Joseph Reed writes of the cowardice shown by many ‘patriots’ after suffering the crushing defeat on Long Island in 1776,
“When I look round, and see how few of the numbers who talked so largely of death and honor are around me, and that those who are here are those from whom it was least expected… I am lost in wonder and surprise…Your nosiy sons of liberty are, I find, the quitest in the field… An engagement, or even the expectation of one gives a wonderful insight into character.”
Talk is cheap.