Lafayette, who was not far away, noticed the disorder, rode up to Lee and remarked that the time seemed to be favorable for cutting off a squadron of the British troops.  To this Lee replied:  “Sir, you do not know the British soldiers; we cannot stand against them; we shall certainly be driven back at first, and we must be cautious."[1] Washington himself had by this time perceived that something was wrong and galloped up to Lee in a towering passion.  He addressed him words which, so far as I know, no historian has reported, not because there was any ambiguity in them, and Lee’s line was sufficiently re-formed to save the day.  Lee, however, smarted under the torrent of reproof, as well he might.  The next day he wrote Washington a very insulting letter.  Washington replied still more hotly.  Lee demanded a court-martial and was placed under arrest on three charges:  “First, disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy agreeably to repeated instructions; secondly, misbehavior before the enemy, in making an unnecessary, disorderly and shameful retreat; thirdly, disrespect to the Commander-in-Chief in two letters written after the action."[2] By the ruling of the court all the charges against General Lee were sustained with the exception that the word “shameful” was omitted.  Lee left the army, retired to Philadelphia, and died before the end of the Revolution.  General Mifflin, another conspicuous member of the cabal, resigned at the end of the year, December, 1777.  So the traducers of Washington were punished by the reactions of their own crimes.

[Footnote 1:  Sparks, 275, note 1.]

[Footnote 2:  Sparks, 278.  Sparks tells the story that when Washington administered the oath of allegiance to his troops at Valley Forge, soon after Lee had rejoined the army, the generals, standing together, held a Bible.  But Lee deliberately withdrew his hand twice.  Washington asked why he hesitated.  He replied, “As to King George, I am ready enough to absolve myself from all allegiance to him, but I have some scruples about the Prince of Wales.” (Ibid., 278.)]

That the malicious hostility of his enemies really troubled Washington, such a letter as the following from him to President Laurens of the Congress well indicates.  He says: 

I cannot sufficiently express the obligation I feel to you, for your friendship and politeness upon an occasion in which I am so deeply interested.  I was not unapprized that a malignant faction had been for some time forming to my prejudice; which, conscious as I am of having ever done all in my power to answer the important purposes of the trust reposed in me, could not but give me some pain on a personal account.  But my chief concern arises from an apprehension of the dangerous consequences, which intestine dissensions may produce to the common cause.

As I have no other view than to promote the public good, and am unambitious of honors not founded in the approbation of my country,