Charles Lee did not believe that American recruits could be quickly trained so as to be able to face the disciplined British battalions.

Steuben was to prove that Lee was wrong to Lee's own entire undoing at Monmouth when fighting began in 1778.
The British army in America furnished sharp contrasts to that of Washington.

If the British jeered at the fighting quality of citizens, these retorted that the British soldier was a mere slave.

There were two great stains upon the British system, the press-gang and flogging.
Press-gangs might seize men abroad in the streets of a town and, unless they could prove that they were gentlemen in rank, they could be sent in the fleet to serve in the remotest corners of the earth.

In both navy and army flogging outraged the dignity of manhood.