During the campaign of 1780, the French corps remained at Rhode Island. After the defeat of Gates, Greene went to command in Carolina; Arnold was placed at West Point; the principal army, under the immediate orders of Washington, had for its front guard the light infantry of Lafayette, to which was joined the corps of the excellent partisan, Colonel Lee. This is the proper time to speak of that light infantry. The American troops had no grenadiers; their _chasseurs_, or riflemen, formed a distinct regiment, under the orders of the colonel, since Brigadier-General Morgan, and had been taken, not from different corps, but from parts of the country on the frontiers of the savage tribes, and from amongst men whose mode of life, and skill in firing their long carabines, rendered them peculiarly useful in that service. But the regiments of the line supplied some chosen men, whose officers were also all picked men, and who formed a select band of about two thousand, under the orders of Lafayette. The mutual attachment of that corps and its head had become even a proverb in America. As a traveller brings from distant countries presents to his family and friends, he had brought from France the value of a large sum of money in ornaments for the soldiers, swords for the officers and under officers, and banners~[3] for the battalions. This troop of chosen men, well exercised and disciplined, although badly clothed, were easily recognised by their red and black plumes, and had an excellent and a very pleasing appearance. But, except the few things which M. de Lafayette himself supplied, none of the things France had promised to send arrived: the money she lent proved, however, of essential service to the army.
During that year, a conference took place at Hartford, in Connecticut, between the French generals and General Washington, accompanied by General Lafayette and General Knox; they resolved to send the American Colonel Laurens, charged to solicit new succours, and above all, a superiority of force in the navy. On their return from this conference, the conspiracy of Arnold was discovered. General Washington would still have found that general in his quarters; if chance, or rather the desire of showing Lafayette the fort of West Point, constructed during his absence, had not induced him to repair thither before proceeding to Robinson's house, in which General Arnold then resided.~[4]