[10] The second battle is often called the battle of Stillwater. Shortly before this Congress removed Schuyler from command and gave it to Gates, who thus reaped the glory of the whole campaign. In both battles Arnold greatly distinguished himself. He won the first fight and was wounded in the second. [11] Lafayette was a young French nobleman who, fired by accounts of the war in America, fitted out a vessel, and despite the orders of the French king escaped and came to Philadelphia, and offered his services to Congress. With him were De Kalb and eleven other officers. Two gallant Polish officers, Pulaski and Kosciusko, had come over before this time. Kosciusko had been recommended to Washington by Franklin, then in France; he was made a colonel in the engineer corps and superintended the building of the American fortifications at Bemis Heights. After the war he returned to Poland, and long afterward led the Poles in their struggle for liberty. [12] An interesting novel on this period of the war is Dr. S. W. Mitchell's _Hugh Wynne_. [13] At Valley Forge Baron Steuben joined the army. He was an able German officer who had seen service under Frederick the Great of Prussia, and had been persuaded by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to come to America and help to organize and discipline the army. He landed in New Hampshire late in 1777, and spent the dreadful winter at Valley Forge in drilling the troops, teaching them the use of the bayonet, and organizing the army on the European plan. After the war New York presented Steuben with a farm of 16,000 acres not far from Fort Stanwix. There he died in 1794. [14] Certain officers and members of Congress plotted during 1777 to have Washington removed from the command of the army. For an account of this Conway Cabal read Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 34-43. [15] Great Britain now sent over commissioners to offer liberal terms of peace,--no taxes by Parliament, no restrictions on trade, no troops in America without consent of the colonial assemblies, even representation in Parliament,--but the offer was rejected. Why did the commissioners fail? Read Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 4-17, 22-24. [16] Lee had been exchanged for a captured British general, and came to Valley Forge in May. From papers found after his death we know that while a prisoner he advised Howe as to the best means of conquering the states. For his conduct in the battle and insolence to Washington after it, Lee was suspended from the army for one year, but when he wrote an insolent letter to Congress, he was dismissed from the army.