If Historiographers should be hardy enough to fill the page of History with the advantages that have been gained with unequal numbers (on the part of America) in the cause of this contest, and attempt to relate the distressing circumstances under which they have been obtained, it is more than probable that Posterity will bestow on their labors the epithet and marks of fiction; for it will not be believed that such a force as Great Britain has employed for eight years in Country could be baffled… by numbers infinitely less, composed of Men oftentimes half starved; always in Rags, without pay, and experiencing, at times, every species of distress which human nature is capable of undergoing.
George Washington to Nathanael Green, 6 February 1783, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington, 39 vols. (Washington, DC, 1931-39), as quoted in Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington. Alfred A. Knopf. 2004. p.111
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