How can washington expect to lead an army to win a war, if they were not willing to follow the simplest of rules and regulations? An abundance of the men were volunteers. They were told they could elect their own officers, but in return the officers would let them do whatever they wanted, therefore resulted in a magnitude of laziness. Many of the officers elected did not know what needed to be done or what was even supposed to be done, leaving the soldiers under them without proper leadership and an inadequate amount of discipline, order, and willingness to obey. The officers there were often to be said to be as “ignorant of military life as the troops”. It became very common that officers were incapable of leading their troops to washington declared new rules and regulations, insisting that the troops learned disciplined. He also made his presence known almost daily, riding around on horseback trying to enforce the new rules and regulations hoping they would follow. Washington was setting in place “the strictest government”, to force them t abide by the rules and become proper human beings and …show more content…
Washington dealt with the continuing predicament of little gunpowder and no money for common affairs. Troops simply gave up on the waar and left also and with them they would take guns belonging to the army, even though they had little to no muskets to spare. They did not even have enough to spare for the new recruits. Also amongst the numbering 8,000 to 10,000 troops only half were actually fit for duty. In the midst of winter and the enemy close at hand Washington was unsure on what to do. He was certain the reason for his despairs was due to the inability to attack Boston. Both parties of war were at a stalemate not knowing when to attack or if they even should due to the increasing severity of the weather and the lack of necessities from the American side was said to play a huge part. Washington wished to attack the British also, but the war council was too afraid of defeat, since they had just been defeated at Quebec. The council wanted to be careful and did not want something like that to happen in the midst of war especially at Boston. Also he learned that the British were building ships to embark on a trip to take New York. This would become very troublesome for the new United Colonies if the British were to accomplish the taking of New York, it was the center of the thirteen colonies. Knowing of its importance they must defend it at all cost, but it would be