The year 1781 was momentous for the American Revolution. The beginning of the year, arguably, witnessed perhaps the low point of American morale during the Revolution. "The people are discontented," George Washington wrote to John Laurens in early 1781, "but it is with the feeble and oppressive mode of conducting the war, not with the war itself." Indeed, Washington now believed that it was critical for the United States and its French allies to achieve a significant military victory in 1781 or all might be lost because of the state of American public opinion.