The army of Washington, nominally eleven thousand strong, had, says Baron De Kalb, but seven thousand effective men for duty, so general was the sickness, from extreme cold and the want of sufficient clothing and other necessaries of a campaign. And yet, under these conditions, Congress placed in responsible positions those officers who were most officiously antagonistic to the American Commander-in-Chief. On the sixth of November, Gates had been made President of the Board of War. Mifflin, withdrawn from duty as Quartermaster-General, was also placed upon the Board, retaining his full rank. On the twenty-eighth of December, Congress appointed Conway Major-General and Inspector-General, and placed him in communication with the Board of War, to act independently of the Commander-in-Chief. Lee, then a prisoner of war, through letters addressed to Gates, Mifflin, Wayne and Conway, united with them in concerted purpose to oppose the policy of Washington, and to dictate his action; and more than this, there was a strong influence brought to bear upon Congress to force Washington’s resignation, or removal from command. Washington, however, established his headquarters at Valley Forge, twenty-one miles from Philadelphia; and on the nineteenth of December announced his winter quarters by a formal order. On the same day he sent General Smallwood to Wilmington, to occupy the country south of Philadelphia and cut off supplies for that city and its garrison. McDougall was established at Peekskill. Putnam was on the shore of Long Island Sound until the middle of December, when he was ordered back to the Highlands. The absence of General Mifflin from the army, and his total neglect of duty as Quartermaster-General, in which he had once been so efficient, “caused,” says Washington, “the want of two days’ supply of provisions, and thereby cost an opportunity scarcely ever offered, of taking an advantage of the enemy.”