Delaware or at Morristown. War is a hateful and repellent enough thing;
but it is at least better to be in the thick of it, to smell burning
powder and see and feel the enemy, even if he be at your heels, than to be
posted far away from the theatre of conflict, spying upon an outwardly
peaceful community for signs of treason and disaffection.

I should not like to put down in black and white, here in my old age, all
the harsh and malignant things which I thought of my Mohawk Valley
neighbors, or some of them, during those fourteen months. I am able to see
now that they were not altogether without excuse.

The affairs of the revolted Colonies were, in truth, going very badly. No
sooner had Congress summoned the resolution to decree Continental
independence than the fates seemed to conspire to show that the
declaration was a mistake. Our successes in the field came to a sudden
halt; then disasters followed in their place. Public confidence, which had
been too lightly raised, first wavered, then collapsed. Against the
magnificent army of English and Hessian regulars which Howe mustered in
New York, General Washington could not hold his own, and Congress lost the
nerve to stand at his back. Our militia threw up the service,
disheartened. Our commissariat faded out of existence. The patriot force
became the mere skeleton of an army, ragged, ill-fed, discouraged, and
almost hopeless. In battle after battle the British won--by overwhelming
numbers or superior fortune, it mattered not which; the result was equally
lamentable.

There had been, indeed, a notable week at Christmas-time, when the swift
strong blows struck at Trenton and Princeton lifted for a moment the cloud
which hung over us. But it settled down again, black and threatening,
before spring came.