<P> Although Native and / or African American men supported the Continental Army as drovers, waggoneers, and laborers, others fought as soldiers, particularly from Rhode Island and Massachusetts. (1) The smallest of the states, Rhode Island had difficulty meeting recruitment quotas for white men, spurring Brigadier General James Mitchell Varnum to suggest the enlistment of enslaved men for his 1st Rhode Island Regiment . Over a four - month period in 1778, the Rhode Island General Assembly allowed for their recruitment . In exchange for enlisting, soldiers of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment gained immediate emancipation, and their former owners received financial compensation equal to the enslaved person's commoditized market value . By January 1778, nearly ten percent of Washington's effective force consisted of African American troops . </P> <P> Commanders brought free and enslaved servants with them into the encampment, usually African Americans . Washington's military family included his enslaved manservant William Lee, as well as enslaved cooks Hannah Till and her husband Isaac . William Lee had married Margaret Thomas, a free woman with black and white ancestry who worked as a laundress at Washington's Headquarters . Hannah's owner Reverend John Mason lent her out to Washington, but Hannah secured an arrangement whereby she eventually bought her freedom in June 1780 . Although Isaac secured a similar arrangement, he disappears from the historical record after a few years, and it's not known if he obtained his freedom . </P> <P> By Spring 1778, Wappinger warriors, a delegation of the Oneida and Tuscarora, and Colonel Joseph Louis Cook of the St. Regis Mohawk had all joined the troops at Valley Forge . Most served as scouts against British raiding parties in the area, and in May 1778, they fought under Lafayette at the Battle of Barren Hill . In oral histories, however, a prominent Oneida woman named Polly Cooper also brought "hundreds of bushels of white corn" to hungry troops, teaching them how to process it for safe consumption . During the American Revolution, most Native American nations sided with the British, partly due to fears that American Patriots would expand westward if they won independence . Yet some Native Americans did support the Patriots "due to personal ties, shared religious beliefs," or past mistreatment by the British. (2) When the Oneida and Tuscarora allied themselves with the American Patriots, the civil war between British and American colonials spilled over into a civil war between the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy . </P> <P> Among the challenges befalling the Continental Army during the Valley Forge winter included poor organization . Two years of revolutionary war, shuffling leadership, and uneven recruitment resulted in irregular unit organization and strength . During the Valley Forge encampment, the army was reorganized into five divisions under Major Generals Charles Lee, Marquis de Lafayette, Johan de Kalb, and William Alexander "Lord Stirling," with Brigadier General Anthony Wayne serving in place of Mifflin . Thanks to the widespread reorganization, unit strength and the terms of service became more standardized, improving the Continental army's efficiency . </P>

How did the battle of valley forge start