rth Carolina, only to abandon them; they overran
Virginia, to lay down their arms at Yorktown. As Washington early in the
war divined, the Revolution was "a war of posts," and he urged the danger
of "dividing and subdividing our Force too much [so that] we shall have no
one post sufficiently guarded," saying, "it is a military observation
strongly supported by experience, 'that a superior army may fall a
sacrifice to an inferior, by an injudicious division.'" It was exactly
this which defeated the British; every conquest they made weakened their
force, and the war was not a third through when Washington said, "I am
well convinced myself, that the enemy, long ere this, are perfectly well
satisfied, that the possession of our towns, while we have an army in the
field, will avail them little." As Franklin said, when the news was
announced that Howe had captured Philadelphia, "No, Philadelphia has
captured Howe."

The problem of the Revolution was not one of military strategy,
but of keeping an army in existence, and it was in this that the
commander-in-chief's great ability showed itself. The British could and
did repeatedly beat the Continental army, but they could not beat the
General, and so long as he was in the field there was a rallying ground
for whatever fighting spirit there was.

The difficulty of this task can hardly be over-magnified. When Washington
assumed command of the forces before Boston, he "found a mixed multitude
of people ... under very little discipline, order, or government," and
"confusion and disorder reigned in every department, which, in a little
time, must have ended either in the separation of the army or fatal
contests with one another." Before he was well in the saddle his general
officers were quarrelling over rank, and resigning; there was such a
scarcity of powder that it was out of the question for some months to do
anything; and the British sent people infected with small-pox to the
Continental army, with a consequent outbreak of that pest.

Hardly had he brought order out of chaos when the army he had taken such
pains to discipline began to melt away, having been by political folly
recruited for short terms, and the work was to be all done over. Again and
again during the war regiments which had been enlisted for short periods
left him at the most critical moment. Very typical occurrences he himself
tells of, when Connecticut troops could "not be prevailed upon to stay
longer than th