I have often though how much happier I should have been, if instead of accepting of a command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket upon my shoulders and entered the rank, or if I could have justified the measure of posterity, and my own conscience, had retired to the back country, and lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies; for surely if we get well through this month, it must be for want of their knowing the disadvantages we labor under. Could I have forseen the difficulties which have come upon is, could I have known that such a backwardness would have been discovered in the old soldiers to the service, all the genrerals upon earth should not have convinced me of the propriety of delaying an attack upon Boston till this time.

Leadership·Duty·Faith·Providence·Regret