In his personal expenditures of the most trivial item of public property, Washington kept a minute and exact account. Of the single article of powder, he once stated that his chief supply was furnished by the enemy, for, during one period, the armed vessels with which he patrolled the coast captured more powder than Congress had been able to furnish him in several months. Delay in securing such essential supplies increased the difficulty of bringing the troops themselves to a full recognition of their military needs and responsibilities, so that the grumbling query, “What’s the use of copying the red-coats’ fuss and training?” still pervaded camp. Plain men from the country who had watched the martinet exactness of British drills in the city, where there was so much of ornament and “style,” had no taste for like subjection to control over their personal bearing and wardrobe. A single order of General Howe to the Boston garrison illustrates what the Yankees termed the “red-coats’ fuss.” He issued an order, reprimanding soldiers “whose hair was not smooth but badly powdered; who had no frills to their shirts; whose leggings hung in a slovenly manner about their knees, and other soldierly neglects, which must be immediately remedied.” This seemed to the American soldier more like some “nursing process;” and while right, on general principles, was not the chief requirement for good fighting zeal. For many weeks it had been the chief concern of the American Commander-in-Chief how to make a fair show of military preparation, while all things were in such extreme confusion. Washington, as well as Howe, had his fixed ideas of military discipline, and he, also, issued orders respecting the habits, personal bearing, and neatness of the men; closing on one occasion, thus emphatically: “Cards and games of chance are prohibited. At this time of public distress, men may find enough to do in the service of their God and country, without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.” In anticipation of active service, and to rebuke the freedom with which individuals inclined to follow their own bent of purpose, he promulgated the following ringing caution: “It may not be amiss for the troops to know, that if any man in action shall presume to skulk, hide himself, or retreat from the enemy without the orders of his commanding officer, he will be instantly shot down as an example of cowardice; cowards having too frequently disconcerted the best troops by their dastardly behavior.” Amid all this stern preparation for the battlefield and its incidents, the most careful attention was given to the comfort and personal well-being of the privates in the ranks. While obedience was required of all, of whatever grade or rank, the cursing or other abuse of the soldier was considered an outrage upon his rights as a citizen, and these met his most scorching denunciation and punishment. A Soldier was in command of the Continental Army of America.