The patriots of the country had no idea of the difficulties with which Washington had to struggle. Many had expected to read in the newspapers of battles and victories during the first days of Washington’s command and now a year had passed and nothing had been done. Two of Washington’s letters of that time, both of them to Colonel Reed, give sufficient explanation of the situation. The first letter says: “Search the vast volumes of history through and I much question whether a case similar to ours is to be found; to wit, to maintain a post against the flower of the British troops for six months together, without powder, and at the end of them to have one army disbanded and another to raise, within the same distance of a reinforced enemy. It is too much to attempt—what may be the final issue of the last manœuvre, time only can tell. I wish this month were well over our heads!” The second letter is dated in February of the next year (1776), in which he says: “I know the unhappy predicament I stand in. I know that much is expected of me. I know that without men, without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the accommodation of a soldier, that little is to be done, and, which is mortifying, I know that I cannot stand justified to the world, without exposing my own weakness and injuring the cause by declaring my wants, which I am determined not to do, further than unavoidable necessity brings every man acquainted with. My own situation feels so irksome to me at times that if I did not consult the publick good more than my own tranquillity I should long ere this have put everything to the cast of a die. So far from my having an army of twenty thousand men, well armed, etc., I have been here with less than one-half of it, including sick, furloughed, and on command; and those neither armed or clothed as they should be. In short, my situation has been such that I have been obliged to use art to conceal it from my own officers.”