Forty years later Napoleon Bonaparte,
despot though he might be, was struck by this separation. He
himself went freely among his men, warmed himself at their fire,
and talked to them familiarly about their work, and he thought
that the British officer was too aloof in his demeanor. In the
British army serving in America there were many officers of
aristocratic birth and long training in military science. When
they found that American officers were frequently drawn from a
class of society which in England would never aspire to a
commission, and were largely self-taught, not unnaturally they
jeered at an army so constituted. Another fact excited British
disdain. The Americans were technically rebels against their
lawful ruler, and rebels in arms have no rights as belligerents.
When the war ended more than a thousand American prisoners were
still held in England on the capital charge of treason. Nothing
stirred Washington's anger more deeply than the remark sometimes
made by British officers that the prisoners they took were
receiving undeserved mercy when they were not hanged.
There was much debate at Valley Forge as to the prospect for the
future. When we look at available numbers during the war we
appreciate the view of a British officer that in spite of
Washington's failures and of British victories the war was
serious, "an ugly job, a damned affair indeed.
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