As for the officers in camp, their leisure time was better provided for. They lived in better quarters, generally, at least larger ones. They, too, had the advantage of being entertained at the homes of the people living in the vicinity of the camp. Even if one's imagination must be drawn upon in order to make the recreation of the private seem recreational, at least, there was a side of camp life which presented a more pleasant picture "If our forefathers bled and suffered they also danced and feasted."[141] The letters and diaries of the young officers tell of the gaiety of the war. Even in midst of the gloom at Valley Forge there was drinking from cabin to cabin and dinners in honor of visiting foreigners. No sooner was the army in winter quarters than the ladies began to appear, for Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Greene, and Mrs. Knox made it a practice to spend the winters with their husbands. Mrs. Washington was in the habit of saying that she always heard the last cannon fired in the fall and the first one in the spring.[142] As soon as the wives appeared, the gaiety began among the families of the officers, the dinner was the favorite method of bringing the families together. "General Greene and his lady present their compliments to Colonel Knox and his lady and should be glad for their company tomorrow at dinner at two o'clock".[143] Often the dinners were in name rather than in reality, for officers and privates suffered alike when food was scarce, but the social time did not depend entirely upon the supply of food. One such dinner is described as having been potatoes with beech-nuts for dessert. The usual round of pleasure for the officers was dancing, dinners, teas, sleighing parties, horse-back parties, or the celebration of some day or event. Of the dance General Greene wrote on March 19, 1779, "We had a little dance at my quarters a few evenings past. His excellency and Mrs. Greene danced three hours without one sitting down upon the whole we had a pretty little frisk".[144] Another such affair is described as follows: "There were subscription balls in the commissary store house at which Washington in black velvet, the foreign commanders in all their gold lace, General Steuben being particularly replendent and the ladies in powdered hair, stiff brocades and high heels made a brilliant company."[145] In the large it can be said that, the recreation of the American soldier during the Revolutionary War, was invented to supply the need felt rather than an institution thought out before. Some of the practices would hardly be classed as recreation, but they helped to break the monotony and that was the object desired whether it was by enjoying a fellow soldier's punishment or playing an innocent game of ball. [Footnote 114: Sherrill, _French Memories of 18th Century America_, p. 181.] [Footnote 115: Paxson, F. L., "_The Rise of Sports._" _Miss. Valley Hist. Review_ Vol. IV. p. 143.]