Houses were burned, peaceful villages went up in smoke, women and children were outraged, and soldiers were bayoneted after they had surrendered.
These details of the Revolution are wellnigh forgotten now, but when the ear is wearied with talk about English generosity and love of fair play, it is well to turn back and study the exploits of Tryon, and it is not amiss in the same connection to recall that English budgets contained a special appropriation for scalping-knives, a delicate attention to the Tories and Indians who were burning and butchering on the frontier.
Such methods of warfare Washington despised intellectually, and hated morally.

He saw that every raid only hardened the people against England, and made her cause more hopeless.

The misery caused by these raids angered him, but he would not retaliate in kind, and Wayne bayoneted no English soldiers after they laid down their arms at Stony Point.

It was enough for Washington to hold fast to the great objects he had in view, to check Clinton and circumscribe his movements.
Steadfastly he did this through the summer and winter of 1779, which proved one of the worst that he had yet endured.

Supplies did not come, the army dwindled, and the miseries of Valley Forge were renewed.