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." The population of the colonies--some 2,500,000--was about one-third that of the United Kingdom; and for the British the war was remote from the base of supply.