However, I trust that there "are many who will act like men, and show themselves worthy of the "blessings of freedom." {Letter to tlie Congress, " Hii.vl>-qu.\RTKiis, .\T "Colonel Morkis's iiovse, 16 September, 1776.") On the day after the date of the Retitnis of Ihe Ai nnj whicli are referred to in the text, the (ieueral wrote to his brother, "the de|>cndence which the Congress have "placed iipim the Militia has already greatly injured and, I fear, will " totally ruin our cause. Being subject to no control, themselves, they "introduce disorder among the tr(»ups whom we have attempted to dis- "cipline ; while the change in their living brings on sickness; and this "causes an impatience to get home, which spreads, universally, and in- "troduces abominable desertions. In short, it is not in the power of " words to describe the task I have to perform. Kifly thousand pounds " would not induce me again to undergo what I have done." (General WushingloH to John Angnttine Washington, "UkiuiITS OF HAERI.EM, 22 "September, 1776.")

present and fit for duty, including Colonel Knox's Regiment of Artillery, was reduced to fifteen thousand, one hundred, and four;' and on the fifth of October, the same rank and file, present and fit for duty, including the Artillery, numbered only fourteen thousand, four hundred, and eighty-six, exclusive of seven skeleton Regiments of Connecticut and Rhode Island, forming two nominal Brigades, each with its full complements of Officers and Stafl', in which there were nominally twelve hundred and seventy-five men, present and fit for duty. There was, also, a body of Massachusetts Militia, " computed at four thousand, " so scattered and ignorant of the forms of Returns "that none can be got;" and a Regiment of New Hampshire Militia was posted at the White Plains and another at the Fishkills, " under the like circum- " stances." ^