s severe in his temper, did not mingle cruelties in
his general system, which would excite universal indignation in other
wars. It must be admitted that his supplies of provisions were neither
good nor abundant; and that the American soldiers, in their own camp,
were unhealthy. But the excessive mortality prevailing among the
prisoners can be accounted for on no ordinary principles; and the
candid, who were least inclined to criminate without cause, have ever
been persuaded that, if his orders did not produce the distress which
existed, his authority was not interposed with sufficient energy, to
correct the abuses which prevailed.

The capture of General Lee furnished an additional ground of
controversy on the subject of prisoners. As he had been an officer in
the British service, whose resignation had not, perhaps, been received
when he entered into that of America, a disposition was, at first,
manifested to consider him as a deserter, and he was closely confined.
On receiving information of this circumstance, congress directed
General Howe to be assured that Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, and five
Hessian field-officers, should be detained, and should experience
precisely the fate of General Lee. These officers were taken into
close custody, and informed that the resolution announced to General
Howe should be strictly enforced.

The sentiments of the Commander-in-chief on the subject of
retaliation, seem to have been less severe than those of congress. So
great was his abhorrence of the cruelties such a practice must
generate, that he was unwilling to adopt it in any case not of
absolute and apparent necessity. Not believing that of General Lee to
be such a case, he remonstrated strongly against these resolutions.
But congress remained inflexible; and the officers designated as the
objects of retaliation, were kept in rigorous confinement until
General Lee was declared to be a prisoner of war.[104]

[Footnote 104: See note No. XIII. at the end of the volume.]

The resolutions of congress respecting the prisoners taken at the
Cedars, were also the source of much embarrassment and chagrin to the
Commander-in-chief. Alleging that the capitulation had been violated
on the part of the enemy, and that the savages had been permitted to
murder some of the prisoners, and to plunder others, they withheld
their sanction from the agreement entered into by General Arnold with
Captain Forster, and refused to allow other pris