Perhaps, as you have suggested, the ware refers to the almost civil
war that could have resulted, if the Newburgh Plot had come to pass,
perhaps why its suggested it was popular among veterans?.