He wrote to Lafayette that slander had been busy, and that he had urged his officers to be cool and dispassionate as to Conway, adding, "I have no doubt that everything happens for the best, that we shall triumph over all our misfortunes, and in the end be happy; when, my dear Marquis, if you will give me your company in Virginia, we will laugh at our past difficulties and the folly of others." But though he wrote thus lightly to his friends, he followed Gates sternly enough, and kept that gentleman occupied as he drove him from point to point.

Among other things he touched upon Conway's character with sharp irony, saying, "It is, however, greatly to be lamented that this adept in military science did not employ his abilities in the progress of the campaign, in pointing out those wise measures which were calculated to give us 'that degree of success we could reasonably expect.'" Poor Gates did not find these letters pleasant reading, and one more curt note, on February 24, finished the controversy.

By that time the cabal was falling to pieces, and in a little while was dispersed.
Wilkinson's resignation was accepted, Mifflin was put under Washington's orders, and Gates was sent to his command in the north.
Conway resigned one day in a pet, and found his resignation accepted and his power gone with unpleasant suddenness.

He then got into a quarrel with General Cadwalader on account of his attacks on the commander-in-chief.

The quarrel ended in a duel.