The shouts and cheers died away, and then Washington returned to his temporary quarters in the Wadsworth house, to master the task before him.  The first great test of his courage and ability had come, and he faced it quietly as the excitement caused by his arrival passed by.  He saw before him, to use his own words, “a mixed multitude of people, under very little discipline, order, or government.”  In the language of one of his aides:[1] “The entire army, if it deserved the name, was but an assemblage of brave, enthusiastic, undisciplined, country lads; the officers in general quite as ignorant of military life as the troops, excepting a few elderly men, who had seen some irregular service among the provincials under Lord Amherst.”  With this force, ill-posted and very insecurely fortified, Washington was to drive the British from Boston.  His first step was to count his men, and it took eight days to get the necessary returns, which in an ordinary army would have been furnished in an hour.  When he had them, he found that instead of twenty thousand, as had been represented, but fourteen thousand soldiers were actually present for duty.  In a short time, however, Mr. Emerson, the chaplain, noted in his diary that it was surprising how much had been done, that the lines had been so extended, and the works so shrewdly built, that it was morally impossible for the enemy to get out except in one place purposely left open.  A little later the same observer remarked:  “There is a great overturning in the camp as to order and regularity; new lords, new laws.  The Generals Washington and Lee are upon the lines every day.  The strictest government is taking place, and great distinction is made between officers and soldiers.”  Bodies of troops scattered here and there by chance were replaced by well-distributed forces, posted wisely and effectively in strong intrenchments.  It is little wonder that the worthy chaplain was impressed, and now, seeing it all from every side, we too can watch order come out of chaos and mark the growth of an army under the guidance of a master-mind and the steady pressure of an unbending will.

[Footnote 1:  John Trumbull, Reminiscences, p. 18.]

Then too there was no discipline, for the army was composed of raw militia, who elected their officers and carried on war as they pleased.  In a passage suppressed by Mr. Sparks, Washington said:  “There is no such thing as getting officers of this stamp to carry orders into execution—­to curry favor with the men (by whom they were chosen, and on whose smile they may possibly think that they may again rely) seems to be one of the principal objects of their attention.  I have made a pretty good slam amongst such kind of officers as the Massachusetts government abounds in, since I came into this camp, having broke one colonel and two captains for cowardly behavior in the action on Bunker Hill, two captains for drawing more pay and provisions than they had