The result was a sharp skirmish, in which the British were driven back with serious loss, and great bravery was shown by the Connecticut and Virginia troops, the two commanding officers being killed.

This affair, which was the first gleam of success, encouraged the troops, and was turned to the best account by the general.

Still a successful skirmish did not touch the essential difficulties of the situation, which then as always came from within, rather than without.

To face and check twenty-five thousand well-equipped and highly disciplined soldiers Washington had now some twelve thousand men, lacking in everything which goes to make an army, except mere individual courage and a high average of intelligence.
Even this meagre force was an inconstant and diminishing quantity, shifting, uncertain, and always threatening dissolution.
The task of facing and fighting the enemy was enough for the ablest of men; but Washington was obliged also to combat and overcome the inertness and dullness born of ignorance, and to teach Congress how to govern a nation at war.

In the hours "allotted to sleep," he sat in his headquarters, writing a letter, with "blots and scratches," which told Congress with the utmost precision and vigor just what was needed.