5.] No one felt more keenly than did Washington the horrors, of Valley Forge.

He had not believed in forming such an encampment, and from the start he denounced the neglect and incompetence of the commissions.
In a letter to the President of the Congress on December 3, 1777, he wrote: Since the month of July we have had no assistance from the quartermaster-general, and to want of assistance from this department the commissary-general charges great part of his deficiency.

To this I am to add, that, notwithstanding it is a standing order, and often repeated that the troops shall always have two days' provisions by them, that they might be ready at any sudden call; yet an opportunity has scarcely ever offered of taking an advantage of the enemy, that has not either been totally obstructed or greatly impeded, on this account.

And this, the great and crying evil, is not all.

The soap, vinegar, and other articles allowed by Congress, we see none of, nor have we seen them, I believe, since the Battle of Brandywine.